The Garden: Enemies Foreign and Domestic

I sometimes wonder why we even bother gardening. In addition to breaking our backs planting and weeding, we constantly battle enemies foreign and domestic which seem determined to destroy everything we try to grow, be it flowers, fruits, or vegetables.

The weather has been unkind this year. The spring began with a lovely warm spell, which encouraged the fruit trees, lilacs, and wisteria to blossom. Then, around Easter, we were attacked by several days of hard frost which destroyed all the young buds. April was indeed the cruelest month. Then we had a horrible heat wave in May, followed by a couple of cold weeks of torrential rains in June, complete with attacks of lightening and hail. Now we’re in the middle of a drought again. With its extreme fluctuations now commonplace, the weather is a foreign enemy we cannot control. Thank you, global warming.

We share our property with multiple enemies. The pigeons and other birds eat the seeds we have sown, snap the heads off tasty young sprouts, and poke holes in ripened tomatoes. The neighboring cats are not deterred by the walled garden and roam the grounds like they own the place, using our flower beds as litter boxes; although they much prefer eating small birds and mice, they nibble on the plants, with a particular fondness for parsley, which we have had a hard time growing this year; next year I should plant catnip to lure the cats away from our edibles. The resident red squirrels take more than their fair share of our walnuts, but I must admit I enjoy watching them chase each other in the trees. My most detested enemies are the little spiders which wreak havoc on the shrubbery and the legions of snails which eat more plants than the birds and cats combined. I spray the bushes for insects from time to time. Don’t ask me what I do when I come across a snail.

Laurent’s principal enemies this year are the wasps which attack his beloved grapes. He spends countless hours tending his grapevines: pruning, feeding, and reducing the number of clusters so the grapes harvested will be bigger and sweeter. Then the wasps begin going after the ripening fruit. Last year, we ended up with only a few bunches. This year he’s determined to keep the army of wasps at bay. He went online and found mesh bags with drawstrings designed to protect fruit and has bagged the best of the bunches — about 150 of them. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out, but so far he seems to be winning this battle. I see Waldorf Salad and grape juice in our future.

Why do we continue fighting enemies in the garden? For lunch I made a five-star tabbouleh with tomato, onion, green pepper, celery, parsley, and mint from the garden. And for dinner, we made a tarte flambée with our onions and garlic on top of the crême fraiche base, with a side salad of just-picked spinach. Today, at least, it’s worth the bother.