I have noticed some corn cobs were peeled back and eaten on the ground. Some corn stalks were pulled down. I immediately know that the raccoon was the culprit. I don’t have the money to install electric fence so I put a paper bag over the soon-to-ripe corn cobs. This seems to help. Anyway the corn we grow this year is called Ashworth and it is small, about 6″ long but it tastes good. However I think I am growing to grow a different variety next year.
Recently I picked up a book called Square Foot Gardening, very interesting and I will share the result as soon as I finish and follow the instructions.

Here are the harvest from our garden at this momemnt:

Big zucchini
The sugar sanp peas
Carrots.
Fresh dug potatoes.

Of course, we continue to enjoy fresh greens like lettuce, green onion, spinach and swiss chard. The strawberries are gone a week ago. A lot of strawberries have gone moldy because of the damp weather, what a waste!

There is so much rain this year. One good thing is we don’t have to water the plant everyday. But then the bugs, slugs and mosquitoes are more abundant than last year. This year we use grass clippings to control the weeds and it is not bad. I am using the black plastic film to smother another patch of lawn beside the existing garden. This area will be dedicated to our children. I am going to build a small bed for each child so that they can explore and enjoy gardening. I hope I can finish it before winter.

Here are some photos for our garden at this momemnt:

The corn is looking good.
The cabbages are big now.
Potatoes have flowers now.
The peas.
The cucumber is slowly growing.
The garden view.

All the seats are taken, well done ladies:

Finally some of the strawberries are ready to eat. I didn’t manage them properly last year. I allowed too many daughter plants to develop and therefore no enough room to let sunlight into the foilage. Given the wet weather we have, some of the strawberries might decay very easily. Nevertheless, it is good to eat fresh strawberry, organic and straight from garden.
As a side note, another layer got broody so whenever I see her hiding in the nest I would push her out gently.

Here are some photos for our garden at this momemnt:

The corn is looking good.
The cabbages have some holes.
I just mound some more soil around the potatoes. Need to mulch.
The garlic is huge.
The cucumber is slow.
The tomatoes are slow. I might buy a big one from the store so we can have some fresh tomatoes soon.

We planted all the rest of the seedlings: watermelon, cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes and pepper. Tiffany also planted some lettuce seeds.
I laid straw as mulch around the plants. I also planted some flowers here and there to attract beneficial insects, hopefully.
The corns are growing and I finanlly see the potatoes shooting up their leaves. Some animals bite off the tip of our small apple trees’ twigs. I already have chicken wire fenced around each tree but the damage is above the wire so I think it could be deer. It is so hard to grow apple.

On May 28, there was a frost. So the cucumber and tomato seedlings were killed. Well, I planted half of these seedlings just in case so we still have some seedlings left. I will wait 1 more week to plant them out. Had I known there was a frost I would put a frost blanket over them. Also, I have decided to buy pepper seedlings from store in the future because it would save time and space. It cost only around $1.20 to have 4 pepper seedlings. I would still start tomatot seelindgs myself because I can use heirloom varities.

One of the black sex-link begins her broodiness a couple of days ago. She sits on the eggs and remains in the nest box for a long time. I should put her in a separate cage to break this habit. And I read some ppl suggest putting ice underneath to stunn her. Well, I will just let her be. Pretty soon the old hens will start molting. I really need to shovel out the bedding (more than 1 year now) and disinfect the coop once the weather is warm enough.