This summer has been so frustrating.
My arm injury occurred at the worst time for summer growth, at the height of the growing season.
But that led to other issues that affected our growth in the gardens. I couldn’t weed for five weeks—I am now only starting to weed, and what a mess it is in the gardens. Then, it led to an invasion of voles invading two of our growing areas; as I pull back the weeds, I can see the telltale signs of the rodent tunnels they run through under the coverage of lush green growth (weeds included). I also catch the blur of small gray rodents zipping out as I make their life miserable. Now, as I am starting to weed, I am bringing the rat dog down with me. She may only catch one or two, but they can smell her and don’t like her. Yesterday, I watched a rabbit light out into the woods. It needed a reminder that my homestead isn’t an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The first sign was I suddenly had a couple Artichoke plants fall over. When I went in to figure out was going on, I could see a hole by each plant, where there had been digging, and tunnels shooting off.
Then I started seeing issues in the tomato bed. Plants were suddenly looking dead or dying. They had been gnawed off in half.
The root balls were highly damaged, all with holes in them.
But I have to say, I had a good run these years growing in the garden. Guess it was my turn to have a crappy year. The irony is that I fantasized about turning this in-ground bed into a beautiful raised bed area over winter. Maybe that might be a good idea in the end. Put down hardware cloth, the farm fabric, and the raised beds. Make it primarily rodent-proof.
The youngest and I worked in the evening to find and remove which tomatoes had been killed. This has made grabbing and pulling the weeds easier, opening up the plants. I think we have lost around 14 plants at this point. It’s not a good number, but it’s still doable. We still have enough plants left.
Then Alistaire saw something in the tomatoes.
It was a Barred Owl feather.
One of our three owls is here looking for a tasty dinner. Thanks, buddy. I’m glad to know they have our back. They had been grooming themselves on top of the strawberry cage, like how they sit on tree snags in the open forest. Most nights, you can listen to the owls talking back and forth.
But the real issue affecting our gardens here in the coastal Salish Sea is that it is a cold night summer. Over and over. It hasn’t gotten over 59° at night.
And that is something I cannot do anything about. Daytime cold is different, I suppose. By 7 p.m., the daytime temperatures drop; by 9 p.m., they are in the low 60s and drop very quickly into the 50s.
It came to me the other evening as I sat outside and noticed how quickly it chilled. I went back and looked at the weather cycle, and there it was.
Normally, we have weeks at least in the 60s at night. Even during the week we had a “heat wave” in the upper 80s, it still cooled at night in the 50s. Most summers, we have those evenings where it never gets cool at night in July.
And that explains so much about our gardening struggles this year. With the colder temperatures at night, plants just don’t grow as robust.
Knowing the reason, though? That makes it OK. I can then deal with my disappointment for this summer and know it isn’t my fault. I cannot control the temperature. But I can work on controlling the rodents and their destruction.
~Sarah