We saw the launch also. Very cool!

We just put tall metal fencing around our strawberries to protect against a racoon. Also have a camera trained on the so we can see if he shows up. He didn't last night but had cleaned out everything the night before. I have plastic spikey pads showing up tomorrow and next week to deploy around the strawberries.

Your potatoes look pretty good to me! mine are already flowering, seems very early. The dog found a small toad in the driveway tonight, I relocated him to live in potatoes and hopefully eat the grasshoppers.

I may be the first and only person in human history to kill chives. I had a beautiful little clump that I got from the swap last spring, but they didn't come back this year.

Everything looks so green and healthy. Way to go.

The community garden Is all planted, time to water this AM. Everything is up except for the cucumbers and the bush beans I just planted yesterday.

I will have trouble adjusting. The forum posts are upside down - zero gravity?

Laura, my garden isn't but a foot or two above the launch pad. Seed potatoes went in weeks ago but I noticed yesterday that all have only just now emerged. It won't be long before the chives flower but those were appreciated earlier with scrambled eggs, primarily. Lettuce probably wouldn't be big enough for salads but it's a moot point since the sparrows have trimmed it incessantly!

I have had sparrow loving neighbors constantly for about 10+ years. First, a neighbor built all of these birdhouses and covered a wall of her garage with them. She moved and left the birdhouses for the next resident who set up a birdfeeder. That neighbor moved away but another retired and became a dedicated bird feeder this winter/spring. All feed has been that common mix the sparrows and squirrels are so happy with.

My temporary hoophouse was pulled down last week with our first temperatures going into the 80's F. It was okay thing because the plastic film just might have blown off last night when a thunderstorm passed through! The beds in there provided many, many serving of stir-fry. My "diakon radish" look like a complete bust. The slugs were really hard on the leaves, rendering no harvest for that intended purpose. The secondary harvest of roots looks like a no-go. Some plants are trying to bolt while the roots are no larger than a French breakfast type. I'd hoped for a season-long harvest of leaves and shredded diakon for sandwiches by the end of the season.

I might be able to claim that the black slugs are an alien species if I knew more about these critters. Maybe they are baby leopard slugs - certainly have those but it's the little guys that were the most trouble. I'm hoping that direct sunlight will do them in now that the plastic film is off. Any chance that sparrows eat them?

Steve