You win some; you lose some

Every time I think I have the garden dialed in I'm reminded that I don't. Such is life. Overall, May has been kind to our garden with stable weather though a bit cold in our area (the last frost was May 20th). It has, however, been incredibly dry, and I'm thankful for drip irrigation on timers. One of the only upsides to the lack of rain is that the weeds aren't too bad yet. We haven't been subject to any herbicide drift so far this season which has also helped the garden flourish.

But while the weather was reasonable, my gardening skills were still put through their paces this past month. Enemy Number One in my garden is the gopher. Full Stop. As a biologist and generally earth-friendly person, I recognize that every species has a purpose and a place in the ecosystem. I tolerate bug damage, grow a variety of flowering plants to support native insects, and maintain "messy" areas in the garden to provide habitat for mice, salamanders, snakes, and other critters that call this patch home. Gophers, however, have systematically destroyed my tolerance and have devoured every last straw I had.

Over the years, they've killed a cherry tree, five squash plants, several bean patches, at least a hundred onions, and almost every potato I've ever attempted to grow. Every raised bed is lined with gopher wire. I plant each raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, and fruit tree inside a gopher wire-basket fortress. Any squash or tomatoes that go in the ground unprotected have a 50/50 chance of survival at best. This month the gophers gamboled in and out of my raspberry patch and happily headed on to the asparagus, doing untold damage beneath the surface.

There was one unfortunate and dramatic conclusion to a gardening session when I unwittingly unearthed a gopher within the confines of my gopher wire-enforced raised bed. Brad might have the blood on his trowel, but I dished out the sentence. No mercy. We've joked that we need to start collecting bull snakes to release onto our property in hopes they would help us with our little gopher problem. The coyotes and owls certainly haven't kept up with them.

We had a bountiful harvest of spinach, asparagus, and rhubarb, but my hopes for spring peas seem to be shattered yet again by some enigmatic and voracious insect I have yet to spot. Of all the crops I wouldn't have expected to be difficult are peas. But every year, they get continually mowed down. My next step is to sneak out to the garden at night with a headlamp to try and catch an insect in the act. We'll see if I ever get around to it....my guess is no. Ironically, the fields surrounding our house are full of peas in flower. So it goes.

As we shift into June, we're harvesting our spring broccoli, garlic scapes, and strawberries. I replanted the melons that withered in the late may cold snap. I've also replanted the squash that got scuffled to death by quail, who incidentally love the straw placed at the base of my plants for protection; let's add that to the lessons learned for 2021. However, I would still say overall, the garden is flourishing.

The tomatoes and peppers are in the ground and setting fruit, so that's an encouraging sign of summer. The raspberries are covered in flowers despite the gophers tunneling through the patch, and the potatoes I've opted to grow in fabric pots seem to be thriving so far. Soon I will be starting seeds for fall crops inside to prep for transplanting into the garden in late July through August. I envision a bountiful harvest of cabbages, winter squash, and carrots to grace our fall table.

Allan Armitage once said that "Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized." Maybe one day I'll get those spring peas. Until then, I'll keep dreaming.