Garden Plans - April 22, 2020

When it comes to productivity, I was nearly as worthless as teats on a boar hog yesterday.

Did some research for my book.  Watched the wrens add material to their nest.  That was about it for the morning, except for a bunch of pondering.

After lunch, I went to the local garden center to buy seeds and garden plants.  I am a little worried that this country is about to face something of a food shortage.  This has been apparent since the first coronavirus restrictions.  The grocery stores do not look like they used to look.  Shelves are empty in some places.  I've never seen this. 

In the 20+ years that I have tried to raise a vegetable garden, I have often thought that we would have starved if we'd had to depend on what I grew to sustain us.  Last year, I didn't even try to have a garden.  For a few years before that, the plants lived, but did not produce much.  Maybe it's because I've grown older, and less energetic, and less willing to expend the energy necessary for successful gardening, but for the past few years, I have wasted my time trying to grow vegetables.  I'm going to have to do better. 

So. 

I bought seeds for green beans, purple hull peas, okra, cucumbers, yellow squash, and zucchini.  These are things that have (occasionally) grown well here in the past.  I also got 12 tomato plants, 6 cayenne peppers, and 6 pimiento peppers. 

I asked The Son to drag the tiller out of the shed and see if he can get it to crank.  I'm not sure if he did it, but I will ride his *ss until he does.  ;)  It's too wet to plow right now, but I want to be ready when the ground is right.  I hope I can keep these greenhouse plants alive until then.

I made a pass through the little locally-owned grocery store up the road from the greenhouse.  They had some nice-looking hamburger patties, and I picked up some to grill for dinner. 

My mother-in-law kept The Grandson mostly occupied yesterday by talking him into helping her in her yard.  He came home around 5 o'clock and said he was in the mood to go fishing on the pond.  We couldn't find a usable fishing pole in the shed, so I took him to the old store up the road that sells everything from bologna sandwiches (made to order, not wrapped up in foil under a heat lamp) to crickets.  They had fishing poles.  We bought two of them and came home and dug worms from the yard, and tromped through the leaves and poison ivy and mud to get to the pond.   He went to one side of the pond, I went to the other.  After about 5 minutes, I caught a bass, just a bit bigger than my hand.  He came around to my side, fished for another 2 minutes or so, and said, "Grandmama, I might not have the patience for fishing."  We twisted our line around our poles and came to the house.

The Husband was home by then, and he saw that I'd taken the cover off the grill and placed the charcoal nearby.  He fired up the grill, and we had hamburgers and french fries for dinner. 

So, what am I going to do today?  I'll let you know tomorrow.  ;)