We marked off the middle of our yard as a no mow zone to start a mini-meadow. Every afternoon I see this bunny snacking there. We plan to plant native wildflowers in this area in the future. I heard the best time for that is Fall, but I may not be able to wait.  Here is a little video of our bunny friend.   

  We started planting on May 10, and then the temp got up to 94 degrees on May 19. Today  on May 25 it is back to 65-75 degrees. A North Carolina Spring. 

 On June 28, I added parsley, sage, another basil plant, and a replacement for the cilantro. Unfortunately, this second cilantro mostly died by the next day. But the rest of the herbs are doing well. 

 I don't know why 7 out of the 8 tomatoes I planted did not grow well, and one is doing great... about 5 times taller than the pitiful ones. They had some brown withered leaves, but got the same amount of water and sun as the healthy one, which is a Celebrity. Seriously, I planted 4 Celebrity and 4 Homestead varieties. Oh, and my one Little Napoli tomato plant which is also doing well.. the first one to have green tomatoes appearing.  I checked with my advisor, Matthew, and he said they might have a virus. Apparently those varieties are both heirloom strains, and are more disease prone than hybrids. I decided to take them all out, RIP, and try some hybrids instead.  I planted another Little Napoli, a Best Boy, and a Steller Slicer. 

 I was annoyed to see a few holes eaten out of my beautiful eggplant on June 24th.

       Vance scored big on cardboard at a dumpster behind Target and Sam's Club. Now we can tile the entire garden if we want to! So I started laying it outside the fence in between our hazelnut bushes to keep the weeds down.      José and I got two loads of wood chips in the morning, and I went back for a third load in the evening. He dug two holes for our future blueberry bushes, and we both put wood chips around all the borders.  Ready for more blueberry bushes:      I decided to use hay instead of wood chips around the hazelnut bushes. Unfortunately they hardly ever produce nuts. Apparently we need more bushes to cross pollinate. And now beetles are eating the leaves. I just hope these aren't the dreaded squash beetles. And if they are, I hope they stick to hazelnut leaves and leave our squash alone! The balance of nature is tough.