Growing challenge: Tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries, oh my!

The recent gopher attacks on our strawberries (along the fence) have caused a few of them to get pushed up with the soil. The good thing is they haven't been uprooted, but many of the plants are now a good couple of inches taller. They are still growing strong and producing tons of berries, so my guess is they aren't bothered. I'm hoping the rain in the fall will help settle the dirt again, until then - we make do.















We've noticed the strawberries at the end (around the corner of the fence, out of view from the photo) are not getting watered properly, and the strawberries with the most gopher activity have had water pooling and spilling onto the sidewalk. Not knowing if the line has been damaged from the gopher or if it was clogged, I re-plumbed part of it today. It was a good chance to also do a bit of cleaning up of the berries and more picking as well. Drip irrigation is well worth the time it takes to install! I picked strawberries as I went down the line, our second basket this week!

Once that was done, I painted the inside of the fountain. It has a leak in it, so I applied an all weather spackle leak repair. I was setting the fountain back up when I noticed it was chipping off - guess I didn't get away with not putting on paint or primer. Over the weekend I applied primer and let that dry completely.

(this blog interrupted by the cat running in madly, in an apparent effort of ditching her own tail. I carried her to the bathroom to contain her and get a better look, and found a bee stuck in her tail. Bee flew up to the light and died. Cat crawled in the sink and was soothed with water from the tap. It's never a dull moment.)

Where was I? Oh yes - got the fountain painted, and left it covered to dry completely, hopefully I can get it up and running tomorrow. The rest of the garden got watered, and I am delighted - the tomatoes are FINALLY turning red! We've also got cucumbers growing strong, but not in the numbers I'd like. (that's a lot!) The bell peppers are doing great, we've already picked a few for eating.

The beets are winding down. They did well, but it turns out I'm a fan of beet greens but not beets themselves. My twin has been happy enough with this, as she has been getting bags of beets over the summer.

I realize it is nearly time to start thinking of our fall and winter garden. time flies!

Very fulfilling work, but clearly, it was exhausting too. (now I feel a bit mean for teasing her, poor thing is spooked!)