I do not generally squeal with joy but you can be sure that when I do it is for something relatively simple, pure and well amazing, to me anyways. This was indeed the case last week when I ventured out for my daily tour of the garden and saw bean plants peaking through the dirt. WOW. I had just planted them a week earlier. YAY I exclaimed. my neighbor and unknowing mentor, heard me and thought I had won the lottery or something. A bit embarrassed by the audience I did not think I had, I flushed red and then gushed all the wonders and glories in my head about the beans..the beans THE BEANS. Last year I had such failure with beans. Only a few even made it out of the dirt and I only managed to grow one surly sad little bean that I did not even bother to pluck.
I searched that ubiquitous free information bizarre we call Google for an answer to my bean failure and learned this wonderful bit, when planting beans seeds, plant one for the birds, one for the bugs and one for me. I also switched from bush beans to pole beans so I cannot say for sure what the deciding factor was but I dutifully planted three beans in each hole and for my trouble this week was rewarded with a plant at each post prompting an encore gleeful dance of joy!
Now to backtrack just a bit, I have been in Georgia these last five days watching my beautiful sister get married to a pretty cool dude and discovering exactly how miserable one could become sneezing and snotting pollen particles the size of Volkswagens, and while it was neat feeling my nose and eyes swell to the distinct rhythm of my ceaseless sneezing, I felt this one thought tugging at my the back of my mind in between the want to breathe and the desire to be in a drug induced Benadryl coma. I was worried about my garden, it was separation anxiety at best. I found myself inspecting my mother's garden, the happy little squash flowers and big basil leaves the size of my hand and woefully thinking, I wish my basil had big basil-ly leaves on it (because in all seriousness, I believe I will be on social security before my basil gets that big and winter will have long been and gone killing this slow growing temptress in my kitchen garden)
Nope I was obsessed over missing my garden, I had made arrangements for the cat, the mail but NOT my garden, I was remiss. I prayed for it to rain in Maryland and I hoped I would have a garden to return to but most of all I mourned my poor tomato plants and my poor pepper seedlings in the window, I thought for sure I would be returning to gardengeddon.
We pulled in at 9 pm last night and I hobbled my numb rear end out of the car, pushed the drowsy toddler out of the way (priorities right?) and....... the stupid street lamp went out and I could see nothing. That damn street lamp....its decidedly unhalcyonic halogen beam is only ever on just long enough to make you wish it weren't and turns off every couple of minutes or so for some bizarre unknown reason, think of it as a reverse motion detecting light, if it knows you need it, then it turns off. I generally curse this beacon of suburban paranoia while fumbling for the gate latch at which point it usually plays its insidious game but last night was just torture. Defeated, deflated I sneezed sniffed and then I wandered in to my house and went to bed. I would know all in the morning, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Morning came and I ran outside in my flip flops and exclaimed pure joy! I didn't even freak out at the Mr. Slug on whom I almost trod. ( ick) The bean garden was full of gloriously leafy plants! Not seedlings at every post. AMAZING. Further inspection showed, great pea progression, a radish the size of a golf ball (lunch) and lettuce abundance, spinach flourishing, the second planting peeking through the dirt and about 2 years worth of weeds to pluck.....ACK the weeds. But alas, the seedling in the window were pretty sad though, I fear I have some pepper casualties, but I will have to check back tomorrow to know for sure. About the only real disappointment was my anaerobic lasagna compost pile, so I have resolved to buy a pitch fork finally, I will just do it and be done with it.
So, with a bounce in my step, I did a little weeding this morning, fertilized the tomatoes and beans with some GardenTone and laid out my slug bait through out the strategic places in my yard ( the whole dern yard..its mine I tell you) I did leave them free refuge in the compost bin but Mr. Slug, I fear that you probably should have just gotten it over with and gotten stepped on today, I am however glad you did not because I really may have barfed. All in all, I hope I get a big bump from the fertilizing.
I am amazed at the overall progress in the garden, it seems that everything is doing better than last year, the broccoli is coming up well with no sign of powdery mildew, the cabbage is whole, the radishes are taking the bug munching for the team and it seems the soapacidal spraying may be working. Again, until my plants provide me with a print out of the profit and loss report, I just think best guesses will have to prevail here...suffice it to say, something is working and I hope it works for you too! But if it doesn't and you feel the need to come to my house with pitchfork and torches, I may knock you down and steal your pitchfork, because I really don't wanna pay thirty bucks for one.
My final thought today is about my kids and husband who spent a whole weekend cleaning out the shed and making a nice working space for me and in the process found 3 adorable little scarecrows that now adorn my garden and scare off the crows. How wonderful! They are perfect although I do not have the heart to tell them there were bird droppings on my turnip leaves this AM...Oh well ya can't win them all! (pictures to follow)
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