I'm so tired it hurts to move.

No, it's not from working in the vegetable garden, it's from cleaning closets.  Two of them.  Filled up half a dozen garbage bags with stuff like old clothing and video games that haven't worked since my boys (now grown and married) were kids.  Found cool stuff I'd forgotten about.  Got it all back in (minus the 6 bags full), in orderly fashion.  Took more than 6 hours. 

During this cleaning frenzy, while some subconscious part of my brain was free to roam, I had an epiphany of sorts.

You see, lately I've been working on digitizing some camping-themed embroidery designs.  When I get a few done, I think I'll embroider them on some towels for our camper.  I've finished a raccoon, started an opossum, and plan to do a skunk, a squirrel, and maybe some ants and/or mosquitoes - all things that can plague you on a camping trip if you don't play your cards right. 

So while I was cleaning, it occurred to me that it is pretty weird (but mildly funny, in a twisted sort of way, don't you think?) that instead of doing pretty flowers, or S'mores, or campfires, I'm decorating my space with little thread idols of things that irritate me.

And then it hit me - the thing about the Babylonians and their hemorrhoids.

Okay, let me back up.  You might not know the story. 

Back in Old Testament days, the story goes that the Babylonians swooped in, wreaked havoc, and carried off the very Ark of the Covenant as a spoil of war.  What did God do?  Among other things, He struck the Babylonians with piles - hemorrhoids, if you must know.    And what did the Babylonians do?  They saw a connection between the Ark and the discomfort in their hinder parts, and after making little golden images of their piles and putting them in the Ark, they put the Ark on an oxcart and sent it up the road.  (I don't believe the scripture says whether or not this was a viable remedy.)

I've always wondered why the Babylonians made images of their hemorrhoids as offerings.  I would've shot for something impressive or beautiful. 

Or would I?  ;)

On the garden front:  it's probably down there drowning.  We've had a lot of rain.  Over the weekend, I managed to get cages around the tomatoes and do some light tilling to dig out the weeds. 

Fertilizing and Critter Watch

Butterbeans up.
Green beans up.
Purple hull peas up.
Cucumbers up.
Tomatoes blooming.

All seems to be well in the garden, except that (1) we're getting a lot of rain, and (2) there's a critter running amuck. 

In spots, my garden is still muddy from the last rain, and it's supposed to rain for the next three days.  I temporarily hilled up some dirt around my tomatoes, and dug some hoe-trenches running away from the hills, hoping to run some of the water away from the plants.  I also side-dressed the butterbeans and green beans with a fairly light dose of 6-12-12 in the hope that the coming rain will melt it nicely into the soil. 

As for that critter....  Whatever it is, it appears to be dragging a tail behind it.  It doesn't appear to be eating anything. 

Yet. 

I bet it likes tomatoes and squash.

This may mean war.

 

 

Purple Hulls and Rain

Hear that thunder? 

We've got rain this morning.  Needed it to bring up the seeds we planted last week.

Tuesday I planted 3 rows of purple hull peas.  I'll wait about two weeks, then plant 3 more. 

Green beans, okra, cucumbers, and Gloria

Say hello to Gloria, the newest tenant in the garden shed. 

I've never had a female tiller before, and I'm not sure how I'm going to like her. 

For starters, though I actually went to a store to buy her, she came out in a box, in a state of dishabille, not wearing her wheels or her handle.  I had to take the top off my Jeep to get her in it - not that I minded riding "topless" on this gorgeous, warm afternoon, but I may mind it in the morning when it's 60 degrees and I'm driving to work. 

She came with her own bottle of oil and a package of fuel stabilizer that I added to our existing gas can.  I filled her up, pumped her little fuel button a few times, and yanked.  It didn't crank on the first 5 pulls, but it did after a few more tries.

My intention today was to loosen up a row I tilled with the big tiller yesterday.  When I lined her up and hit the throttle, she immediately buried herself up in the soil, and I couldn't push her forward.  Eventually, I turned her around and went down the row backwards.

On firmer soil, which was plowed, disked, and tilled two weeks ago, she didn't bury herself up quite so easily.  I was able to work the soil going forward by letting the tiller run ahead and then dragging it backwards toward me as the tines turned.

She quit a few times during the job, but cranked right back up again.  Still, it peeved me that she quit.  Maybe she just needed to get her fluids flowing, or maybe I didn't have a throttle lever in the right spot.  We'll see how she does on the next job before we judge her.

Today I planted two rows of green beans, two short rows of okra, and six hills of cucumbers.  As I looked down those two long rows of green beans, I thought about how long it's going to take to pick them, and wished I'd planted two half rows today, and two half rows a couple of weeks later.  Pop-Pop used to tell me not to plant the whole garden at once, but I just can't seem to get that through my thick head.  I need to plant more squash, and some other beans and peas, but I'm going to try to force myself to wait a week or two, so everything won't come in at once.

Butterbeans, Squash and @(!)# Tillers

My boss turned me loose a little early today.  I rushed home, slapped a roast in the oven, put on my gardening duds, and headed for the garden with the intent to crank the little black tiller and prepare some rows for planting seeds.  I dragged it out of the shed, topped off the gas, and yanked the cord until I plumb gave out, but it wouldn't start.  I took its spongy-thing-in-the-metal-can off the front and sprayed some starter fluid down its throat.  On the third squirt, it fired off one time, but did not continue to run.  Nanny, who had joined the fray, suggested it might need a new spark plug.  I happened to have one on the bookshelf at my house.  On the trip back to my house, it occurred to me that the little black tiller uses a gas/oil mixture, not the straight gas I'd used.  When I got back to the shop with the spark plug and some oil, I drained the gas into a KFC cup, splashed some oil in it, and poured it back in the tank.  When I finally got all the parts back on the tiller, I yanked the cord once and it fired right off.  Yeah, it sputtered a tad - I guess my gas/oil mixture wasn't quite right - but I rolled him right out to the garden and got to work.

I did one whole 75-ft-long row and was working on the second row when the tines stopped turning.  Motor would run, but the tines wouldn't turn.  I abandoned it in the row and dragged out the big tiller to finish that row and do a few more.

Nanny and I planted Ford Hook butterbeans, 5 hills of yellow squash, and 4 hills of zucchini.  Nanny's church has a food pantry and gives food to the needy once a month.  Other churches do the same.  We designated the squash and zucchini row as the "church" row, and we will give it's produce to the church food pantries.  I told Nanny, "If God's going to make anything out here grow, this row ought to grow." 

I had intended to get some okra and green beans in the ground today, but the rows where the green beans are to go were a little too wet to work, and I plain forgot to buy okra seeds.  Need some cucumber seeds, too.

I came home and searched online for tillers.  Little Black ain't going to make it much longer.  He's 10 years old and has been used like a rented mule.  He is notoriously difficult to crank, especially for the first time each season.  It would probably cost more than he's worth to repair him even if I knew how to repair him, and so I shall be shopping for a replacement in the next few days. 

Does it make me a geek that I'm excited about the prospect of a new tiller?   ;)

Rainy Day Tomatoes

Earlier this week, a fellow told me that he already has green beans beginning to run up their poles.  When I accused him of lying, he swore he was telling the truth. 

It made me feel bad about my own garden.  On that very day, my garden contained only 12 drowning tomato plants and 12 hills of crookneck squash seeds which had not yet sprouted.  I resolved to get busy this week, weather permitting.  For the first time ever, I made a scaled drawing of my garden and laid the rows out on paper.  I bought 12 more tomato plants, some pepper plants, and some herbs.  The soil was too wet to plant them that day.  It was still a tad too damp when I came home from work today, but I planted everything, anyway.  I wanted to get some seeds in the ground, too, but a rain shower came up just as the last two plants were going in the ground, so I high-tailed it.  It rained enough to soak my shirt before I could put away the tools and gather up the debris.

And now that I am inside and dry, the rain has stopped, and I'm considering having another go at getting some of those seeds in the ground.

...annnnnd we're OFF!

Yesterday evening, we (The Husband, Nanny, and I) planted 12 tomato plants and 12 "hills" of squash. 

The 2015 garden is officially under way!