We've been away on a trip for a few days, and the first thing I did yesterday afternoon when we got home was to walk across the road and check on the early garden. During the few days that I was gone, everything grew like crazy, including the grass in the middles. Some of the tomatoes plants have small green tomatoes on them. AND - [sound the fanfare] - the sweet peas that were blooming when I left now have fat pods on them. Wahoooooo! Sweet peas! But the worms are after my cabbages, broccoli, and brussels sprouts.
I decided that I'd better drag out the little black plow and do some weeding today. Thinking that I ought to assess both gardens to see how much work was in store, I went down to Nanny's to check out the big garden before I left for work.
The squash is doing fine, and the flowers we planted in the front row are growing nicely. But we've lost all but about a dozen of the tomato plants to the rain, and the purple hull peas are thinking they've had about all the water they want for a while. The grass is loving it, though; the middles are solid green and desperately need weeding, but it's too wet to work the soil. I'm not even going to show a picture of this garden until it looks a little better.
In my absence, Pop-Pop put a blade on the tractor and dug a ditch from the center of the big garden to the edge of the woods to create a drain for the water. (I bet Nanny about had a fit when he dug that trench across their back yard.) He also pushed some dirt around from the high spots to the low ones. Thank goodness we hadn't planted anything in that part of the garden, yet.
After work today, I fired up the tiller and did the weeding, then I put cages around the 9 tomato plants in the early garden. I smashed some worms on the cruciferous veggies, and planted a couple of hills of yellow squash and one hill of cantaloupes. The squash and cantaloupe seeds I found are about 10 years old; let's see if a gardening miracle will happen. If not, I'll be looking for fresh seeds in about a week.
As I was tilling, I noticed that one of the tines was not rotating. I shut off the engine and tipped it over to un-wind the grass from around it, and discovered that the pin is missing from the tine. I looked around for it, but didn't find it, so after I finished my gardening chores, I took the tiller to Pop-Pop. He said that he has a pin, and will get around to fixing the tine in a day or two. Maybe by then the big garden will be dry enough to work.
While I was shooting the bull with Pop-Pop, Nanny came out of the house and joined us in the shed. She asked if there was any gas for the lawn-mower. Pop-Pop said he was just about to fill the tank and start mowing.
"Oh, not TODAY," she said. "It'll be all grown up again by Saturday."
"What's Saturday?" he asked.
"Just Saturday," she said, meaning there was no special event, no reason why the yard needed to look particularly nice that day. "But it'll be all grown up again by then."
"Well, if I wait until Saturday to mow, the grass will be knee deep." He climbed onto the lawn-mower and reached down to crank it. I decided it was time for me to make my exit.
"Don't you want to hang around for the rest of the argument?" Nanny asked me as I started toward the driveway.
"No, ma'am, I know how it'll end."
About that time, the lawn-mower engine fired up. Just as I had expected. ;)
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