It stormed here Sunday night. We were under a tornado watch for most of the night. About 9 p.m., pea-sized hail started falling.
Yesterday at lunch time, The Husband texted me, "Have you checked the tomato plants?"
It was odd that he would ask me a question about the garden, for that usually results in my enlisting his help with some chore, so he rarely brings up the subject unprovoked. I figured that he'd heard a bad report from Nanny. It turned out that a co-worker had said that the hail had beaten down their squash plants. I said I'd walk down to the garden to check on our stuff.
I put on some shoes and stepped out the door. When I rounded the corner of the house, the cold wind sent me back in the house until later in the day. Our tomatoes mostly looked okay. I'd planted them deep, with just their tops sticking out of the ground, so there wasn't much danger of being broken by the hail. A couple of the plants had a leaf stuck to the soil. When I stepped into the row to un-stick them, my foot sank up to the ankle in mud. It's a good thing my crocs were "locked and loaded" or I'd have lost one in the mud. We're supposed to get more storms in the next couple of days, so whatever I might have done for the plants yesterday would probably get un-done tomorrow.
The weather app on my phone is predicting temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s for early next week. When I planted the tomatoes, I imagined that I would cover them with plastic shopping bags if we were to get a frost. But the weather man says we may get 8"-10" of rain with the new round of storms, and the garden soil will be like quicksand for days afterward. I might rather re-plant than try to salvage those that are already in the ground.
It was heartening to see that the onion sets are sprouting. The broccoli looks happy. Didn't see a sign of the kohlrabi I planted from seeds. I'm not sure I'll recognize it when/if it comes up.
Yesterday I planted some sweet peas (the ornamental kind). The planting instructions said to scarify the seeds, then soak them in water overnight. I scrubbed them on sandpaper and soaked them and planted them in pots. The blasted things had better sprout; I paid a ridiculous amount for 10 seeds.
Our hiller/hipper/row-maker is supposed to arrive today. I hope to catch the delivery truck before the driver unloads it to ask him/her to unload it at Nanny's, where the tractor and garden are. It'll probably be more than a week before the ground dries up enough to use it.
Granddaughter #3's quilt is progressing slowly. I work on it every day for a few minutes at a time, until my hand goes numb from pinching the needle. It's a learn-as-I-go situation. If I were making this quilt for myself, I'd probably have given up before the embroidery was done. But, you know . . . grandchildren.
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