This Weekend In The Garden ...

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I Spent Some Time In The Garden This Weekend ..

Pulling weeds, Watering the plants, pinching back unwanted growth, Fertilizing with compost, and agitating the soil. Speaking of agitating.. Something is AGITATING me! A ground hog. I tried to let the little sucker alone, but he's now digging all of the dirt below my shed, out into the yard. Having the soil being excavated from under the buildings foundation is not a good thing, so the little guy may need to be carefully relocated.

Here is the culprit..

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Molly was checking him out .. the other day. That sort of surprised me. She is scared of everything, and I mean everything. Well she caught a glimpse of our furry friend, and ran over to check it out as he sat under the edge peering out.

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Well it didn't stop at removing soil.. Nope! Now the critter is gnawing off some of my garden plants. Double No! Stay away from my plants mr/miss ground hog!!! As you can see below, it ate half the plant off. I noticed that it was starting to nibble on the string bean plants as well. I was trying to hold off on moving it from the area, but I may not have a choice. I am more worried about the structure than the plants.

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Otherwise, The Garden Is Doing Just Fine..

Besides the plant or two above, the other squash plants look really nice. We are going to have plenty of squash in a few weeks time. The plants are about triple the size as when I put them into the ground. The summer heat and the plentiful rainfall has helped them grow quickly.

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Here you can see the tiny yellow squash taking shape. I stuck my finger in there for comparison purposes. The flowers at the end will fall off in just a few short days. Each plant has the potential of producing 3 or 4 dozen squash. I am going to have squash out the ears!

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The Pepper's Are Looking Good .. They are growing a little slower than I had anticipated, but we should have pick-able Peppers in 2 to 3 weeks from now. I can't wait to slice them up and grill them with some cheese, or add them to other meals, in other ways.

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Our Single Tomato Plant.. Has lots of new growth and several flowers. It will be some time before the fruits grow and are ready to pick. It is something to look forward to though. I can't say I am a huge fan of eating uncooked tomatoes, but may try a few this year if they turn out to be tasty. The plant it not tall enough to tie to the posts yet, but soon enough I will not be able to say that.

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Moving over to the String Bean Plants.. One or two fell victim to the ground hog, but the others are looking just fine. Lots of blooms, but no signs of the beans just yet. I would imagine they will come on fast, if past years are a good predictor of this years growth. We should get plenty of beans from the 8 or so plants that are left. I'll try and tie them up in another week when they are a little taller.

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The Watermelon is starting to spread .. It doesn't take too long for these vines to spread through the bed I dedicated to them. Once they start, there is no stopping them. I will eventually have to trim them back and keep them trained to just this bed. If I let them grow, they would cover a good deal of area. I can only eat so much watermelon anyhow. If they turn out good, we'll give several of them away to the neighbors and family.

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My ugly foot for a size reference

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There are plenty of flowers starting to open up, and I did see a few bees in there doing their thing .. Sorry @bozz hehe. Soooo if they did their job correctly, I should see a marble size melon or two in the next few days. Finger's Crossed!

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The Pineapple .. I planted at the end of the garden, Is doing fairly well, despite being ripped out of the ground every day. I may have to move them at some point. I don't think it's the groundhog that is doing it, but rather the stinking crows I saw lingering in that area on Friday. Grrrrrr.....

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For now, I just put it back into the ground and give the soil a hefty pat on top.

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If you look closely at the center, you can see the new growth it's pushing out. This is a good sign that it likes it here. My hope is that it will flourish in the next several month and develop enough of a root system to be repotted. I hope to have it into a pot by the fall so it can come indoors, otherwise it will not survive the winter. (Like @dswigle mentioned on a post not long ago) If you plan on growing a pineapple from the top of another, be prepared to wait a good Loooooonnnnnngggggg time before a fruit is born from it. It could take up to 2 or 3 years.

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The Strawberries >> Are making a run for it! haha.. they are putting out what I call 'Runners'. The plants self propagate via stems (stolons) that produce new plants. You'll see what I am talking about below. These runners will produce a few plants each.

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I hope that this years new growth, with the help of myself transplanting a few, will fill in the large gap at the end of that bed. Sorry Mr. Pineapple, but a new dog is moving in. hehe. Next year I will have to find another area to plant a pineapple.

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That Pineapple Looked Lonely .. So I planting him a friend! Why??? I don't know. Why Not?

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Don't Get Up Molly ..

No worries.. The Garden looks good, and I have a friendly plan in the works for your furry friend under the shed. You just stay right there and rest your little, old bones.

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I said No need to get up! You can go lay back down. Nothing left to see out there.

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Oh GOOD Girl! You decided to take my advice for once. I didn't mean to disappoint. You can go back out tomorrow me to check on those plants. I would appreciate the company and someone to keep a look out for crows and ground burrowing rodents.

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“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”
― Marilyn Monroe

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Thank you for swinging by my blog and checking out the post. Have a great day!

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23 comments
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Looking good! We were hammered with about three inches of rain over the past three days so I wasn't able to get much done outside beyond some emergency repairs to our trailer! The garden is looking awesome! We used to take some of our dogs hair and poo and put it in the holes under the shed at our old house. It quickly made the area not a nice place to be for any of the critters that were trying to make a home under there. I am not a big fan of tomatoes either, but I know they are good for what's left of my junk so I eat them more than I used to!

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I guess I have to either pee along the edge or find a friend with a shedding dog. lol.

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Having a garden during the pandemic is the best way to spend time.

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I don't really know what a groundhog looks like but I'm going to run with this.

I actually videoed this little fellow in your garden - Seems pretty happy with himself.

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LOL what is that thing? its so cute. 🤣

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Lol. It's the gopher out of the movie Caddyshack. 😁

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Ok I don't watch too many movies pardon my ignorance ☺️

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It's an old movie...From back ye olden days of 1980 before the invention of the wheel and fire.

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Hahahahaa.. Caddy Shack! I love that movie and haven't seen it in a long long time. The first one was the best. They shouldn't have made a sequel in my opinion. I was thinking of hiring you to help me out, but it wouldn't end well for the Groundhog and the neighbors would probably be looking on in terror. although with all the fireworks this weekend, I doubt they would notice. 😆

This groundhog is like a woodchuck or beaver in a way, without the flat tail.

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Bill Murray in Caddyshack was hilarious. Classic.

Oh yeah, I think the sound of gunfire would be masked somewhat by your 4th July celebrations but...Mmm, maybe not the best idea to go hunting groundhogs in your yard, not with a gun anyway. Lol.

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Maybe I'll use a poison arrow and crossbow?! Brilliant G-Dog!!! But what if I shoot myself in the butt .. Who will suck out the poison? hahaha 🤣 I loved that scene...

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Haha! Now I have to watch the movie you know! I saw it on the movies list on my pay TV thing the other day. I know what I'll be doing Friday night.

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You know that if you do that it will surely snowball into other movies like 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels', 'Airplane', 'National Lampoons Vacation', 'Ghostbusters' yada yada... Have fun! Let me know if it's funnier or not so much. Sometimes, with a fresh mind and seasoned perspective, the movies get better .. One can appreciate them more.

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Dirty rotten scoundrels! Haha, that's funny. Remember that scene where Ruprecht is at the dinner table? Cork on the fork so he doesn't poke himself in the eye! Funny scene.

All those movies are good for a laugh. They don't make them like that these days.

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No they do not. What an era of great talent, despite the heavy cocaine use haha. I am laughing thinking about that cork scene.. genius some of that stuff.

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Your garden seems to be coming up really well, hope you get hold of that groundhog and do whatever you have to do with him. I have squirrels eating up all my Barbados cherries and it annoys me, so I can just about guess how annoyed you might feel.
Oh yeah Molly looks good as always , I love that picture of Molly and Pepper that is so adorable.

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Garden is growing quickly! We have what are called Grey Squirrels in this area. They ARE destructive, or can be. They like to chew off the tops of tulips. They can tend to chew their way into homes too if your not careful.

I'll probably trap the little sucker and relocate him/her to the out skirts of town.

I miss seeing Molly and Pepper hanging out together. I know Molly misses her big brother too. Life has a way of sneaking up on us. You know that all to well yourself.

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Oh yes, I do know that too well and it hurt even now. But molly is in safe hands and she is well cared for. We have grey squirrels here like this one.
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with stripes on their back, smaller than the ones there.

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