Thursday, July 08, 2010

For the Love of Beans

Truly I don't know how bean farmers make a living. First it was the ground hog bullying her way into my sweet patch to dine upon the tender bean and beet shoots. Now it is an attack on a smaller scale.

The garden is in full swing. The tomato plants (purchased from Hanson's Farm) which are almost as tall as I am, are fully laden with fruit. Man, did I get very hardy stock this year. The basil, (also from Hanson's), makes the best pesto, the lettuce -- from seed -- delightful. The peas and the beans hung with tender pods, the corn more than knee high and forming tassels and the zucchini staking its claim in the garden. All is good in the garden area, except I seem to have guests on a very small scale.

The beans... (sigh) are being nibbled. Something is getting through the fence and nibbling the shoots and the pods with tiny little bites. I set up the chipmunk sized have a heart with a nibbled bean pod and sure enough the bait was taken without triggering the doors. So I suspect, mice, moles, voles, whatever. Tiny feet with a small but distended belly.

It's time to break out the tinier less heartfelt traps and see what we can find. So really how do farmers make a living? How do you keep vermin from eating their way through your crops? There are no big fences surrounding gardens. I have an image of very fat and happy mice living in summer fields. Maybe that is why farms have barn cats...

Goddess of the gardening world -- bestow upon me strength. All I want is a teeny tiny patch in my backyard to grow a few veggies.

1 comment:

Tammy H. said...

It is disheartening to see your hard work eaten by another (not related to you or even to your species). Good luck with the trapping.