Mystery solved.....

Our garden is in a sad state this summer..... although we had everything in the ground relatively early, the cool spring and summer have teamed up to make our garden and it's produce at least a month behind. For several weeks in the last month, we have had night time temperatures in the 40s. I guess that is good for sleeping, but not so good for gardening. Our corn is just tasseling, the beans are just climbing, the cucumbers and squash just blooming, the pumpkins not even beginning to grow....

Here is what our tomato plants are doing right now....
the biggest tomato I have found is about the diameter of a dime.
(Have you ever noticed how hairy tomato plants are?)
It really is so sad considering that in a month, we could very easily have our first frost...
I had plans for salsa making and tomato saucing....

If it's any consolation, most of the other gardens I see as I drive around are in the same sad state. I wonder if these people feel as badly as I do?
I still weed the garden and water it and spread the grass clippings out in it.... but it is almost depressing to go walking around within the garden enclosure.... because I know that fall is coming all too quickly.... and I seriously doubt we will have much from our garden before then.

We did have the promise of a good strawberry crop early on, but the lush sweet berries just didn't materialize.
I couldn't understand.... the smothered look to the strawberry plants.... the lack of sweet, red, beauties... even the absence of white berries ripening.....

.... until now. I finally understand.
What I was missing was the black masked garden robber... the strawberry bandit that came stealthily at night and swiped all the sweet red goodness away....
But never fear, the notorious masked bandit made bail this morning in a far part of the county.
It's a good thing that the mystery is solved because the raspberries are just coming on....