#auuuuauaggghhagaghhhh

[garden-with-squid]

8/1/24

As I wrote this post, I discovered that my pumpkin plant was completely eaten by a squirrel and it sent me into a blind rage. Please be advised that the following post is mostly negative in tone.

I haven’t updated in a while, so here are the highlights to accentuate the positive:

The jasmine is blooming again

Cooked up some Japanese eggplant into a stir fry, I thought it was good (Michael thinks eggplant tastes like a shoe)

The kitchen basil plants are doing pretty good, growing offshoots.

Very bad news: the pumpkin plant has been COMPLETELY eaten. It was making good progress so I uncovered it and sprinkled chili powder (that was literally two days ago!) - did not work at ALL. There’s one REALLY big squirrel that’s been wreaking havoc on everything that’s not covered with netting or plastic. Goddammit. It was doing so well too. Wow I just checked it now and that REALLY pisses me off.

I could just keep things netted and caged off but it’s so hard to get into the garden and I hate looking at haphazard nets, and some plants need insects to pollinate. What the actual fuck do I do.

I am 100% on board with squirrel murder now. I swear to god if Michael ever gets that fat fuck, I’ll set up a grave just so I can dance on it.

I have been pretty discouraged this year - last years harvests were much better. No peppers and maybe a handful of cherry tomatoes. I’m still not watering and fertilizing enough. And I’ve finally had it with these goddamn squirrels. So spring was pretty alright this year but summer’s been a wash.

I should just say fuck summer and focus intensely on the fall garden at this point. Cover crop everything, cover everything in compost, pull out everything that I hate and cut my losses.

I have this weird hesitation around buying plants from the nursery. It feels like cheating, like I should start everything from seed or keep plants alive all season. Plus it’s expensive. But gardens I see online stay lush because they’re constantly sowing, growing, or replacing plants throughout the season, and I can’t expect some plants to look fresh and young forever.

I got some extra cash so I went to the Armstrong and bought myself some plants - lavender, another tomatillo, zinnias and cosmos. Michael asked for rosemary and snake plants, so we have those inside now.

How am I this bad at this??? Like, I actually feel like I’m doing a TERRIBLE job. Like the results I want demand way more effort than I provide. Like everything is TRYING to die. I feel like it’s all my own fault for not doing everything right. I really fucking hate summer now - friendship ended with summer, now spring is my best friend.

Maybe summer should be my off season - focus mostly on spring, just keep a few key plants that I want to harvest for summer, and cover crop everything else because this is so much bullshit to deal with. Spring and fall were significantly easier to deal with here. I am so pissed. Hate hate pain rage bloodlust rage