Approximately two weeks ago a deer jumped our garden fence and had dinner on us. Now, two weeks later, our garden is showing great progress on re-birth and rehabilitation! Phew!
We could not be happier on this news as we have been doing all we can to promote growth in our garden after the shock & damage it took from the deer munchies. We have been using Epsom Salt and coffee grounds in the garden which help promote growth, greenery, and provide the proper magnesium the veggies need. Tomatoes will split when growing if they do not have the right amount of magnesium, so by using the Epsom Salt around the base of the plants, this helps provide what the plants need.
We did have to replant six more pepper plants, but the ones that were severely pruned by the deer are coming back nicely and some have signs of small peppers forming. We have been enjoying our Leaf Lettuce too, and have shared bags of it with Grandma & Auntie, and as you can see from the photo above, we have replanted another row.
Our Romaine that was pruned all the way down to a short stub, is now regrowing which makes us happy to see. We would have already picked some Romaine if the deer would not have decided to have a salad that night in our garden.
Juliet Tomatoes and the Big Boys are coming along fantastic and new blooms are popping every day. Our one Juliet Tomato plant is now 6′ 5″ in height! This was actually the last tomato plant that I took out to the garden to plant, and even when it was in the basement under the grow light, it grew so well that it was reaching for the ceiling. Yeah, I know, I was shocked at how tall this baby got! The deer did a little pruning on this plant too, but it is now doing so well and coming back strongly with lots of Juliet tomatoes on it.
The cucumbers are finally starting to grow again after being pruned badly by the deer. After two weeks of rehab, they are now starting to climb up the trellis, bloom, and hopefully we will soon see little baby cucs starting to grow.
Our cabbage plants are already forming heads and are getting bigger by the day. Just trying to keep the white moths off of them is another adventure. We have heard that you can also sprinkle flour over the cabbage plants to keep the moths away, and that will be next on our list of things to do.
Did you know that you can pollinate your plants yourself? Yep, it’s true! Just take a Q-Tip and carefully swipe it on a male flower, then brush a female flower. Instant pollination! (we heard that you can do this with pumpkins too and I might have to do this if we don’t see any little pumpkins soon)
All in all, we are pleased with our garden rehab and we look forward to seeing some tomatoes turning red soon. We are finally out of our rainy block of weather and now immersed in some extremely hot and humid temps which is supposed to last about a week. How come our weather can’t ever hit a happy medium? But it’s funny though as last week we were crabbing about all the rain, and now we’re complaining about the heat. Rain is coming on Saturday and we will definitely need it as our rain barrel will need refilling.
Important Date Coming Up This Week: Nikita will be turning 3 years old on Thursday, July 18th, so make sure you stop by to send her Birthday Woofs! 🙂 Also, Mommy’s birthday is on Monday, July 22nd! Lots to celebrate around here!
Nikitaland 
The garden is looking good. The tomatoes look as thought they’re doing really well.
Yes they are! I can’t believe how many tomatoes we have now in the garden! I soooo can’t wait to eat them with Italian dressing! Our cucumbers are really taking off now too, and I think it is because we are getting some really hot weather.
The garden looks great!
Martha Stewart would be impressed! So tidy and healthy. Loved your dear photo’s too, even if they are freeloading on the yummy flowers.
Actually, the deer was in our neighbors front yard munching away, but they are always in ours too. We just happened to see them roaming across my boyfriends front yard and into their yard and I had to run to take a photo. We are just so glad that the garden is coming back….phew! Good name for them….”free loaders”. LOL (but it’s not funny)
So happy for you that your garden is rejuvenating – it looks lovely. Hope the weather settles to a happy medium for you soon. And a big happy birthday to Nikita tomorrow xx
Hi Ya South Bend! Yep, the garden is coming back nicely thank goodness! It is a lot of work to keep up a garden and know what is right for your little plants. We are on the right track to keeping the soil correct with perfect magnesium levels. Just glad to see things growing again after our deer attack. I still can’t believe they ate everything that was green on the vines – I hope they got an upset tummy for eating all of that! LOL
The garden is doing great! And Happy Birthday to both of you! The beagle sends Nikita a big paw slap. Or maybe it was a butt sniff. Hard to tell with dogs. (no! did she really type that?)
Nancy
We are so happy that the garden is re-bounding back after our deer attack! Phew! Can’t wait to start seeing the tomatoes turning red!
I’ll pass along the butt sniff to Nikita….I mean, I’ll tell her about it, NOT actually doing it. LOL (now you got me typing silly things) Thank God us humans don’t do that when we meet someone!
I had a good laugh when I read this! Loved it!
Wow, a lot to celebrate! We didn’t know that you could do the pollination yourself, but it makes sense with the Q-tip!
When we heard that you could do that with a Q-Tip, we were shocked, but when you think of it, that is basically what the bee is doing. “Moving pollen around, from one to another”. I guess we learn something every day!
Glad to see your garden is back on track, it’s looking great now. We too have some lovely Summer weather now in the UK.and everything is growing well. I have just picked 4 courgettes and am off strawberry picking next.
Bummer, our strawberry season is over now, but you have such a nice crop of berries going on over there! We are glad that the garden is back on track, but just think….we would have been two weeks ahead if the deer would not have munched everything down! Grrrrr! By the way, what is a courgette?
I think you call a courgette a zucchini
Hey, that is cool! Good to know as I never heard of that before! Learn something every day!
I’m glad your garden looks so beautiful again. I think the skull in the patch will protect your zucchini now :o) Paws are crossed for a bountiful harvest.
LOL, that is a cement skull that I made last year and I thought that since we love Halloween so much, that I would add it to the garden decor! So far, everyone has loved it!
I do have an idea to take those yellow dish gloves and pour cement into them, and make some freaky cement hands to place in the garden, so it looks like arms are coming out of the dirt! It sure would make people do a double take!
that’s a great idea! My mom made this two years ago – sadly we used this thin surgical gloves (oh my mom!) first and we failed. But with working or dish gloves it will work (we used the surgical gloves and the dish gloves together, because the thin gloves are easier to remove)
Just a little tip when working with cement… if you are making a large object like a stepping stone, use regular cement. For the smaller items, I use quick setting cement as it hardens faster. So, when you are trying to “pose” your cement hand, you work fast and pose it, and as you are holding it…..it is hardening and then you can let go and let it dry further. The weird thing I noticed with the quick setting cement in making hands in gloves, is that you can feel the warmth of the cement. It gets pretty warm. Strange, eh?
absolutely :o) thanks for the tips. I plan a diy-project for my complete Halloween decoration (I LOVE Halloween!) hope it will not end up in a disaster that I can write about. And I will send it to my former teacher who said I had 10 thumbs on my two left hands :o)
My Gramma has deer that eat all her stuff, so we understand the beauty of the deer as well as the beast! Glad it is looking so much better!
Yeppers, they are beautiful to watch and just this morning when taking the dogs out, a Buck appeared in our neighbors back yard right in front of us! YIKES is what I said. But when they head on over to our yard and eat the flowers that I have been babying all Spring and Summer, it makes you mad. Not to mention we freaked out when they jumped our 8 foot garden fence! Hopefully that stinky deer repellent we are using will continue to keep they out!
Mom always ends up getting the repellent on herself and eventually in her mouth – LOL! It is nasty!
Oooooh no, that is horrible! This stinky spray is definitely something that you do not want in your mouth.
The garden looks great. Hope springs! Fingers crossed for some good rain.
Hey! How are you doing? Are you back home yet? We are so happy that the garden is coming back!
I’m making progress, but still healing – like the garden. I should be out of rehab and back home by the weekend. Trying to be patient….. Thanks.
Oh that is so good to hear! I would miss my home if I was in the hospital – nothing beats being at home with your loved ones and furry pals! How is Cupcake doing?
It will be SO nice being back home. Hospitals are strange places. Cupcake is being brave living with her dog sitter, Victoria. I’m as grateful to Victoria as I am to the surgeon who replaced my knee. Both have blessed me equally!!
And, don’t forget….you have US too! But I know what you mean about being grateful to having Victoria. It puts your mind at ease that someone is caring for your dog so well. It helps you recover and it is less stressful on you too.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! Garden rebounding! I save spent coffee grounds for my lilacs and composting, too! They work wonders with balancing our soil (although I don’t understand the science). Congrats!
Yaaaaay is correct! I don’t understand the science behind the grounds yet too, but between the Epsom Salts and coffee grounds, something is working nicely! Phew!
Looking great! But how are you keeping the four-legged demolition teams at bay? An 8 foot fence? And early happy birthday to you both. Talked to my daughter in Michigan yesterday, she said it was ‘miserable’ there because of the humidity. No humidity issues around here… 😉
Oh God, the humidity we are having is horrible! There are probably many many more words to describe it, but it is bad. I did yardwork yesterday and almost passed out from the heat. You’re sweating in the first few seconds you are outdoors, now try pushing a mower and add insult to misery! LOL So far, the tin cans that we have strung up in front of the fence, and along with that stinky deer spray we got, it has kept the deer out since that last attack. Hope it still keeps working!