no blight here

This summer we got a ton of rain in June and it really set the growing season back. A lot of folks in the Northeast were struck by a tomato blight, heck even Martha's garden in Westchester NY wasn't safe!

As bumbling backyard growers, we were lucky our crop has done just fine. In this photo there are patio tomatoes from our deck, larger grape tomatoes and the lovely yellow sun sugars.

privacy, please

When we moved into our house there was a slab foundation next to us and we would fantasize about never having neighbors on that side of our house. About 6 months ago they started building that house next door and since day 1, I've been wondering how we could get more privacy on our deck. My professors have managed some privacy on their screened porch with this beautiful drape of green leaves and the grapes are even edible later in the season. What a great idea to keep out the prying eyes of neighbors who are just a little to close for comfort.

Gamera of little pond

This weekend I tried to catch up with the weeds that are sprouting everywhere. Our garden is only a little 10'x10' fenced plot for some veggies. Sunday morning we were pretty surprised to see this surly fellow in among our celery and lettuce! We ushered him back to the swampy area behind the paper road in our wheelbarrow. He's a snapper and had sharp claws and a long tail. I know he's a fellow Little Pond resident, but I hope never to see him again.






























D named our visitor after the movie star Gamera featured here:



I also find this video the "Safety Dance Gamera" really funny...

salad bowl

A few years ago when we lived in Bayview we bought one of these salad bowls from Treat's and left it up on our raised deck. Some visitor came and ate every last leaf in there. Our current location seems to be a more secure place to grow lettuce and we had good luck with it last year.