Thievery

Every time there is a promising cucumber that will be perfect for the picking in another day, it's gone before it has a chance.  This was the case last year with my eggplants.

There's a plot next to mine that's also growing cukes but don't have theirs climbing sticks - theirs are just on the ground, growing in weird shapes.  They seem to be left alone.  All of mine that are the best and visible get snipped away.  Frustrated, I wrote a post on my gardening club's message board asking if anyone else experienced vegetable theft.  I said I hate to think it but it's either that or those squirrels are damn good with scissors.

The one reply I got was short and dismissive.  The writer said I'd be surprised how razor sharp claws are and how critters dug up someone else's bulbs so cleanly that it looked like a human did it with a trowel.  Oh really?  I didn't know critters could weed too.  Let me explain.

The weed situation is out of control in my corner of the garden.  We weeded diligently in the beginning but my mother realized she should leave it alone because the tall weeds on the side of the cucumbers worked as camouflage and hid the good cucumbers growing.  For a while it was working, until one day she noticed someone had cleared all the weeds on that side of the garden and also helped themselves to the best of my cucumbers.  The dismissive lady's suggestion: "I don't know what to tell you except look into wire netting?"  Yeah right.

In other news, I'm wondering if I should move this blog to Posterous.  It seems easier to maintain and I hate the fact that I am no longer able to post photos easily as I once had through flickr.  Now if I want to post a photo I have to use Picasa and it sucks.  Why did flickr get rid of its jpg link?  I don't know what the technical term for it is but it no longer lets me post photos here directly from it.  Since I'm on a different computer and don't have the photos on my hard drive, I have to download it from flickr then upload to Picasa then download it here.  Ugh.  It's so inconvenient.  Posterous, here I come.  Maybe.  I have to look into it more.