individual by design

Murphy’s law would indicate that it was only a matter of time before nature got the best of me (or worse) in regards to my garden. . . a mouse family (small colony) has moved in to my garden bed, I can see about five holes in the surface and have identified at least one entrance that goes under the raised bed.

in a balanced world I could probably coexist with the mice, so long as they scurry away when I approach which I now do with a notable amount of noise and a few kicks to the side of the bed.  I’ve tried to collapse their tunnels and have sprayed a considerable amount of this stuff that smells really bad to me and is supposed to smell even worse to the mice but still not a day goes by that I do not see a mouse.  nor have I had a tomato inspection that does not reveal that while my beauties have gotten larger, without fail just as soon as they begin to change color the mice not only snack on them (multiple locations per tomato) they haven’t learned not to sh*t where they eat and leave droppings on the fruit as if to insure without a shadow of doubt that I will not be consuming nar a trace of my prized beauties . . .

did I ever mention that tomatoes are pretty much the muse of my garden?

so the inevitable is now apparent and “Jerry” must die.  I’ll be putting out mouse traps (I’m guessing that I get my fingers smacked at least three times during this ordeal) and with any hope I’ll see an end to the thieves who insist upon stealing my summer glory.  I’ll also be adding steel wool to the hole entrances and some mint too.

then what?  well, if I don’t see the results that I need to see (tomatoes that are able to actually fully ripen on the vine and still be fit for human consumption) then this will likely be my first and last year in the community garden.  I can’t see myself putting in all this work knowing that for the most part it will be in vain and I have little doubt that next summer they will be all the more comfortable with their room & board arrangements.  however all hope is not lost, this year may still have promise and a small failure this year will allow me to plan and begin again next year in a better position for success.

for starters my tomatoes are planted very close to each other, this makes for a dense tomato forest that makes harvest a little difficult, cross breading completely possible and climbing all the more easy for mice.  I used the square foot method and the plants are happy and thriving but I feel that this left my garden more susceptible to pests.  I’ll still only have 32 square feet but I’m going to hold off on trying to grow peppers, this is my second attempt and I’ve never had much success with them.  I’m also giving more thought to thinning the basil more, as luck would have it my lovely “pet basil” the lemon variety has provided an ideal canopy for the mice; but again this year has taught me that my girls really don’t like radishes, the carrots still aren’t of much size and who knows what the beets are doing. . . . so I’ve got some expansion room.  I do like the beans and would like to plant them again, I’d also like a single, and I stress single, cucumber vine but in truth tomatoes and herbs might be the route I’ll take next year with little looking back.

for some reason I’m still optimistic that I won’t end up going all “caddy shack” and blowing up the whole place because of a few small (yet destructive) rodents.  I still have my green pumpkin (a really large tomato that has yet to even think about beginning the color changing process) and I did snag a few kellogg’s breakfasts which now sit on my window sil finishing the ripening process.  if I have offended you with this post and my feelings I do apologize, it does not bring me any amount of joy to know what my plan entails, I had truly hoped that methods to make them simply want to move would be successful.