Tomatoes

On Thursday, Mr. Charles came with his tractor and tiller and finished preparing the garden plots. Nanny said that, at one point, she looked out the window and saw the tractor slowly rolling down the hill without Mr. Charles on it. She nearly had a conniption fit, thinking that he'd fallen off the tractor. She ran outside and was relieved to spot Mr. Charles standing at the top of the hill, watching as the tractor slowly rolled to a stop. It seems that he'd gotten off the tractor at the end of the driveway to pick up Pop-Pop's newspaper and had not set the brake. (Do tractors even have parking brakes?) Fortunately, the tractor came to a stop long before reaching the creek at the bottom of the hill.

Friday afternoon, I went to the greenhouse and bought 108 tomato plants. After setting out about 1/3 of them that very afternoon, Pop-Pop informed me that the Almanac said to plant tomatoes on Saturday or Sunday. I gladly dropped my shovel for the day, and resumed the job on Saturday morning. We'll see if the Saturday tomatoes do better than the Friday tomatoes.

I am stiff as a poker today, but there are about 18 empty rows waiting to be planted in the other garden plot. I'm going to get to it as soon as my joints "loosen up" a little. Nanny has already planted squash and okra. Today I intend to plant cucumbers, butterbeans, and green beans.

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