The Garden

George likes to do garden patrol when his human, Emma, is working there.  He doesn’t like to eat vegetables, but he loves to catch the critters, like grasshoppers or crickets, who might damage Emma’s plants.  He’ll also stalk rabbits, mice, or gophers who try to snack on the vegetables when Emma isn’t watching.

One of his favorite things to do is to climb on Emma’s lap while she’s working.  This gives him a better view of any critters that might be hiding under the plants, but for some reason Emma doesn’t seem to appreciate this.

George is on patrol.

Deer and raccoons also try to eat vegetables from Emma’s garden, but George isn’t quite big enough to chase them off.  Emma puts up an electric fence that keeps the bigger critters out.  If an animal touches the fence when it is on, the animal will get enough of an electric shock to scare it away.

This electric fence is to keep deer out of the corn.

Emma grows a lot of different vegetables in her garden.  Some of her favorites include green beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, and broccoli.  She also has a strawberry bed and some raspberry bushes.  After her garden is planted in the spring, she spends time out there almost every day to weed, water, or harvest.  She doesn’t eat everything she harvests immediately.  She will freeze, can, or dehydrate most of what she picks so that she and Ted still have vegetables to eat during the winter when it’s too cold for plants to grow in the garden.

These jars of green (and purple) beans will be processed in a pressure canner so that they can be saved to eat during the winter.

Even though Emma doesn’t spend much time out in the garden during the winter, George still likes to patrol there.  It’s always the perfect place to find a rabbit or mouse!