More Whining

Lord-have-mercy-JESUS, it is hot.

I went to the tomato patch about 6 p.m. today to see how things are doing. This hot, dry weather seems to be slowing down the blight and fungus, but after more than a week of near-100-degree days, the tomatoes appear to be cooking on the vines. This circumstance is doubtlessly aggravated by my having cut so many blight-y leaves off the plants that they're almost naked.

The cucumber vines had 5 good-sized cukes on them, and a whole bunch more babies coming along. Thinking that Pop-Pop might enjoy some cucumbers & onions in vinegar, I picked the big ones, hopped on my bicycle, and delivered them to him.

While I was there, Nanny said that she'd been out in the garden in the early mornings, pulling weeds and chopping grass in the bean rows, but hadn't gotten far. As she has no business out there in this heat, I fired up the little tiller to finish the job. Two and a half hours later, when it grew too dark to see what I was doing, I quit for the day. I barely had enough energy left to straddle the bike and ride it home.

The garden looks far better, though. And as I was laying the bean plants over so that I could run the tiller close to them, I was encouraged to see loads of pods hanging on most of the vines. The green beans are being persnickety and not producing much. Tomorrow, I'm going to fertilize them and give them a good soaking with the water hose to see if I can nudge them into action.

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