End of an Era

Last night I finished removing the carpet of sod from the Perkins garden. The entire bed has been weeded once and it's good to have all that work behind me.

As I worked my way across the bed the last 10 days, I've gotten a chance to closely inspect all of the plants. All seem to be generally well. The tomatoes and peppers are a bit shorter and stockier than the ones planted in the sandy soil at home. After a mulch of bark compost and wood chips, the cutting flowers are quite happy.

Corn and squash are coming along, but the beans are struggling a bit. It seems as if some kind of small critter or insect is nipping away at them. Some have missing tops, others just a missing leaf or two. By the numbers, however, I should do all right and still have some picking to do.

As I was weeding out the last of the garden by the beans, I unearthed a ferocious looking ground beetle. They really are quite daunting critters, nearly an inch long with shiny black armor and large, ragged mandibles. But he just trotted off towards the neighbor's bok choy.

Pests seem to be minimal. Other than the bean mystery, it seems as if the biggest challenge will be keeping down the perennial grass that has deep runners that stay behind when hoeing.