A couple of years ago, Uncle Jack told me that he always plants his turnip greens in the middle of September.
Well, today is smack dab in the middle of September, so I went to the garden, intending to pull up the grass in the designated greens patch, till up the soil, and scatter the seeds.
It didn't happen. The ground is too wet to be tilled.
I pulled up a big wagon load of grass, though. After that, the top couple inches of dirt would have been loose enough to trap a turnip seed, except that I tramped it down with my boots as I worked my way across the patch. If it doesn't rain tonight, I might get out there tomorrow with a rake and scuff up the soil enough to catch the seeds.
I could not believe how many worms I discovered. Not earthworms. Green worms. Brown worms. Gray worms. Little curled-up c-shaped things. In my mind, I heard my mother say, "Pinch it in two," as she said to me one day when I pulled a big juicy green worm off a tomato plant in her flower bed. First of all, I can't stand to touch the things longer than it takes to un-velcro them from the tomato leaves. They squirm something awful. Secondly, I know what's inside that worm. It's bad enough to step on them. No way I'm going to pinch one in two bare-handed.
But today, I was wearing my gloves. I must've pinched/squished 50 of them. They seemed to be right on top of the ground, not in the soil. Or maybe I tossed them on top of the soil as I shook the dirt off the grass roots.
The greens patch is where the cucumbers were, but I've seen those little worms all over the garden. I sure hope I've made a dent in next year's crop of tomato worms, if that's what they are. Or maybe they're cabbage worms. They'll be eating my cabbage, broccoli and brussells sprouts soon, won't they?
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