Rain and Refrigerator Repairmen

Mother Nature blessed us with a much-needed rain, a good "soaker," last Sunday night.  It brought up the squash seeds I'd planted earlier in the week, along with a gazillion morning glories and a right smart stand of grass.  The ground is still too wet to work.  Yesterday, Nanny said she went to the garden to chop the grass away from the volunteer tomatoes, lost both of her shoes in the mud, and nearly fell on her butt trying to heave them out.  I guess I forgot to show her the secret "paths" that I'd purposefully left un-tilled just to prevent such occurrences. 

Speaking of the volunteer tomatoes, watching them is amazing.  They sprang up from last year's crop of mostly heirloom tomatoes - Bradley, Roma, Arkansas Traveler, and maybe Juliette, which I believe is a hybrid.  They've been dug amongst and dislodged - that is, we've given away plants and pulled up plants to thin the row.  They took a hit from a light frost in March and got blasted with tiller exhaust last week.  They haven't been fertilized.  Yet, they sit there amongst the spring weeds, a little discolored and stunted, their stems thick and already bearing fruit, while the store-bought tomatoes on the other side of the garden spend their time primping their foliage instead of thinking about blooming.  More are coming up every day.  So far, I can tell only that they will be round tomatoes and oval tomatoes.  In a perfect world, the big, meaty Bradley will have made its way over to a cute little Roma to give us big, tasty, oval offspring.  ;)

Likewise, the volunteer butterpeas and cucumbers are established and tough.  The butterpeas are growing on a row of clumpy ground that was plowed and disked but was never finely tilled.  The crop is at least as thick as it would have been if I had done the planting, maybe even thicker.  Only one or two cucumbers sprang up, and they may turn out to be squash-cumbers since their former neighbors were zucchini, but I bet they will eat just fine. 

The red lettuce that came up last fall and survived the winter is now beginning to bolt.  The plants sit among low-growing weeds on ground that was neither plowed nor tilled this year.  I'm going to let them go to seed again and see what next year brings.

It seems like every summer our refrigerator wants to cause trouble.  It has already started this year.  Last Saturday, water squirted out of the ice dispenser, which led to the discovery that the refrigerator wasn't cooling.  The Husband called the Sears repair hotline right away (the first available appointment was Tuesday, "between the hours of 8 and 5"  Here we go again...), and then we began the process of emptying the contents of the refrigerator into coolers (which, naturally, necessitated a trip to a store to get ice).  Later that afternoon, the refrigerator decided to start working again and was still working fine come Tuesday.  At 4:45, we received a recorded phone call saying that the refrigerator repairman might be late (no kidding?).  About an hour after that, we got a call from the repairman, himself, saying he was on his way.  I asked him, "Can you fix it if it ain't broke?  'Cause for now, it's working just fine."  He seemed relieved not to have to make the call, but - get this, for this is the best part - he gave me his name and his cell phone number so that I can call him directly if the refrigerator wimps out again.  Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa....this may prove more valuable than gold. 

Fences

Last year, Pop-Pop had one of The Nephews sink some metal fence posts in the ground around the garden.  They then strung a series of wires between the posts, and electrified it, and sat back to watch the executions. 

The electric fence didn't last long, but the posts still stand, unwilling to come out of the ground for anyone interested in getting them out of the ground.  Yesterday, I looked at them and decided to put some hog wire between a couple of them and grow something on it.  I was torn between planting gourds and butternut squash.  The squash won.

Lately, every time I think about butternut squash, I think about my brother. 

My brother moved out of the boonies and into the city in his early 20s to pursue a law career.  Now that he's semi-retired, he has moved to the semi-boonies and, for the past few years, has been trying his hand at vegetable gardening.  Far be it from me to tease him about his gardening skills.  He's doing right well, in fact.  But last year, during a summer cookout, he complained that his yellow squash plants were producing faulty fruits.  "They're all turning brown before they mature," he said.  "I've had to throw away every one of them."  I asked him to show me.

Um-hmmm...you guessed it; he'd planted butternut squash, not yellow squash.

Isn't it fun when really smart people do really dumb sh*t?  ;)

Re-Planted the Squash

It appeared that those first few squash plants that sprouted were the only ones that intended to sprout, so today I re-planted the row.  As I was arranging the dirt, I uncovered a few swollen seeds that had run out a tap root.  I just dropped a few new seeds around them and re-covered them.

The butterbeans and cucumbers are coming up.  The corn is, too - it's about 3" tall.  The tomatoes have begun to bloom, even those "volunteer" tomatoes that shivered through the "blackberry winter" we had a couple of weeks ago. 

Nearly every chunk of the potatoes we planted has sprouted.  It's funny that in every year when we've "babied" the potato seedlings, cutting them just so, letting them heal, planting them with cottonseed meal to prevent rotting, we've had a pitiful showing, yet this year's crop, which we hacked up and stuffed in the ground without ceremony, is doing great (so far). 

Two blackberry bushes came in the mail today.  I'd be out there planting them, except that it looks like it's fixin' to rain (which figures, since I watered the garden really, really well two days ago), and I've got supper going on the stove.  Since the blackberry bushes were The Husband's idea, I may let him do the honors after we eat, if this cloud passes over without favoring us with a shower.

About that promise....

Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to plant any more tomatoes, but I couldn't help it.  Nanny and I went to the greenhouse yesterday to get more bell pepper plants.  We had to pass right by the tomatoes to get to the peppers.  I saw "Lemon Boy" tomatoes and had to have some.  But I only bought 4 plants, so my promise isn't too badly compromised.

The greenhouse where we were shopping is "Anthony's Herb Farm."  It's a fairly small operation, but they have wonderful things, and the owners are wonderful people.  I first visited Anthony's about fifteen years ago, when I went to get a few plants to put around a fish pond I was intending to build.  At the time, I'd hurt my back and couldn't work, and The Husband and I were as poor as church mice; I only had about $10 to spend.  I asked Ms. Jean for advice on plants that would multiply or spread quickly, since I couldn't afford many plants.  I'd already chosen my $10 worth when Ms. Jean suggested "monkey grass."  When I told Ms. Jean that I simply didn't have any more money, she grabbed a shovel, dug up two big clumps of monkey grass from her own garden, and gave them to me for free.  I don't even remember what plants I bought that day.  All I remember is Ms. Jean's act of kindness. 

Anyway....

I came home, planted the peppers and tomatoes, and did a bit of maintenance in the garden.  I learned last year that the best way to keep blight under control is to start spraying fungicide before the blight appears, so I mixed up a sprayer-full of fungicide and doused all of the plants.  For good measure, I spent some time sitting in a lawn chair at the end of the squash row, willing the squash seeds to sprout.  (If they don't come up soon, I'll need to re-plant.)

After working in the vegetable garden, I came home and mowed the lawn.  It was dusty, and the wind was blowing hard, and I was covered with dust, grass, and leaf debris by the time I finished the weed-eating.  I came in and showered, washed my hair, and shaved my atrociously-hairy legs, then looked for some lotion to put on my poor, sun-and-wind-dried skin.  There was a tube of Dove "Daily Moisture" stuff in the bathroom cabinet, and I squirted a big blob onto my palm and applied it to my legs.  That one big blob did both legs, both arms, and my face, with plenty to spare.  Oddly, it wouldn't "soak in," and I had to wipe some of it off with my towel.  As I was putting the tube back into the cabinet, the word "Conditioner" flashed through my brain.  A better look at the tube revealed that, yes, indeed, I had smeared hair conditioner, not lotion, all over myself. 

Shoot, if I'd done that prior to shaving, I might not have had to shave at all.  ;) 

Cucumbers and Bradley Tomatoes

When I went to bed last night, my old bones were aching so badly from yesterday's garden madness that I could not sleep.  Finally, some time after midnight, I swallowed two Alleve, and managed to fall asleep soon thereafter.  Today, I was none worse for the wear.

At lunch, I bought 4 more tomato plants - Bradley tomatoes - and planted them when I got home.  I also planted a whole row of cucumbers, enough to pickle the entire county if they all come up.

I had about given up on the potatoes and squash I planted Easter Sunday, but it looks like there'll be at least some showing.  A couple of squash have poked their heads up, and there's a potato peeking out of that hole! 

Last year, I let a red lettuce plant go to seed.  The sprouts survived the mild winter and are thriving.

I read up on "companion planting" last night.  The article said to let the corn get 6" tall, and then plant beans and squash around the stalks.  I ordered "rattlesnake beans" last night to plant with the corn.  If the squash I planted on Easter comes up and does well, I think I'll plant zucchini around the corn.

With the exception of the rattlesnake beans and zucchini, and assuming that the seeds I planted yesterday actually sprout, I think this year's garden is officially "in."

Corn, Butterbeans, Tomatoes, Peppers, Carrots...

Whoooooweeee, I'm tired.  Tilled up 6 rows (3 passes each) and planted corn, butterbeans, carrots and onions.  Yeah, I know the carrots and onions should have gone in two months ago, but I didn't get to it, okay?  I don't know why I bothered planting the carrots, since not one of the two million carrot seeds I have planted in my garden in the past few years has germinated.  I don't know why I bothered with the corn, either, since the raccoons push it over every year as soon as the cobs begin to grow kernels.  But one continues to hope....

I am not having a zillion tomato plants this year, like I usually do.  Today, I set out 4 Arkansas Travelers, 2 Mr. Stripeys, and one "Mortgage Lifters."  We do have a bunch of volunteer Roma tomatoes that I will probably transplant to finish filling out one tomato row.  But that's it.  No more.  I promise.

Peppers - cayenne, jalapeno, and a long, sweet pepper (can't recall the name).  Need a couple more.

I'm going to try companion planting this year - green beans and squash with the corn.  I suppose the corn will need to sprout, first, and get established, before the beans and squash go in.  The theory is that the beans can use the corn stalks for support, and the squash provides ground cover for weed and moisture control.  I'll let you know how it works.

First Planting 2012

I cut loose from work a little early today.  The sun was shining, and a nice breeze was blowing.  I came home, suited up for gardening, and went to the garden.  The big tiller cranked on the third pull.  I plowed up two long rows and planted radishes, lettuce, and sweet peas.  I left room for cabbages, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, and I'm going to plant some tomorrow, if I can find any.

My "son of another mother" called me over the weekend with the news that he has delivered a 2-row breaking plow down to Nanny's.  Sure enough, there it sat, not far from the shed, when I got to the garden.  If we can get the little Ford tractor to crank, I sense plowing lessons in my future.

And, yeah, I'm missing Pop-Pop.