Earlier in the week, I went out and picked tomatoes. Many of them have bites out of them, and some are up too high on the plant to be rabbits. Do I have a coon? Chipmunks? Squirrels? A significant portion of the heirloom plants have disappeared.

I need to water the pots, but I don’t have time. Also, the mosquitoes are fierce in the garden. I am totally frustrated as the garden is a disaster and I don’t have time to take care of it. . Thank God it rained as the plants needed water in the worst way.

I planted the 16 green pepper plants that had been sitting on the deck for the past month. I p ut them i nthe first bed where the greens had been. This will replace the ones that the rabbits ate.That took me up to almost 6:00. I hoped to get more done, but I ran out of time.

I checked the weather, and we got around 1.25 inches of rain overnight in addition to the 1.5 inches from Saturday night. My garden should be loving it! Depending on how much rain we get tonight, outside work will be halted until Wednesday or Thursday. Severe thunderstorms are predicted for this afternoon and evening.

Depending on how much rain we get tonight, outside work will be halted until Wednesday or Thursday. Severe thunderstorms are predicted for this afternoon and evening.

I made a Heirloom tomato, cucumber, and red onion salad. I made dressing with vinegar and oil, Emiril’s Italian seasoning, and some new hot smoked Spanish Paprika. New paprika made all the difference in the world.

Then I started on the zucchini pasta; Natalie had already grated the cheese. I went out and picked another zucchini, basil, and mint. I had dinner ready at about 7:15. We ate on the porch as everything on the deck was wet, even though the rain stopped and the sun was out.

After dinner, we went outside from the porch. We sat for a while and then went out to pick vegetables. We got a load of tomatoes, some zucchini, and a couple of cucumbers.

I went out around 11:00 and started trimming the blackberries and cleaning the old canes. I pulled way more out than I thought I would. I picked a few ripe berries. I think they and everything else will be early this year. I’ll be picking some Cherokee Carbon Heirloom tomatoes today. They are exceedingly early. I also weeded the rest of the mint garden.

I planted the cucumber plants and then another hill of Cocozelle Zucchini. Then I ripped out the old pea plants and weeded that bed. Then, I succession-planted Lazy Housewife pole beans along the trellis. This is about two weeks earlier than I planted them last year. Last year’s crop got eaten once they started climbing.