fail. fail. fail. fail. sigh.

I've all but neglected the gardens the last week or so between work and the new baby in the family .Haven't even had time to go out and be a farmber at Tilth. :( Tomorrow I'm spending the day weeding, starting seeds, and giving everything a much needed inspection.

I fear something baaaaad is going on with the swiss chard. This is starting to work on my nerve, since the chard after MONTHS of not doing anything (because I wasn't watering and caring properly), suddenly started to look edible. It now looks like it was set on fire. :/

The pole beans are growing like gang-busters and I probably should have made a proper teepee trellis for them and not a 3-stand trellis for 9 plants. :( They probably needed er...9-stands. It's much too late to try to remedy the situation.

The zucchini is being overtaken by powdery milder again. :( We still haven't had 1 frakin' zucc outta it. The one big enough to pull--which I will tomorrow--sorta looks collapsed on itself at the end. Guh. It's still flowering like mad and fruiting. I'll just keep trying to save it, I guess.

The dragon thai pepper plant is like a total bust. I've got 1 little pepper. I should have hundreds by now.

Worst of all...WORST OF ALL...I have a pest in my garden. A major fucking pest and I may re-enact Old Yeller on his ass if he doesn't straighten up.

Who could it be? Well, not AwesomeHusband so it must be--NOTSOAWESOMEDOG.

Part of this is my problem. My genius way of keeping the dog out doesn't actually keep him out due to a number of reasons that I dont' want to get into right now. I kept noticing that my Tiny Tom plant kept missing tomatoes and looked like whole stems were missing. It stopped fruiting and stopped flowering and starting looking smaller. Couldn't figure it out. Thought I was losing my mind and making up that it actually had a lot of 'maters on it.

A week later, guess who I chased out of my garden with 1 of 2 (YES! 2! I only got 2!!) red peppers I have been babying for months? And guess who I caught tonight with an heirloom orange roma in his mouth?

I have been beside myself figuring out why the hell my tomatoes aren't getting fruit. GUESS WHY?!? Because some damn dog keep eating them!

Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news, I mean, the garden is still looking spotty but happy . The peas have sprouted. Carrots are up. The "mystery plants" turned out to be gorgeous Merlot lettuce that is almost purple and should be ready to start harvesting in a few weeks. Some parsnips are living. Leeks made a come-back. Anaheim pepper is not fruiting still, but blooming and happy. Rainbow pepper is happy. Molly the eggplant now has 5 tiny fruit on it. The Meyer lemon has kept and is growing about 20 lemons and I just saw some new blooms.

The strawberries are blooming like crazy and we are doling oursevles out a few berries a week. I'll have to buy 2-3 strawberry pots, I think and start filling them up.

I'm itching to start the second bed. Still havent' talked to my father-in-law because of the family crisis happening. Seems just a tad bit rude to start a "Whataboutmeandmyneeeds?!?" conversation when there is serious things happening with our newest family member.

I'm going to do a modified square-foot-garden (or hell, maybe I'll throw it all out and do something else). I'd like to incorporate some French Intensive gardening techniques that I'm currently learning about.

I still dream about 8,000 sqare feet of yard space for chickens and a proper potager. Sure, 5 acres is the most ideal of all--but I could get some of it done with just six to eight thousand square feet. I really could.