My compliments to the rabbit who ate the leaves on this violet by my patio. See how neatly they ate all the leaves down to the same level?

I don’t think I could have pruned it any better than that, though I would hope I wouldn’t leave the stems sticking up like that.

Regardless, the rabbit who did this is to be commended for being neat and orderly. They ate neatly and left no messes around for me to clean up.

Good table manners!

On the other hand, out in the vegetable garden cathedral, the raccoons have been leaving a mess of half-eaten big tomatoes for me to clean up almost every day. I think they’ve taken nearly every tomato growing within 18 inches of the ground and even worse, they’ve eaten just a few bites of each one before leaving the rest of the tomato on the path for me to find.

And I do find them. Then I toss them on the compost pile. I wonder if the raccoons climb up into the pile at night to enjoy those tomatoes? I think not. I think they like the ones still on the vine.

Fortunately, there are some tomatoes higher up that I don’t think they’ll be able to reach. Just as soon as those start to ripen, I’ll pick them and bring them inside to ripen the rest of the way so I’ll have a few to eat.

In other vegetable garden news, this summer I seem to have cucumbers that go from nearly ready to pick to “too big, yellow, overly ripe so nothing to do now but toss them on the compost pile with the half-eaten tomatoes” in a matter of hours. Hours, I tell you.

But I’ve had plenty of green beans to pick. And the squash plants keep producing even though they look pretty rough right now with dying leaves due to squash vine borers and powdery mildew.

And then there are the peppers. I’m picking as many as I want right now, and then some more, and yes, I do have jalapeño peppers!

Anyway, the rabbits don’t seem to be a problem in my garden, right now, and there are enough violets around here for them to eat as much of those as they want, especially with their good table manners!