When I'm done with this bean plant, there will be nothing left for you, human! hahhahahhahha!

August would be a good month to go on vacation. Somewhere cool and refreshing like Glacier N.P. or maybe the Oregon coast. I'm tempted to hop in the car and do it. But my guess is there's nary a campsite or motel available, as everyone else probably has the same idea. Not to mention the fact that the garden would be toast without water. Not that there's much to lose...after the deer, grasshoppers and rodents have done their work, there isn't a whole lot of produce left for us, lucky we have a small family.

Check out the potatoes. I used to be smug about not having any gophers up here, and now look. If it isn't gophers, it's a close relative. Not only the tubers are damaged, but the leaves are getting completely stripped as well. Meanwhile, our neighbors' potatoes are doing fabulously well. I've decided to ditch the straw. It just isn't working. What the garden needs is some serious nitrogen. The neighbors plowed in leaves last fall and that really seemed to work for them. But now that the gophers have found us, there may be no point. Last year they took down a few bean plants, but that's all. I suspect it'll get worse every year. Where's that cat, anyway?

But the stuff in the greenhouse is doing well, even though it's only the first year and the soil is terrible. I used Jobe's organic fertilizer spikes and they help a lot. It's much easier to have a vegetable garden close to the kitchen, I've noticed. I think maybe the further one will be better for berry bushes or fruit trees.

It's time to put the row cover back over the box garden, as the deer have been coming and eating up all the cabbage, which is ok, since it had already been decimated by insects. I don't want them getting the carrots though. I've tried replanting some crops, but the grasshoppers and their friends devour everything. The row cover may help a bit.

The mosquitoes are STILL here. The dust is here too, in the evenings. August is not my favorite month. We have been having a little heat wave and it makes me thankful we don't live in Arizona. But it's sposed to rain, so that's good.

August does have some rewards, the potted maters are ripe.

And these.
I love this perennial, Heliopsis helianthoides 'Summer Sun', also known as False Sun Flower. Good thing I kept the tag, it's not in Sunset!?! How could they leave it out? It's very cheerful, and the grasshoppers don't seem to like it.
They do like the Rudbeckia flowers.They even eat the Echinacea, maybe they feel a cold coming on.