Rain's a-comin' - August 27, 2020

 

The four brussels sprouts plants and the six broccoli plants have been sitting on my front porch steps for several days now, waiting for the garden soil to dry up enough to plant them.  Since we are expected to receive rain from hurricane Laura, I zoomed straight home after work, put on my boots, and went to the garden.

It is wetter down there today than it was yesterday.  Evidently, we had a little shower while I was at work.

I planted the broccoli and brussels sprouts, anyway, for it's going to get even wetter, and I doubt I can keep those little plants alive for much longer.

I threatened to pull up some of the squash vines today, but didn't.  Some of them are turning yellow but, bless their hearts, they're still blooming and some are even putting out new growth, and I hate to kill them with them trying so hard.  

(If I were a superstitious person, I might wonder if this year's bumper-crop garden is a sign of an early, bad winter on the way.  I wouldn't be surprised by a blizzard in Florida before 2020 ends, would you?)

The garden's getting a little grassy, especially in the rows where I planted seeds, where I haven't hoed and treaded.  

The poor tomatoes.  They, too, are trying hard - just loaded with fruit - but blight is rampant.  I've been trimming off blighted leaves and spraying with neem oil, but every few days it rains enough to wash off the oil.  

The butterbean rows are fast turning into a butterbean patch.  These were labeled as bush beans, but I'm beginning to wonder if that's true.  Haven't seen any blooms, yet.

Yesterday at work, one of my co-workers asked if I had any okra to give away, and said she'd trade me a dozen eggs (she has 5 chickens) for some okra.  I didn't make her any promises about the okra.  We had cut it the previous evening.  Just as we were finishing, Nanny came out and said she wanted to make some pickled okra before the okra runs out.  We went back down the rows and cut the smaller ones we'd left to grow, and handed the pickin' sack over to Nanny.  I was doubtful that there'd be enough okra for a meal.  As it turned out, there was enough.  We'd also picked the squash pretty closely, expecting rain, figuring that anything we didn't pick that night would be too big by the time the garden dries up enough to pick again.  We sent the squash with the okra.

And, still, if I had a hankering for squash for supper, I could pick enough for a meal today.