in the rest of the garden-

Broccoli is struggling along. It keeps getting eaten by those green caterpillars that exactly match the hue of the leaves so I search and search and don't find them all. I think it's the larvae of the cabbage white butterfly. I keep picking off, but am always finding another one... I'm not sure if the plants will regain health enough to produce any heads. Somehow I lost a cucumber plant. Only have two now, and they have bloomed but remain quite small- I think the soil in these new beds is just not built up well enough yet.

The herbs seem to be doing okay in there- I've got more oregano, basil (three kinds!) and thyme than I can use. Wish I had more of the dill, green onions/chives and summer savory. I love those on eggs or fish, and keep eating it faster than the plants can keep up! Must sow more. (In the picture, cinnamon thai basil on the far left, sweet basil on the far right, dill just to the left and summer savory just to the right of the tree trunk). There's green onions or chives in that planter, too, but I've cut them so much to eat, you can't even see them anymore.

In the main garden bed, beets are looking grand.

So are the ferny carrots. I pulled up the bolting lettuce and planted a few young peppers in their spot.

In the back of it all are my borage. Some fell over in heavy rainstorms, but then ends of the stems turned and grew upright again. They're just starting to flower now, too. I haven't seen any bees visit yet...

I'm still trying to thwart whatever keeps digging in here. Applying cayenne pepper and coffee grounds on alternating weeks seemed to be mostly keeping the digger away, but I got really frustrated that my ginger pot kept getting dug up. When I found one of the ginger rhizomes laid bare I really got upset. I laid stones all over the pot, and now they are left alone. I only have to move a few stones when I want to dig up some ginger myself. I wonder now if it was a chipmunk? (I'd think a squirrel strong enough to move the stones if it wanted to, but maybe it would just move on looking for some easier spot. But I don't want to put rocks all over my garden bed, so this will only work for troublesome pots).