The Cucumber Experiment

I'm posting this early as I have to drive across town to to donate my semi-annual pound of flesh to the dermatologist. I have also taken a picture of a worrying looking lesion on John's arm and will ask her if she could offer an opinion on it. He has an appointment in a couple of weeks but as he will be a new patient, she knows nothing about him. Whatever I decide to do, she will probably be running late as the appointment is at the end of the day and she does tend to like to talk. This is good if I am the one she's talking to, not so good if I am waiting for her to finish talking to someone else. I will be patient as it is better than feeling like I am part of an assembly line....

We decided to plant cucumbers on the fire garden fence as a fast growing vine that could be replaced by something more permanent if we liked the more filtered view. My garden expert friend recommended planting marigolds to discourage roaming rodents from eating the cucumbers,  so John planted marigolds around both plants.

The ground squirrels ate the marigolds around the plant on the right, but left the plant alone. They ate the plant on the left, but didn't touch the marigolds. John replanted a new one behind the marigolds. Neither plant is thriving in the heat, but  both plants are getting cucumbers.

The only thing we learned from that experiment is that the only thing that thrives in the heat is the ground squirrels....Persistence is the only defense.

They have set up a road block with flaggers on Los Alamos road behind our house. I can hear the steady stream of dumps toiling up the hill but I'm not sure where they are taking their loads. We drove quite a way up and saw very little sign of road work.

Which reminds me...I should be off as roadworks all over town are causing unanticipated delays....