Adventures in Growing Things

One of the goals I have had for several years has been to actually start a vegetable garden. This would seem easy enough for a girl who has lived in the country my entire life, but I have not actually tried very hard to grow a garden prior to this year.

One of the reasons that I have put it off, quite honestly, is the dog situation. No matter how I go about growing things, the current dogs in the yard like to take over and use the growing area as their campground!

Case in point. This year I actually planted vegetables in the large syrup tub containers that D has left over from feeding our cows. I filled 8 of them with dirt and potting mix and planted tomatoes, bell peppers, tabasco and habanero pepper plants. (The hot peppers were given to me by a friend of my husband, which is what actually drove me to do this). I had the container garden going for about a week when the dogs started showing signs of interest in them. It didn't take long before I came home to one of the containers being completely dug out by one of the dogs!

Since that day, the dogs have left this particular area alone--with the occasional sniff or dig around the bottom of the container. I always chase them away with threats of beatings, which don't work because they know I'm not going to beat them. I have been able to enjoy cherry tomatoes and bell peppers from my own plants! I don't have a single idea of what to do with the hot peppers.

This Saturday, I got brave once again and purchased herbs to plant in the many pots that I inherited from my mother-in-law. I planted basil, lavender, rosemary, thyme and oregano. I also bought two more tomato plants to replant the emptied syrup tub. These plants really made me happy and I thought I might actually get away with them. NO!!! When I got home yesterday evening, I found that the dogs had dumped out my lavendar, completely dumped out and rolled all over the thyme, and completely destroyed the rosemary.

I promptly captured the main suspected culprit dog, one that I hope has another home VERY SOON, and put her in the trailer. I am hopeful that this will give my poor plants a reprieve, but since I wasn't home at the time, I can't really be 100% sure that the dog I suspect is the actual culprit! Time will tell.

I replanted the lavender plant and hope that it will recover from being attacked. I will let you know how this goes!

In other news, I am going to start a separate blog for my financial services business. More on that later...