Tragic

There have been numerous violations at the BBOP garden in the last few days by the no-longer-cute deer.... just was my mouth was starting to water for the ripening Roma and black cherry tomatoes, a deer figured out how to hop the fence. Twice...once from each side of the garden. The riggers spotted one of the culprits having breakfast in our garden as they drove into work this morning, at which time the deer promptly hopped over the fence out of the garden.

The proof is in the hoof prints (arrows):


Here's the damage:

I guess no green zebra tomatoes (left) this season. and the poor, poor japanese eggplant (right). I wonder why the fruits were left?




A forsaken poblano pepper... I guess the deer don't like these kind of fruits.


And just when the zucchini was starting to recover...



A half-eaten early orange... I guess the fact that it wasn't ripe yet meant that it was okay to leave it...


This is particularly maddening... just when I transplanted the rescued tomatillo into a larger pot, the deer devoured it.



Same tomatillo and the strawberry next to it.



With no regard for the other eggplants, we find that the lovely foliage has been nearly completely consumed. At least they left the fruits. Can eggplants sunburn? The top picture is how I found the eggplant when I arrived this morning...clearly knocked over when the deer hopped into the garden. Evidence of footprints in the nearby squash planter. When I righted the eggplant, it looked so sorry for itself.


This pepper was topped. Well, at least you can see all the lovely fruits.

All-in-all, the damage could have been worse. But, it sets us back a week or so for ripened fruit. I don't know if the green zebra or tomatillo will recover. Let's hope we can get at least one Roma tomato this season.

Better still... let's hope the new blockade will work for the evening. I guess I know what I'll be doing this labor day weekend....construction!

Week 11: Ripening...

After some quality sunshine at the end of last week and over the weekend, it looks as if the garden is finally obeying Nicole's repeated order for the fruits to ripen. We have been able to sample several tomatoes over the past week, as well as some of the bell peppers and a couple of strawberries. Currently the black cherry tomato is top of the taste charts; it's delicious!

Click on the pics to see larger versions.

One of the celebrity tomatoes; all the celebrity plants are producing huge fruit!



Rosalie's Early Orange tomato, trying to hide behind a leaf



The mortgage lifter tomato. We presume that they are supposed to look like that, and it's not due to proximity to the Bevatron!



Chile de arbol



Poblano chile peppers



Cool pepper, whose name I have forgotten yet again.



Excitingly bi-coloured squash

We've also had our fair share of heartbreak and tears in the BBOP garden. Unfortunately, the Biscayne-Cubanelle pepper, which was already looking sad a fortnight ago, was looking even sadder when I got into work on Monday:


Admittedly, we were tempting fate by leaving it outside the protective fencing, and the plant was on death's door, if not over well over the threshold and settling down in a comfy chair! At least the deer were able to gain some nutritional benefit from it... I don't think Nicole and I were going to be enjoying a huge crop from it.

One of the pumpkin plants is also looking exceedingly sorry for itself after being planted up in some rather heavy soil that didn't draining properly. Although we tried moving it into some different soil, I think the damage had already been done.

Sob!

A terrible fate also befell one of the celebrity tomatoes and the Rosalie's early orange pictured above. This is how they looked mere hours after those photos were taken...



I can report that both varieties were very tasty!

Week 10: A Moving Story, pt. II

The riggers offered their help with their more appropriate heavy-duty machinery.


Repositioning some of the exisitng planters.





Repositioning the biggin... this one required real manpower, and the forklift!





And some expert guidance. (hardhats required!)




The finished product:





Whew! It was a hard day!

Week 9: A Moving Story, part I

A couple of weeks ago, Nicole and I were warned of the imminent arrival of a large container (not large as in planter size, but large as in 40ft metal shipping container size), which would have to be parked right where the garden is now. The thought of having to get rid of all our plants after expending so much time and love on them was almost unbearable, but luckily a new spot was available, about 100 ft away. Apparently, the area that we'd used for the garden belongs to the riggers, the team who are dismantling the Bevatron, whereas the proposed location belongs to building 64. Ah. Anyway, after checking with the building 64 manager, we decided to move as much of the garden as we could over into the new location. A short reconnaissance mission into the Bevatron revealed a hydraulic-jack-type affair, perfect for transporting the smaller planters. Using this, a flat trolley, and the faithful office chairs, we were able to transplant approximately half the garden into the new location.

Nicole takes charge of the flatbed trolley.

The hydraulic-jack-type-affair, with one of the planters.

The planters in their salubrious new location... right by the dumpsters. Nice!

The remaining half of the garden. Not pictured: blood, sweat and tears expended during the move.

Whilst scouting out possible locations for the garden, we espied another promising box; this was duly liberated and Nicole planted it up with some of the squashes.

The new box. Just like the old boxes, but with different plants.


Rather exciting peppers, whose name I have forgotten.


The poblano chile (and a multitude of marigolds)


Tasty cherry tomatoes. They were eaten mere moments later!


Impressive peppers

In other news, something unfortunate seems to have happened to the Biscayne-Cubanelle pepper, as the picture below attests. There doesn't seem to be any obvious botanical explanation for its rather sad state, but there is a suspicious white residue on the soil just next to it. Directly above this residue is a length of very unsavoury-looking piping coming out of an upstairs window. Hmmmm...