Life, Death and Ratatouille

It's been quite a week in the garden.  Exciting news: last week, I enjoyed my first tomato sandwich with ripe tomatoes straight from the garden:

on my homemade squash bread:

And a dab of light mayo, salt and pepper:

A few days later, I got a slightly larger harvest of tomatoes, along with a green pepper, parsley, oregano, basil ...

 A couple of zucchini and a mystery squash.

I decided it was just enough for a side dish of ratatouille, to go along with the chicken Parmesan that the MOTH was making for dinner that night.  I sauteed some onion, garlic, along with the green pepper:

Then I added the zucchini and squash and sauteed that for a while:

I pureed the tomatoes, and added them to the saute along with the parsley, oregano and basil:

And let it simmer for a while until all the flavors had melded:

It was really delicious.

As you know, I wasn't entirely happy with the squash bread (made from the mystery squash), so this morning I harvested a few more squash and made some banana-squash bread and muffins:

Sadly, while harvesting the squash, it became clear to me that the garden had experienced some serious casualties.  As I previously reported, the zucchini plant had been attacked by some kind of insect (squash borer maybe), which basically chewed through the vines.  I tried to save it, but evidently, the infestation was too great and the zucchini had become completely separated from its roots.  Also, the infestation had spread to the mystery squash plant.  Today, I spent several hours removing the zucchini and cutting out the affected areas of the squash.  Here is a photo of the utterly revolting culprits and some of the devastation they have wrought:

Piece of Zucchini vine with disgusting murderous attacker

Close-up of the culprit

I found dozens of these nasty monsters throughout the both the Zucchini and the Squash plants.  I dug them out of the vines and shmooshed every single one of them I could find - they made a horrible popping sound (or maybe I just imagined the sound, but it was definitely a popping sensation), which was actually more disgusting than satisfying.  Each time I came across another one as I went through my poor plants, I literally shuddered and said things like "oh my god, ahhhh!" out loud.  It was the most disgusting day in the garden by far!

In the end, I salvaged one last zucchini and a few remaining squash and squash blossoms:

The Zucchini plant is completely dead and has been removed.  I also removed most of the squash plant, but left two vines that might stand a chance of surviving.  We will see.

In addition to the last of the zucchini harvest and what may well be the last of the squash harvest, I also harvested a bunch of basil (which I will puree and freeze for future use):

In addition, I spent several hours pruning and tying up the tomato plants, which are growing like crazy in this heat and have started to tip over again.  I ended up pruning off several branches of tiny green tomatoes, so I'm going to see if I can find some recipe to use those in:

As well as a bunch of ripe tomatoes - a combination of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes and Early Treat Hybrid tomatoes:

Still pondering what to make with today's harvest.

Varmit!!!!

Further Update (7/15/12):

The Moth read on-line that you can deter groundhogs by placing objects that look like predators (like owl statues) in and around the garden.  We didn't really feel like buying an owl statute, so the Moth decided to make his own scary looking predator and put it in front of the squash:

"I will kill you Groundhog!!!!"

I have also sprayed the leaves with hot pepper spray and bought some capsicum-based powder to spread around the area, both of which are supposed to deter critters from eating your plants.  Apparently, groundhogs don't like spicy food.
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Update (7/14/12 - afternoon): 

Later in the afternoon, the groundhog came by again, but our neighbor's kitty was hanging out by the garden.  They got into a staring match until groundhog gave up and ran away.

Good Pippi

The Moth got a photo of her out the living room window, just after she scared off the groundhog.  She is actually a really sweet friendly cat who visits me a lot when I am gardening.  Since our cats don't go outside, it's kind of nice to have a feline gardening companion.  I just worry about her crossing the street from our neighbors house, so I always tell her to be careful and look both ways.

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There has been a sneaky groundhog munching on my the leaves of my squash plant.  Fortunately, he doesn't actually eat the squashes, just the leaves.  But still, we don't want to encourage him.  Both the Moth and I have caught him in the act, but we barely get a glimpse before he's off like a shot - running like mad with his bushy little tail flapping behind him.  Usually, he still has a huge squash leaf hanging out of his mouth as he runs off.  He doesn't seem to touch anything else, but he sure finds those squash leaves tasty.

Today, the Moth finally got photographic evidence.  Here he is creeping over our neighbor's back wall:

Tentatively climbing over:

He then scampers diagonally across her yard and up to the squash plant, which is on the side yard between our houses.

He carefully makes his selection:

And CHOMP!

Hmmmm  ... maybe one of these:

Munch, munch, munch ...