It has been a rough 5 years since Covid lockdowns and leaving France unexpectedly. There have been lots of great things in yhis time period too, and I have really been working on my mindset, and being grateful and positive- it has been good.
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Nature and gardening have always brought me lots of joy. But this year has been terrible!! The spring was great with lots and lots of flowers and herbs- but the vegetables have really struggled. We have voles and I got cats for those, but they died in a very sad way and I can’t bring myself to get any more cats. Also we have too many dogs from all the puppies and the creek flooding so I couldn’t meet people, etc. So it’s hard to introduce cats at this point too.
And then there are some areas of my garden where the plants are either stunted or dead and not even weeds grow. I found this depressing information on that: https://www.tenthacrefarm.com/manure-garden/
I’m not sure if that is what’s going on in those areas because other areas where I put the same manure are doing well. Maybe the manure wasn’t composted enough in those areas. It’s also under the power line because that was the only areas with sun and not rocks.
One of our fruit trees finally had fruit this year! But one day we went out before they were fully ripe and they were just all gone- probably squirrels or raccoons- dumb dogs.
And then some bug or slug or rabbit, I don’t know what ate every single bean plant once they had 2 leaves, so we’re not even getting a single bean! I have a couple of big tomato plants but something ate parts of the plant and something else ate the tomatoes- probably the chickens and some deer- I thought it was tomato horn worms but we couldn’t find any- and to top it all off, the goats got in there and ate almost all the grape leaves, all the peppers, and all the okra leaves. It was so hot I pretty much gave up, ðŸ˜.
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The goats have eaten every beautiful plant outside of my fenced garden areas too. I had researched plants and flowers that are deer resistant and I had planted some areas with those expanding outside the fenced areas- but they were not goat resistant. I told my boys they have 2 weeks to fix the fence. We wouldn’t have had any tulips or daffodils or anything in the spring had the goats been out like they have been the past couple months. It all started when a tree fell on their fence and they learned how to step on it to lean it down and get out. It was never built sturdy to begin with, but they are small so it had been fine til that storm!
Not all is completely lost though – I think the roses, forsythia and hibiscus will come back. The goats didn’t touch the datura and that has done great. I still have mint, oregano, lemon balm, figs, pumpkins, one beautiful sunflower, asparagus, strawberries, cucumbers, basil, marigolds and zinnias. I will focus on what I do have and try not to think about all the plants and seeds I planted that just disappeared- like an entire hydrangea! (maybe that was the dogs?)
Anyway, I’m planning a fall garden that is not only behind the fence but also covered with netting. I’m also going to plant clovers and a cover crop mix I have in the stunted areas to see if that will help. And no more wandering goats!!
