If you read this column with any regularity, you might think that life in the garden on Trout Lily Lane is all sweetness and light, colorful flowers in every view and sweet perfect vegetables on the table each night.

But you'd be wrong. Truth is, life in our garden is like anywhere else. We spin in a fine dance, trying to manipulate nature and bend her to our will, but we often lose the contest. Flea beetles are riddling the eggplants with pin holes. Cabbage loopers are devouring the kale and bok choy. And it's just a matter of time before the squash bugs set in and we have to start searching for hornworms and Japanese beetles. And that's just the insects.

Several years ago we invested in a fence that surrounds our whole yard and keeps the deer out. It was worth every hour and penny we spent to have a yard where not only vegetables, but camellias, azaleas, day lilies, phlox and hosta can grow undamaged by the munching of our white-tailed neighbors. Intrusion by smaller animals is harder to stop. I don't even try to grow corn anymore. It's not worth the heartache; the raccoons always get to it first.

Squirrels have eaten every fruit off the peach tree and started in on the blueberries. Rabbits are whittling away at a variety of small plants in the flower garden; luckily, a second fence keeps them out of the vegetable patch. The groundhog has managed to find a way in however, and he topped all the lettuce and the bush beans and pretty much finished off what was left of the kale.

The first planting of cucumbers, winter squash and melons failed as a result of the cool weather and I had to plant them again. We've had lots of rain this season, so newly planted trees and shrubs that have struggled since the drought are finally having a good season and putting on new growth and size. On the flip side, the weeds are growing like mad and the slugs are having a party. It looks like we brought nut grass in with some of our mulch and so now we have a new invader to deal with.

I've set out jar lids filled with beer to trap slugs and sprinkled rotenone powder on the eggplants and Bacillus Thuriengensis (BT) on the bok choy. The kale, I added to the compost heap -- I couldn't stand to look at it anymore! We've got the .22 rifle waiting by the back door to dispatch the wily ground hog.

Despite it all, we still had a great crop of asparagus and peas and are moving into beets, chard, beans and squash as the summer comes on in earnest. The battle against bugs and beasts never ends, but I think we are at least running neck and neck.

Maria Hitt writes, cooks, gardens and studies nature in the countryside near Carrboro. You can write to her at mkhitt@bellsouth.net or visit her blog, morgancreekchronicles.blogspot.com.