It is amazing how well a garden grows without critters. Shelby is doing a good job of keeping everything at bay.
Shelby in pursuit
My tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beans are taking over.
But this is what they look like harvested.
And I am going to have tons of tomatoes. This is ONE plant.
Four of these beauties were waiting for me when I returned home from ALA. I mention that to show the difference in the climates. Las Vegas is in a desert and is unbelievably hot and dry.
I do not like Las vegas, and not just the climate. (as a gardener, the whole desert thing doesn’t work for me). But I also don’t drink, smoke or gamble. the casinos have no windows or clocks since they are trying to encourage people to gamble. Women in skimpy costumes walk around pushing cocktails. And the place smells of smoke. I admit, though, that I am a little more tolerant of the smoking. at least that doesn’t put someone’s family’s financial future in jeopardy.
More than anything, I got the feeling that I had stepped back in time, to the glory days of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
Shelby is so exhausted after chasing the rabbit. She has not managed to come even close to catching him.
Now that the ground hog is gone, my garden is doing well. Something, and I think it is a rabbit, is biting the tops off my peas. But all the other plants are lush.
First, a note about recycling. I recycle all my kitchen garbage. Not bones or anything like that but all the peelings, spoiled fruit, coffee grounds and tea leaves. I keep a bucket in the kitchen to put the stuff in.
When the bucket is full I take it outside to Big Bertha, my recycling barrel.
I used to have a barrel that looked like darth Vader’s helmet but I couldn’t turn it. This one turns. In the fall, I spread the compost on the garden, cover it with black plastic, and turn it in to the soil in the spring. I took clay soil and after five years of this turned it into great garden soil. Then we moved but that is another story.
Anyway, with what I have in the earth boxes on the garden I have ten tomato plants. Why so many? I can’t bear to kill any of them so I let them live. And I will have tomatoes coming out of my ears this year. All the plants already have tons of flowers.
We have already eaten swiss chard. the cucumbers and squash are covered with blossoms.
s. 
Finally, I have several rows of green beans. I fill in empty rows with beans. They grow well, produce heavily and, like peas, put nitrogen into the soil.
I also began a row of turnips. The beets are doing OK. My root crops don’t do as well as I’d like. But next year I plan to put in a row of kale and a row of spinach. I am pondering potatoes.
Since Shelby’s epic battle with the groundhog, she has been swaggering around the house as though she met and defeated a lion. She had done her job – and has none of the conflicted emotions I am experiencing. She spends as much time as she can outside on guard, either watching the groundhog holes or sitting on the deck keeping an eye on her territory.
I know we have at least one rabbit around. So far he has been both faster and smarter than Shelby. I hope he has the good sense to leave. I don’t think I could take another dead animal.
Yesterday the groundhog came out of its burrow while the dog was outside. Shelby immediately took off after the groundhog and cornered it by the fence. After a battle, Shelby killed the groundhog.
Although I really wanted the groundhog to go away, I feel terrible now. I am thankful that I did not witness the fight. My husband did and said it was brutal.
It remains to be seen if we have a colony of if that was the only one.
I find it ironic that I, someone who writes murder mysteries, could be so upset by the death of a pest rodent.