Veggies!

The veggie garden is growing by leaps and bounds! I believe the last time I posted about this project, it was just a big dirt space on the ground. Now it's all green and floriferous:

I put a gazebo in the center and planted scarlet runner beans all around. Come end of summer it should be a tee-pee of runner beans.

I found an old white plastic table and chairs lying around and repainted them turquoise with a couple cans of spray paint from the local hardware store. Now they look brand new again and live under the gazebo:

The gazebo is topped with an owl to try and keep the birds away. I don't really think it works all that well, but it looks cool none-the-less (full disclaimer, we lost the finial that was supposed to go on top of the gazebo and had to come up with an alternate topper):



The sunflowers are looking great:

The zucchinis are beginning their never ending onslaught of zukes:

The radishes have been harvested:







The turnips and rutabagas are being harvested as well as the broccoli:

The cilantro has gone to flower:





The California poppies are gorgeous:

As are the California bluebells:

The Scarlet runner beans are climbing the gazebo at a rapid pace and are blooming:

Up here in the PNW, the Nasturtiums are ginormous and flowering crazy:

And then there are the peas, chard, and bush beans which were growing huge and tall. And then.....



Munched!! Nearly to the ground! By whom? One guess:



Deer! And not tiny deer, either. Great big northwesty type deer. I caught two in the garden chowing down on the peas and tomatoes. So we had to get a fence up quick. And a tall one at that.

The fence is going up here:

We used deer netting that was 7 feet tall and wrapped it all around the garden. It kept them out for 2 days until they decided to try and jump it. That resulted in a downed fence, but spooked deer. They left the garden alone that night and we put the netting back in place with a few extra poles for more support. They have not made another attempt at jumping the garden, but we did see them outside the edge of the garden this morning looking in longingly at all the tasty veggies.

I'm sure they will be hatching some nefarious plan to get back in the garden walls. Maybe I'll pop them one with a paintball gun next time. Then all splattered in pink, they will be mocked by all their deer friends and the humiliation alone will be enough to keep them away from the garden.