Garden Plants Destroyed, House Construction Update

Early last week I was watering plants along the edge of the galeron and noticed that an animal had dug many small holes all along the planting area. The soil in this area tends to be pretty hard so the holes weren’t deep. The animal mostly moved the mulch and dug down an inch or so. At first I thought it was Roxy burying a bone, but there were way too many holes so I ruled that out. After I water along the galeron I move to two adjacent garden beds. These two beds are my experimental, completely outdoors and exposed to the elements beds. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Many of the plants had been uprooted and laid on their sides. There were many, many holes but this time much deeper because this soil is very loose.  Among other things, I had been nurturing okra seedlings, which were doing very well until the critter dug most of them up.

I called Mario over and he said the culprit was either an armadillo or an anteater. I carefully re-planted the plants and tried to save as many of the okra seedlings as I could. The next morning the garden was dug up again, this time causing more damage to other plants. Now action needed to be taken. Mario and John moved an old chicken wire fence and secured it around this area. The unwelcome visitor hasn’t been able to return and the plants are recovering.

We hired a person to bring a portable saw to our place to cut the wood we reclaimed two years ago from our property. He cut many pieces each two inches thick. They will be stacked one on top of another for two of the internal walls in our house. I was pleased to see that the wood had dried nicely and there was no new insect damage. The work crew is now sanding the wood and getting it ready for staining and varnishing.

House construction continues to move along. Last week they finished installing all of the paving stones for the patio and walkways around the edges of the house. Windows, doors, gutters, paint and plumbing fixtures are the main items left to finish.