First, we were delighted to unexpectedly receive over an
inch of rain over Monday into Tuesday.
It hadn’t been predicted and I spent two hours on Saturday watering, but
we’ll take it. Because it rained so
much, I was able to keep my time at the Garden on Wednesday pretty short with
just harvesting and visiting with the kids. The girls pointed out to me that Rayna's giant sunflower was swarmed with squash bugs. Sooooooo grooooossseeee. That's where they've been hiding this year. Sadly, Rose and Ms. D
told me that they have both seen raccoons in the area. Great.
Shortly after the crack of dawn on Thursday, my phone rang as
I was eating my breakfast. That’s never
a good sign and was brave of the caller because I’m rarely civil before 10. Susan was driving by the Garden on her way to
work and noticed that the front gate had been damaged. When she stopped for a closer look, she
discovered that the left side of the lattice I had installed about 10 days ago
had been ripped from the back gate, too, even though I had secured it with
three-inch screws. Grrrr. I've made a conscious decision to not show photographs of our produce this year so as not to tempt any n'ere do wells to visit at night. I drove over at 9 after my jog and replaced
the front gate lattice and reattached the lattice with twice as many three-inch
screws. Of course, I have nothing else better to do with my time.
Despite my frustration, I didn't let it stop me from cooking and canning creole
sauce that night. I use the sauce to make shrimp
creole over the winter. However,
strangely, one of my cans refused to seal.
Sigh. To the freezer it went.
On Friday afternoon, I stopped by to pick up some ripening tomatoes
for my continuing adventures in canning on Friday afternoon. (I was cooking and canning puttanesca pasta
sauce). The front gate was fine, but the
other side of the back gate lattice had been ripped from the fence posts. Grrr.
I went home, picked up my electric drill and more three-inch screws and
put twice as many three-inch screws in it.
I also emailed the SACG Board.
Frank responded that he would be replacing the lattice with a six foot
high gate (instead of our current three-foot high gates). Yea Frank! Susan and I haven’t noticed any
obvious thefts, but our pantry harvests have been smaller than this time last
year. Unlike last year, I’m grateful
that our vandal/thief is discrete in his produce thefts. Last year, the thieves would pull whole
plants out of the ground, grab a few peppers and kale leaves and then throw the
plant down. My blood pressure still goes
up every time I remember it.
On Saturday, I planted some coneflowers and Russian sage
flowers when I arrived before pulling the rest of my edamame and planting three rows of beets,
turnips, lettuce, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, spinach and arugula. Despite the
rain, the soil was bone dry. If it all
comes up, I will have a very healthy October and November. I then watered a little bit (even though the
forecast was for a lot of rain tonight into Monday). Ha. I
should have watered more since the predicted rain is now predicted to stay
south of the Ohio River. Sigh. I then
harvested for the food pantry. Our
harvest wasn’t that heavy, considering the time of year. I’m going to blame it on our vandal/thief.
Usually on Saturdays, I’m alone most or even all of the day. I'm lucky if Neal stops by after noon
to water and harvest. Occasionally,
Sabrina and/or Susan will be working in their plots that morning. However, this Saturday, I saw a number of
gardeners I hadn’t seen in months.
First, Mari stopped by – by herself
– to weed for a while. That’s a great
recovery. Lea and Zion also stopped by
to water. This gave Mari a chance to
thank Lea for helping maintain her plot over the summer. Then, Curt and a friend stopped by to weed
his plot. He had a ton of volunteer dill
and fennel in the front of his plot (along with some very tall weeds). He finally got rid of them. Then, Frank and Barb stopped by to check on
their plot and examine our vandalism.
We also had a new neighbor stop by to get a book from our
library. She stopped in to ask about
getting a plot and to get some produce from our neighbor plot. She offered to volunteer (Yea!). One of our gardeners is overwhelmed with
personal problems this summer and has let her plot go to weed and rot. If our new neighbor comes this weekend and
volunteers for enough hours, I’m going to give her the abandoned plot since I
don’t have time to tend it.
Our free little library has proved very popular. One day last week, a little old man walked by
with a very big dog. Big dogs always get
my attention. However, the little old
man noticed that we had some new books. I was amazed.
We’re running short on children’s books, though. Sadly, while taking and reading our books is
very popular, returning books has not been.
I spent last night canning tomatoes and peaches. I had a new experience canning that I thought
I would share. I learned that it is
possible to tighten the lids too much before processing. I always screw the bands on pretty
tight. However, when I pulled the quart
jars from the pot, the lids were all bent and warped. I was shocked and immediately began to research
the problem. I had to reprocess those tomatoes.
Sigh. Live and learn.
Finally, I have some shopping tips. First, Big Lots on Winchester Pike has mason
jars for $8.50/dozen. Second, Smith
Farms has a great deal on canning roma tomatoes: $7/peck.
Third, the Bexley Farmer’s Market has better prices this year than Lynd’s
on eggplant and zucchini. Fourth, if you
get peaches at the Smith Farms Market, get the ones in the white baskets
because they are significantly less expensive than buying by the pound. For what it is worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment