In other news, we still have peppers and tomatoes coming up in the garden. And the worms in the basement are already busy working on compost for next year's garden. We'll have some up close and personal photos of those slimy guys coming soon.
It was a pretty brutal reminder of why Richmond is sometimes called the "City of Seven Hills" (along with 44 other cities around the world. Way to be unique, rva).
Despite losing the crown, Jed ran like a true sportsmen, smiling all the way. He finished with a thumbs-up dedication to all of the urban farmers struggling to grow heirloom tomatoes in their back alley gardens.
Beloved roommate/corporate lawyer Sean doesn't need an urban garden as long as he can buy Private Selection Chocolate Lovers Chunk Cookies from Kroger. 
Afternoon: 2nd Annual Richmatic Adventure
Can't wait to turn these guys into pumpkin pies for the 5th Annual James River Fall Harvest Feast.
Yesterday I walked in the back gate and a flock of birds dispersed as I entered. Odd. I then looked down and saw what appeared to be the remains of a large number of sunflower seeds.
As I walked toward the house I noticed the source. Our friendly squirrel must have broken a mature sunflower off a sunflower in the adverse possession garden and carried it over the fence into the 2703 Urban Garden. Then for some reason the squirrel left the flower on the rail of our deck for the neighborhood birds to enjoy.
Never fear. This little guy will not be visiting your garden anytime soon. He has been locked away in the security of a Mason jar on our kitchen table until we determine the appropriate sentence for attempting to destroy our tomato crop.
The carnage is not over. Earlier this week Lane alerted me that the cayenne pepper that had been maturing on the plant for the last month and was just about to harvested was stolen. I thought it was probably Sean but Lane suspects it was our resident squirrel. Lane actually had an expletive laced rant about what he hoped this hot pepper was doing to the squirrel's digestive system. As a nice example of the circle of life, as you can see in this picture, right next to where our pepper had been growing a new pepper has sprouted. I'm going to keep my eye on Sean until this is harvested. Lane will be watching for the squirrel.
On top of all the damage caused by the birds, Sean and the squirrel the 2703 Urban Garden is also becoming a victim of it's own success. After surveying all the damage in the garden yesterday I noticed that the eggplant had fallen from the rail, glancing off the compost bin on the way down and finally came to rest on the ground on it's side. What could have caused this to happen? Nothing more than the massive eggplant that is growing on the plant of course. To my great relief the plant escaped any substantial damage and the eggplant will still be able to grace our plates at some dinner soon.
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