how does your garden grow?

The Loveliness of Gardens fair is up over at As Cozy as Spring. We've gotten lots and lots of rain and our garden is growing beautifully...the parts that aren't being eaten by the rabbits, that is. What kind of rabbits eat the tomato plants while leaving the tender bell peppers, beans, and other young, delicious sprouts alone? My husband has never heard of such a thing, but we've replanted our tomatoes twice, already! The homemade jalapeno-onion spray keeps getting washed off in the rain. The cages are not enough of a deterrent and the chicken wire fence we put around the tomato area was not even enough to keep them from devouring two of our tomato plants again last night. Adam (and Anthony) scattered aluminum and tin cans from our recycling bin around the garden because Adam read that light glinting off the shiny metal spooks them. I've also read that human hair deters wildlife...perhaps it's time for some haircuts again!

This morning I took the 6 empty plastic gallon-sized milk cartons I had in the recycling bin, cut off the bottoms and completely covered the "best" tomato plants. These should also act as a small green house, keeping them warmer at night and helping them grow faster - once the plants are bigger, they should be safe. But, you can never be sure. Perhaps we should ask these patron saints of gardening for some heavenly intercession, as well.

Update: 2 more of the 4 uncovered tomato plants got eaten this morning, so I scrounged around and added a pop bottle, and a bell pepper cage wrapped in chicken wire to save the other 2, as well. Adam is ready to try lead poisoning (translation: shotgun). I can just see him sitting in the garden like Travis Coates in Old Yeller, "Working there, night after night, guarding our precious bread corn from the varmints...".