Last of the Garden

I'm trying to clean up the garden and close it for the season.  I have plenty of green tomatoes, dill which came back from the dead, peppers and maybe a handful of green beans left after this harvest.  I love having fresh dill in the freezer and dried.  I use the dried dill in a potato chip dip recipe, which I'm addicted to and eat by the gallon.  Why do all the bad foods taste so good?  Here's my Creamy Dill potato chip recipe:

Ingredients:   2 cups of Mayo 2 cups of Sour Cream 1 tbsp Parsley 3 tbsp Dill Weed 3 tbsp onion  (I use yellow) Seasoning salt to taste Mix well, chill before serving.

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I was able to do 8 pints of pickled peppers from this bunch and blanch and freeze a quart of green beans from this batch.  Next season, I need to double the amount of green bean plants to ensure I have enough to share and for soups and casseroles.  I'm already planning my garden for next season.

I'm freezing this batch of dill.  I'll dry what's left in the garden for my dip. 

I snapped these pictures of a groundhog and cat out my bedroom window this morning.  The cat is curious and wants to be friends, but the groundhog is only interested in eating. 

From the looks of him, he hasn't missed any meals.  I trapped 7 this season and my neighbor trapped 7.  This one is in neighbor's yard, I hope he stays there.  Looks like he's been eating well.  He is huge.  I had a few that managed to dig under the garden fence, but not much damage was done.  They love the green bean leaves and tomatoes.  Havahart live traps are great! 

Well I need to have another cup of coffee, take a nap and than go down to the garden and harvest the remaining tomatoes.  I have a 3 day week-end, so I'll be scrap booking, clearing out the garden and just enjoying this beautiful fall weather that we're having.  What's happening in your garden?  What's your plans for the Columbus Day week-end?  Leave me a comment, I love them!


                                                                                              

Visitors

I have a black walnut tree in the back of my yard.  I've been finding walnut shells around my deck and was wondering how they got there.  I walked into my kitchen to fix a cup of coffee, and when I looked out the window I found this little fellow sitting on the deck rails.  I think I solved the mystery!   

As you know, I've been fighting groundhogs in the garden.  We trapped 6; however, 2 more have found themselves a home under my storage building.  I placed chicken wire loosely around the rabbit fencing leaving about 8 inches at an angle in hopes that they wouldn't dig under it.  These 2 are smart, they never appear when I'm home and they only dig on one side of the garden.  I've placed a few large stones along that fence line, so far I've blocked that side pretty good.  Hope I don't jinx myself, lol. I placed bricks along the backside of the fencing, so I would know if they were out.  This is what I found last week.  They've moved the bricks and bent the fencing pretty much to the ground.  Because it's loose, it's bending under their weight.  They did make it to a few tomatoes that were growing over the fence, but no major damage.   

Since I'm unable to relocate these little pests, I'm debating an electric fence for next year's garden.  I'm a little nervous about the idea, since I have a soon to be 4 year old grandson who loves to run around the yard.  Do any of you have an electric fence?  If not, how do you manage to keep the pests out your garden?  .  

 

Update on Groundhog War

After spending a fortune on fencing, repellents, cayenne pepper, hot pepper flakes, and cutting up rags to soak with ammonia I resorted to traps to resolve my groundhog problem.   As adorable as they are, I refused to turn my garden over to them and nothing I tried deterred them entering to enjoy a buffet.  I swear, they knew when I left in the car and when I went inside.  I would peep out the window when I was at home and there they were digging and chopping my pole beans down.  If they weren't chomping the green beans, they were eating the leaves on the cucumbers.  Once the veggies produced, they would take 1 bite out of something and move on to the next veggie to take 1 bite of it and leave it on the ground or vine for me.  Oh hell no, I reached my limit when they started chomping on the tomatoes.  My favorites!  I planted a garden so I could taste a home grown tomato.  I had to declare war.   I actually considered an electric fence, but my grandson runs the yard whenever he pleases and I couldn't take a chance of him getting close to the fence and geting shocked if Mama forgot to turn if off.  Traps were the only other alternative

In the state of WV, it is illegal to relocate wild life unless it's on your property.  I was disappointed, but I understand.  Why relocate the pest and make them a problem for somebody else.   I had contacted a trapper who agreed to cage them and relocate him on his 300 acres; however, he never showed to do the job.  Because we were unable to relocate on my property, I called in another trapper.  He placed cages around the garden and around the storage building they had burrowed under and we waged war.  I knew there was 2 babies and the mother.  Research showed, the males leaves after the mother gives birth.  Within 10 minutes of me leaving, one wandered into a cage in the front of the storage building.  The next day the other entered a cage behind the building and the mother entered one yesterday.   Hopefully, I have resolved my problem, at least for awhile.  We're going to cement the openings under the storage building, so no other animals can make a home there. 

Hopefully,  I can get my pole beans to germinate and start climbing for mama, and I will get a great harvest.  I'm praying that my cucumbers will recover.  I still have lots of tomatoes producing, so it seems that I was able to resolve the problem before they did too much damage.  So adorable, but truly a pain for the gardener. 

Intruders, Intruders!

Intruders have invaded the garden patch!  Yep, I stepped out on the deck this week to admire the fruits of my labor and saw a baby groundhog scurrying around the garden trying to find a way out when he saw me.  Needless to say, my blood pressure went up a few notches.   I ran back in to put on a pair of pants, couldn't be caught in my tee and robe in the garden, and of course the little monster was gone when I returned.  That's probably a good thing, that would have been time enough for him/her to devour a few more things.  I am declaring war!   As you can see, there's not a leaf left on my pole beans.  Gone, all gone.    

A family has burrowed under one of my storage buildings and I need to come up with a plan to rid these creatures from my property or least my garden.  I thought we could share space since they haven't done damage to the structure of my building, but they don't understand my garden is off limits.  Until I came up with another plan, I googled my problem and a temporary solution is to sprinkle crushed pepper flakes or cayenne pepper around the perimeter of the garden.  The groundhogs aka woodchucks will remember the experience once they encounter it and stay away.  So far it's working.  The cayenne pepper washes away, but the crushed flakes has remained even through rain.  Looks like I'll be heading to Costco or Sam's today for an industrial size container of each.  I found a site that gave a tip on sprinkling a little dirt or sand with the pepper to keep it from washing away.     

It appears the intruder nibbled on my cucumbers too.  Thankfully the cukes still have their blooms.  I sprinkled a little cayenne pepper on the leaves, hopefully the pepper will ward them off.  It seems the groundhogs have an acquired taste, they didn't seem to be interested in the squash, peppers, tomatoes or herbs. 

These cucumbers are suppose to be bush; however, they seem to be sprawling.  I'm wondering if they were mislabeled.  That seems to be the story of my life, lol.  I end up with the wrong color shrub and now it looks like I'll be dealing with mislabeled items in the veggie garden. 

Oh well, it looks like my adventures in gardening will not be boring.  Thankfully all was not lost with my pole beans,  a few of the plants have new growth.  I pulled up the few plants that seemed hopeless, and in the process planted a few more seeds.  I've learned to turn negatives into positives.   I'll keep you posted on the new war!  If you have a remedy, please leave me a comment on how you conquered the groundhog in your garden.