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.

  This corner bed will be for garlic and herbs.

  We used to have a backyard garden... about ten years ago.  But then the squash, melons, and zucchini had hollowed out vines and disgusting mush inside the fruit... apparently the work of squash beetles I was told. It was depressing. 😣 And although we had a 4 foot chicken wire fence, there are always families of rabbits around who dig right under.  About 5 years ago we planted a fig tree... Which has never had leaves for very long, because the deer eat off every one before they can grow. Every year I think it must be dead, but a few new leaves sprout the next year.  When the pandemic started everyone was getting into home gardening.  By this time our garden area was full of 4 foot tall weeds laced with poison ivy. * so embarrassing! *  So we cleared a small area too late in spring, and I planted one tomato plant that was already big. A few days later there was only one stem left in the ground. I'm sure the deer got it.  So how can I be so excited?...