Garden woes are off to an early start

I accept the fact that gardening in the Flathead - and more specifically in rural Whitefish - is a full-on contact sport with Mother Nature, a test of endurance that will challenge even the most stalwart men and women.

What I can't accept is defeat.

And so I shoulder on, battling the weather, the rodents, cats and deer, the persistent weeds, in hope of some fair share of produce at summer's end. It's not easy.

Mindful of last year's trouble 'some of you will remember the Great Tomato Fiasco of 2008 when I had to rip up my tomato beds and garden fence so the well driller could reach the wellhead and replace the pump) I began this year's garden with some trepidation.

As we were putting the fence back up this spring, my husband noticed that something had dug up the far end of our strawberry patch.

"That looks like a set of antlers," he declared as I walked closer to the odd-looking protrusion in the soil (and noticed strawberry plants dug up and withering away).

I pulled the antlers out of the dirt, only to find it was an entire, rotting deer head.

"What the??….ewwwww, gross," I shouted, hurling the head as far away as I could.

We decided it was either a coyote or a dog that had put it there, and since the 8-foot-high fence is back in place, no more rotting carcasses. But was this deer head some ominous foreshadowing of things to come?

I got an early start on planting this year, and I've already replanted my green beans because somehow most of the seeds disappeared the first time around. Is it possible that birds can swoop in and pluck buried seeds out of the soil? I dug around for the sprouted seeds and couldn't find them. If anyone has insight into this mystery, I'd like to know.

The latest plague on my plot is voles. I noticed piles of dirt around some of my tomato plants and a co-worker told me that's the telltale evidence of the stout little rodents that can ravage plant roots.

"They're almost impossible to get rid of," she warned.

Great. One more thing to deal with.

We picked up some vole repellent at Hooper's last weekend and we'll see how well it works.

On to more garden woes.

As I was wandering through the Whitefish Farmers Market a couple of Thursdays ago, I stopped to say hi to Mike Jopek at the Purple Frog Gardens produce stand. His parting words: "Remember, the first weekend in June is usually when we get the last frost."

Of course I already knew this. I'd been burned before and had to replant flowers and other things that got nipped by a June frost. But it didn't stop me from planting my tomatoes. And while I was in Minnesota over Memorial Day, my husband got carried away planting a variety of peppers.

Mike's forewarning came to bear last Sunday morning, and I could have kicked myself when we realized most of the peppers had frozen. Strangely, only a couple of tomato plants seemed to have been hit. More frost descended upon our low-lying garden early Tuesday morning.

It's too early in the season to feel this defeated about gardening. But at this point I'm fully expecting locusts to swoop down in biblical proportions and consume the entire expanse just as it's ready to harvest.

Gluttons for punishment? Perhaps.

All I really want is a bundle of juicy, red tomatoes at summer's end. Is that too much to ask? Mother Nature apparently thinks so.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com