Gangbusters

That's where our garden went while we were away.

Crazy, out of control. But, in a good way.
I think things literally grew a foot in all of the sunshine.

I think I won the war on the weeds this year. I have always coveted my nieghbor, Lew's garden because there's hardly any weeds in it. Well, he always takes all of his grass clippings and puts it around all of his veggies to keep the weeds at bay.

This essentially has the same effect that straw does, only free...you just have to work for it a little more. Our lawn mower has a mulching bag, so everytime I mowed this summer, I just kept emptying it in the garden, mulching around everything, and that - along with black plastic in between the rows, has done wonders.

However. I was not the wisest in the amount of space that I chose to leave between my rows. In trying to utilize as much space as possible, I only gave myself three and a half feet between rows as opposed to (Lew's suggestion) four strong feet.

So, as everything grows, things are starting to mesh and lean into each other. My tomatoes are leaning over and kissing my beans, which are kind of winding themselves into my potatoes. My three random watermelons are spilling over into my corn, and all of my squashes and zucchinis are gettting quite cozy with my cukes. No big deal, really, but it is NOT condusive for three little pairs of boy feet to run at will - and to help their Mama with all of the harvesting. So far, one huge arm of one of my tomatoes has been broken off, and a few others have been trampled. Grace is NOT my children's middle name...

This Mama is taking deep, cleansing breathes - and a few mental notes for next year - and I am welcoming them to come and pick their peas and beans at will...often just as the sun is coming up, and in their undies, no less. And I'm not stressing (too much) the small stuff. I love seeing little fistfuls of pea pods and string beans while they're riding their bikes and swinging on the swingset.

It's all good.

And to keep up with my "G Alliteration" Theme...

Gone...is what happened to my girls while we were away.

And then there were three. Bah.

We have a young fox who is decimating my girls in broad daylight.

We built our pen to be Margaret proof - she's my neighbor who was not appreciating the visits of my ladies - we did NOT build it to be foxy loxy proof. So, some major revamping needs to be done.

By summer's end, my goal is to have these three girls still living and a lovely fox pellet rug for one of my little boys' rooms.

Just kidding.
Not really.