Bye Bye Bees

Happily, the yellow jackets seem to have decided that our stairway is not a hospitable enough place and they have left.  No burning required.  The hole they left behind is very interesting, with rough steep walls, only about 4" deep, and extremely hard. 

Makes me wonder if simply disturbing the nest - from a distance! - is sufficient to get them to move on?  Maybe no need to hire exterminators or burn gasoline (that can't be environmentally-friendly!)?  If there's a next time, I'll give it a try.  But I hope there's not a next time.

Yellow Jackets!

All I can say is, it's a good thing I'm not allergic to bees!

I inadvertently stepped on a yellow jacket nest on Sunday on my way down to the garden - must have been stung at least 15 times, most on my legs but also on my back and arms.  I jumped into the pool to get away from them!  It was unbelievably painful, and hurt for several hours.  By Monday the pain was mostly but not entirely gone, and it's been itching like mad since then.  Even today, Wednesday, my legs still itch, although it's finally subsiding.

Eastern yellow jacket

Dominique wants to burn them out.  I'm not in favor of this; after all, I stepped on their nest, it's not as if it was an unprovoked attack.  On the other hand, it's right on our stairs and what if someone looking at the house steps on it?  Or Sunny?  Still, burning them seems unnecessarily cruel.  Are there other options?

What's eating my Swiss chard?

I thought I was going to get a second crop of Swiss chard but something has been nibbling on it while I've been away.  I think it's rabbits.

And what's going on with the beans and zukes?  It looks like the deer are making their beds in them - seriously!  We had a nice meal of beans last night, though.  I hope more grow; 2 meals for 2 people is not a very good ROI.

The tomatoes and collards still haven't done anything, but the new beans and zukes are growing nicely.  Happily, it rained a fair amount last week so no need to water at the moment.

I love my garden but it only likes me

Zukes & beans

No collards

Some things are going well, others, not so much.  Got back from a week in Ohio and ran down to see how all my new seeds were doing.  Mixed results.  The beans and zucchini are going at it just like the first batch did.  Tomatoes - zip.  Not even one lousy seedling.  But the biggest disappointment is the collard greens - nothing!! 

Sunny & the new zucchini

Bean harvest

The first planting is yielding some nice fruit, however.  Some nice zucchini - and some monsters, of course.  How do they go from perfect to gigantic overnight?  And I had my first meal of beans; they were yummy.  Going to cut my volunteer rhubarb, too; maybe make a pie.

New bean plants with deer protection