How does your garden grow?

I have good news, and I have bad news.  Which one do you want first?

Good news it is.

I love happy accidents!!  Last year I planted broccoli raab on the enthusiasm and encouragement of my dear friend, Carol.  Before we could eat even one plant, the heat wave struck and it all bolted to yellow flowers.  I was devastated but didn't till them up.  

The other day I was tilling in the evening through the green bean patch and saw what looked like a bunch of wild mustard.  What?  Where did I get wild mustard?  Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of weeds, Canadian Thistle at the top of the hit list, but I don't have a problem with wild mustard.  So this puzzled me as a tilled.  

Tilling is wonderfully mindless task in which to ponder the appearance of a LOT of wild mustard in your green bean patch.  Until you hit a rock and it throws the tiller right into your solar plexus and you double over gasping for breath...

But that doesn't happen to me...it happened to a friend, yeah, that's right, a friend.

Then, it dawned on me that the broccoli raab had indeed gone to seed and had pleasantly reseeded itself where I had planted the green beans!  It's already forming little heads and we'll have some in a week or two!  I just LOVE happy accidents.

Provider green bean in the lower left corner, broccoli raab in the upper middle and right side.

Now, for the bad news.

Anyone recognize these tracks?  

If you guessed white tailed deer you would be correct.  But this is not a contest where you want to win.  No, siree.  This deer (coming and going, according to the tracks) has been frequenting my sweet corn patch.  I've never had this trouble before, but I guess she's desperate.  We're surrounded by GMO corn and the deer don't touch that stuff around here.  So they're all headed to my sweet corn.  (Which begs the question, if the deer won't eat it...should you?) 

Deer nibbles.  But this one was lucky, she left it in the ground!

There are a lot of corn plants missing out there with holes in the ground where she (or he, I should discriminate) have ripped the whole plant out!  And the damage isn't limited to the corn.  Oh no.  All the melons, pumpkins, and squash are gone as well.  Some tasty tidbit for Bambi and his parents.

We're leaving the corn that's there and planting another patch and replanting the melons, pumpkins and squash.  And we're hoping for a late frost...

My only consolation is that she'll be back this fall and I have a Hubby with a rifle and a gratis deer tag...