Saturday, June 16, 2012

Squashed to Death

We've been on vacation all week, got home yesterday evening.  I was anxious to see how the garden was doing, but was too tired to aim myself in that direction.  The first thing after breakfast this morning, I went to have a look.

Gah!  I couldn't believe how much it has grown! 

When I left, the corn was barely shoulder-high; now, it is far above my head, and tasslin' and silkin'!  I set out some sonic pest inhibitors at the ends of the corn rows, aiming them toward the woods behind the garden, hoping to annoy the raccoons enough that they won't bother the corn.  As smart as 'coons are, they'll probably plug their ears and move on in.

The tomato plants are out of control.  When the plants were small, I put tomato cages over them to hold the main stalk upright, but I have not been stuffing the limbs up through the mesh, and the limbs are now trailing all over the ground.  There are no longer any "middles" in those rows.  We've picked a few ripe tomatoes, already.  So has the turtle. 

The squash and cucumbers are in high gear.  We can't give away one picking of squash before it needs picking again!  I'll be starting a batch of cucumber pickles tomorrow.

The little black tiller came home today.  He'd been at my son's house since early spring.  Seeing how much the garden has grown - it's now too "close" for the big tiller - I demanded Little Black's return.  The minute he came home, I took him to the garden and cranked him up.  He is such a good weeder.  I've missed him so!

I had to cut my tilling short when I noticed blight on one of the tomato plants and had to stop to spray fungicide.  Yeah, I hate the stuff, too, but what else can I do?  This property apparently hosts every strain of blight known to man, and probably a morphed strain or two that's not even in the textbooks. 

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