Garden News with a Side of Possum

June has tried to be July this year. Ninety degree days and nights that barely cool to comfortable before the sun rises again. Thick with what my sister calls "real air" not the thin "fake air" of summer office buildings. Sudden sweeping thunderstorms that rush in and water the garden just before it wilts or, usually, just after I've turned the hose on to water it myself.
The carrots continue to need thinning, only now they really look like carrots. Crunchy, sweet and orange. The lettuces began to think of bolting and so have been pulled. We simply do not seem to eat enough lettuce to justify as many rows as I planted. Yet mid-August I know I will be wanting nothing but cold salads and complaining that lettuce is not a hot weather crop.

Cucumbers grow fat on the vine. Will I have enough for pickles? Maybe... but I suspect too few will make it all the way from garden to kitchen. Is there anything better than a crisp cuke right off the vine on a summer afternoon? Actually, much as I love cucumbers, I am reminded that my homegrown tomatoes will be ripening soon. A sun-warm juicy tomato eaten barefoot in the backyard is a summer delight I fondly remember and the tomato plants boast small green suggestions of summer pleasures yet to come.

The first crop of green beans has already been consumed. A colander full, snapped and blanched made a perfect main dish with a small side of baked chicken. If you have ever had slenderette green beans fresh from the garden and prepared simply (as in not drowning in gloppy sauces) you will know why we had green beans for desert too. I've trapped and transported five groundhogs already this year but I do not dare set the trap overnight to catch this possum which has moved into the back yard. I do not dare because on any given evening the possum comes accompanied by his friend the skunk. I have smelled, and seen the skunk casually making himself at home under the big pine trees in the side yard.

That's understandable, right? Not wanting to accidentally trap a skunk...

So for now the plan is to set my camera on it's highest flash setting and annoy the possum with flashing light until it doesn't think my yard is such a great place to be.

It's probably just as well I didn't get any chickens yet.