Greg found deer tracks in his garden on Sunday and had a tomato plant eaten. The next day he was working in the garage and a young doe appeared in the yard who had no fear of people and was in no hurry to leave.

Tuesday night, Natalie and I were having dinner on the deck and she appeared in the backyard heading for the garden. I yelled and was met with a blank stare. I charged into the back yard and she calmly walked through the garden with me following. She went down the path toward the house and then back around into the garden. She made two loops of the garden with me right behind her and I finally started clapping loudly her so she marched off between the houses, into the front yard and across the street to harass the other neighbors.

We went to Walkup Heritage Farm and Gardens in Crystal Lake to try to find a Mr. Stripey heirloom tomato. Instead, I found a Hungarian Heart tomato that is said to have originated in a village 20 miles from Budapest around 1900. It is a late tomato with 1 pound fruits.

This rounds out my heirloom tomato selection for the year.

Starting to get ridiculous. Cripes, it’s the 23 of May and we should be done with this cold weather by now. I covered everything based on the forecast, but it looks like we were OK, but more outlying areas did have some frost.

Temps in the high 80’s.

Last week’s weather prediction proved rather unreliable. Daytime temps have been in the low fifties and we barely escaped frost on Saturday night. Sunday night’s prediction was more ominous, so, like Peter, I erected 3 tents. (It is good that I was there.) One each over the tomato and pepper beds and the last over the  heirloom tomatoes. I covered the hot peppers, remaining heirloom tomatoes and zucchini with pots.

Everything survived. I don’t know if I needed the covering or not, but it was worth it for the peace of mind. We are out of the cold snap and temperatures tomorrow are supposed to be in the 80’s.

Planted 5 inch pots of Heirloom Tomatoes from Home Depot. Marion, German Queen and Lemon Boy. I couldn’t find a Mr. Stripey so I have room for one more Heirloom.

Here is the main planting for tomatoes and peppers. Looks like the weather will be frost-free for the week ahead, which will get us up to May 15th so we should be good for the year. All items from Goebbert’s.

Tomatoes:

• 2 Black Krim Heirlooms
• 2 Brandywine Heirlooms
• 4 Big Beef
• 15 Roma, 5 rows, 3 per row

Peppers:

• 4 Hot Hungarian Banana
• 4 jalapeno
• 8 more Valencia
• 4 Lady Bell
• 4 Gypsy
• 4 Melrose
• 8 Sweet Banana

Zucchini

• 2 Hills Spineless Beauty from plants.
• 1 Hill Squash Costata Romanesco