Wow I disappeared off the face of the blog world there for a while huh? Nearly 5 months with no posts, sheesh! Well the bad news is that my war with critters went on for a while and I lost :( The squrrels have taken over a large part of the garden. They ate almost all the Summer crops! I did manage to get some tomatoes though, but the eggplant, melon and cucumber plants got eaten before they could even flower, they never stood a chance! Ah well. From what I hear lots of people had a bad growing season so chalk it up to experience and move on.

September I got flu pretty bad and was laid up for about 2 weeks, then a few weeks recovery after that! Yeah it kinda threw me for a loop for sure.

October I got busy with work projects and other stuff, especially so fitness as I requalified as a personal trainer and fitness instructor so I was working on my own fitness levels and getting myself in peak physical condition.

November we went for our first boondocking experience in our RV over thanksgiving! Fun times! I think the thrill of the RV researching, looking, and buying went on throughout Sept & October too so we were busy with the whole "research" phase then

And so to December! I've missed the start of the winter growing season, so no long term crops. I do have about 4 months though until I need to think about growing Summer crops again so I figure I have time for lettuce and peas for winter crops, plus some all round crops like beets, onions etc. I am making a commitment to update this blog at least 3x a week in the New Year and I plan on getting back out in the garden very soon! Wish me luck that the squirrels and other critters move out over the winter and find some other garden to snack on!

Last year was my first year growing vegggies in the garden and everything was trial and error, this year I am having issues with thieves in the garden. I have tomatoes growing in my beds and I had lots of green tomatoes, different sizes, different shapes and different varieties. However it's getting to be that each time I go outside I see less and less tomatoes :( This morning I found a half eaten one in the Lemon Tree container! Not that the squirrels are limiting themselves to just the tomatoes, no! They are eating the cucumber plants (yep WHOLE plants), melon plants, eggplant leaves and the lemon tree branches. Seriously WTH? I've tried everything... Just waiting for next month when I hope to be out in the garden more often and hopefully that'll deter them a bit. I know the hole they are coming up through so I may try filling that in which rocks. The dogs are proving to be good squirrel hunters but have yet to catch one. I promised them I'd be happy if they got one, but as yet nothing... It's gotten so bad that I've actually considered giving up growing veggies, but I do love homegrown veggies so much dangit!

One of the things I LOVE about gardening and keeps me sane is homegrown tomatoes! Everyone will attest that there is NOTHING like homegrown tomatoes! Nothing! Fresh off the vine and onto your plate, mmmmmm.

I have a couple of containers I've started using for growing vegetables in. They aren't BIG containers so I don't harvest much, but I make the most of what I have for sure! One of the containers is just outside the kitchen window and currently has Scarlet Beans in it.

They are a bush bean variety and so the trellis was unnessessary but you live and learn eh? I planted some pole beans in there, which are growing right now :) Good job too as the bush beans gave me their last harvest I think:

Also in a container out in the side yard off the dining room is this 1/2 wine barrel. I blogged about it before but here are the plants growing in there. Only 1/2 the barrel is planted, bush beans on left, and mesclun on right. I have tomatoes to transplant in the back once they get to a decent transplanting size and I get something to train them up against :)

I love container gardening, so much easier than regular gardening, less watering and less bugs! I just need to get ontop of the succession planting and I'll be set :)

My camera battery charger that is! The battery is charging as I type. Which is good cos I need to catch up on this months gardeners in bloom (aloe vera is blooming as are agapanthus) plus my veggies are growing despite my being annoyed at the squirrels more and more each day. They took my largest tomato and the ONE peach I had growing. Darn critters! My 1/2 wine barrel got planted and my mesclun and beans are growing, plus almost all my latest batch of seedlings are growing like weeds. So much I need to catch up on! ...normal schedule will return shortly!

Started some more seeds which are growing and growing, love little seedlings so cute! I am disappointed some tomato seeds I planted never came up. Keep checking though and hoping, guess I'll give them another week and then call em done. I planted some mesclun and beans in the wine barrel container and they've all come through so hopefully harvesting more beans and lettuces soon. Fingers crossed the mesclun doesn't bolt as soon as it starts growing as the weather is warming up here for sure! I had hoped to be sharing some photo's of flowers and garden progress but alas my camera battery is dead and I dunno where the charger is. Guess that's a goal for today, find the charger and get some juice in the battery! I have a spare battery too somewhere but I can't find that either! lol! Rest assured the garden is blooming, veggies are growing and I am getting motivated to get garden blogging again after a little hiatus.

Lol, sorry for the pun. I bet only a few of you realize my name is Di anyway so probably lost on most of you, lol. Anyway here is a pic of my scarlet bean harvest Monday :)

Just 3oz but lots more on the plants and I planted some more at the weekend :) At em with some scrambled tofu Monday night. Definitely Yummy!

Harvest figures for May are as follows:

• 4oz Chard @ $3.99 lb = 99c
• 10 ozBeets @ 89c lb = 55c
  
• 7 oz Carrots @ 60c lb = 26c
  
• 25 oz Kohl Rabi @ 75c lb = $1.17
  
• 12 oz Orange (Navel) @ 59c lb = 44c
• 17oz Orange (Valencia) @ 59c lb = 62c
• 2oz Peas @ $4 lb = 50c
• 2 1/2oz Spring Onion @ 99c lb = 15c

Total Harvest for May = 4lb 15 1/2oz

The harvest would have been more had I not lost the majority of my beets to the damn squirrels! So add a potential few more lbs there! Dang squirrels!