Picky feeder in the potager

Rainbow chard is obviously a delicacy for someone. A hare perhaps? The resident mountain hare perhaps? Or maybe the stone martens have taken to vegetarianism.  Whatever the creature, they have managed to chomp my entire crop o chard in the vegetable garden.

I thought I had been clever in planting it all over the potager, in many of the beds.  But the creature had hopped or wandered all about, missing the sorrel (just as juicy), the lettuce, the ripe tomatoes. And just went for the colourful leaves.

I guess I should be grateful that it was so picky.

So what is this thicket of chard in the picture? Ah, that’s where I outsmarted a creature for once. It’s my secondary crop – in the potting shed. And most of it is in the pot tonight for a spot of stir fried veg.

In the garden they look more like this.

Ever since I put a cat flap in the door of the potting shed life has been much more controlled.  And so far only Artur has worked out how to use it.

And what a delight to find him snoozing on his chestnut net when I went up first thing this morning. He was so surprised to see me he forgot to be cross. I have been away for a week.

So I had a happy reunion that involved lots of sitting and purring and shedding of cat fur. Bliss. And allowed me to take action shot of the swiss chard on the staging table.

The cat then proceeded to be Mister Cling as I went about my chores. Pick chestnuts – he guarded the bucket.  Rake the lawn, my companion was there to disrupt the proceedings. We had a long session of both sitting on the wall and not doing much but admiring our stack of thatch.

And we both had some fun harvesting the veg.  It’s a good thing I went up to the potting shed halfway through to get some gloves. The poor cat was exahausted. The basket is full of tomatoes, sorrel, green beans, courgettes, small eggplants (aubergines) and basil.

I then had a bit of a wander around the garden and harvested about a kilo of walnuts from under the tree.  Another victory against the mountain critters; the door mice usually get those.

So I am slowly re-tuning myself into farm life again.  And making three big vases of flowers for the house is another way to say – I’m back.