August looms and I was sitting on my deck wondering why about half my carrots seemed to be wilting.
On closer inspection, it turned out that a thief was at work. I suspected — and it turned out that I was proven right a day or so later — that a little mouse had found the salad bar in my backyard and was enjoying a late night snack (…obviously, with such improved eyesight from all the carrots!)
Sadly, nearly half the carrots now look like this, gnawed at the top where the leaves meet the roots into little carved out, concave excavations, mostly severing the connection and causing the leaves to wilt and leaving the roots of questionable quality for eating.
Expensive compost.
I had hoped to avoid this by being a little more careful as I tended the garden this year, mounding soild around the base of the carrots as they grew and gradually poked from the surface. But the never-ending rain (as good as it was for their growth) made the chore a defeating effort washing away each evening then baking dry each morning.
Alas, I dropped a few mouse traps between the rows and have sent the meal bill to at least one rodent this week.
But where there is one mouse…