Garden Drama

F helped me finish the garden this weekend. We decided to hold off on building frames for the beds until fall, but as you can see, we've been pretty busy anyway!

After picking up more compost and some bark mulch on Saturday, the bones of the garden were finally complete. Yesterday, I put additional fertilizer in the top layer of all the beds, strung the pea trellis, and planted out my first batch of babies:



As you can see, I'm planting two rows in the top of each bed, and a row of leaf crops into the sides of the slopes.

Back row (left bed): five snow peas, six savoy cabbage, and lettuce (slope).

Back row (right bed): dahlia tubers (unused slope).

Middle row: one early girl tomato, four brandywine, four roma, basil and mizuna (slope).

Front row: four round zucchini, four pattypan squash (not set out yet), two jalapeno, one kamo eggplant, nasturiums and arugula (slope).

I was feeling pretty proud of myself last night. With the seedlings in, my garden was starting to look like an actual garden! But then, overnight:



Something has eaten the crowns of two of my zucchini plants overnight! It looks like the work of birds, rather than bugs-- they left the lower leaves alone, and there's a telltale strand of vascular fiber coming off of one of the stems, indicating pulling rather than chewing. Ack!

What am I going to do to protect my babies? Will the zucchini survive? Stay tuned for answers...