These guys aren't very bright, but they can do a fair amount of damage in the garden. They've taken a liking to the area around my sweet potatos, which are planted in the rose garden. So far, they've dug up five plants, which I've replaced with slips taken from the sweet potato that's growing in water on my window sill. Remember that trick from your school days? (Three toothpicks stuck into the potato and propped on the rim of a mayo jar filled with water.) Irish potatoes are a challenge here in spring (I'm hoping for better luck this fall, and already have my order in for seed potatoes), but sweet potatoes do well. I've given mine a good start, planting them in holes dug down 18" and filled with a sandy soil, in a heavily mulched area, and I'm determined not to let the dillos do them in, or dig them up.
As I say, these critters aren't very bright, so I've put rocks around the sweet potatoes, thus, hoping to deter them from rooting right next to the plant. I don't want to fence off this area, which is beside our walk. In fact, I was thinking of using it for blackberries--until I discovered that deer are devoted to blackberries. And I certainly don't want to go to war against the deer. It would be a losing battle, anyway. There are many more of them than there are of me.
I've added a list of Victory Garden links. Check them out. This is something we can all do now, wherever we are--and we may find that we'll have to do it in the future. Might be a good idea to get in practice, don't you think?
Book report. Bill went off to New Mexico this week, so I took a couple of days off to clean my office (yay!), do some housekeeping, and catch up on the email. I'm still way behind. I had jury duty on Monday: we found the guy innocent, which would have made China very pleased, I suspect. He got caught in a police sting that we (the jury--six good women and true) did not think was managed professionally. However, I did work a couple of days this week, and am now at 72,000 words on Applebeck Orchard, which means that I absolutely have to start wrapping up the loose plots and do something about the big plot hole in the main mystery. Looks like I have maybe two more weeks of work on the project.
Reading/viewing list. I live in books--do you? I'm currently reading ARCs of two new memoirs for Story Circle, both very good. More later, when the reviews are posted. (Probably much later, since both are October pubs. If you're interested in reviewing for us, or just want to see what kind of books we review, check us out.) Also this week, finished Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, which every informed American ought to read. This is a follow-up to my reading of his The Omnivore's Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is on our Story Circle reading circle list for tomorrow's discussion. Last night, I watched a documentary along the same lines called King Korn. After Pollan, it seemed a bit simplistic and omitted references to the environmental damage caused by this huge monoculture. But it's good viewing just the same, and if you're just getting into the question of where our food comes from, it's an entertaining and thoughtful start.
Reading note. We hoed out three deep rows, each about seventy feet long, in which to drop our seed potatoes. If that seems like a lot for one family, it's not . . . In my view, homeland security derives from having enough potatoes.--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle