Garlic planted...and lots of green beans

I planted the garlic last weekend. It was time for it to go into a shortened row (I try to rotate), so I am trying a trick from the Internet---two rows eight inches apart. If it works, I'll have an awful lot of garlic next year. I got such great garlic this year (every head was large and fat) that I find it hard to believe it wasn't just luck.

And then I went to pick the beans after having left them for a few days. Got about 1 3/4 pounds! Not that we needed any, so I used a few in a salmon salad and blanched and froze the rest.

What happened to the evil squirrels (or racoons)?

A couple of weeks ago something odd happened. Whatever was eating the tomatoes as they ripened, and stripping the bean plants, suddenly went away. Now I have a few end of summer tomatoes turning red with no harm done, and handfuls of green beans.

Good...but strange.

Grapes, figs, and more racoons

Monday: Picked some edamame. Had them for dinner. Very nice. Determined to pick the rest on Thursday, blanch them, and freeze them.
Tuesday, Wednesday: kept checking the edamame. Looked good.
Thursday evening. Went out to pick the edamame. And they were all gone. Stripped from the plants. Finis. I have to assume it is racoons.

Plus, I've been forced to do some experiments with peas. I planted pea seeds on Saturday. Sunday morning, here' what I found:

Yep. Something dug into the ground and got all but one of the 90-some peas I planted. Since then, I've tried replanting (gone the next morning) and bird netting (gone again). Tonight I put down half-inch hardware cloth held down with staples. Anything that wants those peas is going to have to move that hardware cloth.

Good news: the fig tree is going to give me a dozen figs in its second year! And I picked some grapes:

These are Seyval Blanc grapes. They are supposed to be good for eating as well as wine. I tried some--not bad. Some are brown in the picture above, I think because I waited too long before picking them (but I wanted to be sure they were ripe). There are a couple more small bunches as well. Not bad for the second year.

Bad Racoon!

Well, I think it is a racoon. There are some under the deck. And somethings been taking bites of very single tomato, green or starting to ripen. The entire initial tomato set is ruined.

I took the munched tomatoes off and am hoping that another crop will form---and that, in the meantime, the racoons will get bored and find something else to do. But this is frustrating.

Oddly enough, nothing else has been touched. Why?

On the good side of things, there are lots of edamame. This is a productive bean, but I hope I haven't waited too long to pick them.

Garlic!

Yes, it was time. And this, at least, is something the birds couldn't get.

That's 35 heads of garlic.

 And these were uniformly large. I've never had such a good crop.

Birds and raspberries

I haven't been getting many raspberries for a few days, and I began to think I was facing the birds once again. But today was much better, so I don't think the birds are taking that many. The blackberries seem to be well protected by the netting. And I put netting over some of the grapes (I have about 4 small bunches this year, not bad since I just planted the vince last year).

Three kohlrabies went for a salad for the work potluck. Others will be ready soon. As will some kale. I am now trying to figure out if I should harvest garlic today or wait until I come back from a short trip.

Kholrabis and kale

The kholrabis in training are getting to the point where I might harvest a few. Looks like more than enough this year! And the kale is starting to pick up as well. More consolation for the lost blueberries (and apparently dying asparagus, although new asparagus shoots are coming up from some of the plants. Maybe a few will survive?)

I have some nice lettuce, but no reason to pick it since we are getting so much from the CSA. I thought that with only a half share we would want some of our own. Guess not.