Feral Feline Madness!

I started a garden a few weeks ago.

Or at least what I like to call a garden.

For those who know me, they know I have a brown thumb, maybe even darker, like a black thumb... the garden thumb of death... I can kill anything growing in the ground or dirt. Its a gift... Ok fine, its a curse!

So as a homeschooling project, I allowed my kids to help me plant these packets of seeds I found.  I bought this garden starting kit about 4 years ago as a school fundraiser.  I never actually expected them to sprout. Seriously.

We took our time and planted them by following the directions. YES - I needed directions to plant seeds. Be quiet!

And we watered them. And waited, watered and waited. And HOLY COW! I saw a sproutlet!!!
And then another!

It was the zucchini.. we all got super excited! We allowed it to get a little bigger before we replanted it into a bigger bucket... I was so excited - I nursed those babies til they got even bigger! As I was preparing the new pot to plant them in, Eli decided to rip the leaves off of one set of the zucchini plant... DANG IT!!

I replanted it anyways, but it isnt growing as healthy as the other one... Not sure if it will produce anything, but I am still watering it!!

The top one is thriving, the bottom one is the one Eli shredded...

I also noticed the other seeds sprouting! A week after the zucchini! We had green peppers, eggplant and tomatoes and cucumbers! I waited for them to get just a bit bigger and stronger before replanting...

I replanted them a few days ago.

And then it happened...

I came home from an errand ( getting free paint from the Swap Shop at the local dump.) and I headed over to weed and water my plants... Something dug into them and the seedlings were destroyed! I also noticed a large amount of huge flies... The same flies that swarmed my sons poo, when he pooped outside of the pool the other day... something used my garden as a litter box. THE CATS!!!!  We have these pesky neighborhood cats who hate me, no seriously they do...

I dug out the cat dookie and tried to dig thru the soil to salvage any seedlings and sproutlets...

I lost 6, but salvaged 6... the eggplant is gone, the peppers only have one and I think I lost all the cucumber....

ARG! I was so upset. Because I cant grow anything, and here I was growing SOMETHING! And it was all gone, three weeks of hard work, gone. I was so sad...

So I went online and asked a few friends what on earth I could do to keep these pests away.. I was suggested to put ka bob skewers in the dirt sticking up so the cats cant walk thru, then suggested I put some wiring down, so they cant dig and then toss citrus peels all over cuz cats hate citrus....

I did all three....

I havent been out there yet today, frankly - I am afraid... 

I was getting excited about growing something myself! I am not really *that* girl... but it felt good! I felt accomplished. And those cats squashed my dream!

Hopefully I can manage to at least produce one veggie! Just one! That would be vengeance enough!

I also started out a new set of seeds - with more tomato, lettuce, cucumber and carrots... here is to hoping those will sprout as well... 

I know the boys really enjoy helping me garden so it would be great for them to enjoy the fruits of their labor... see what I did there? Ha!