If Gardening Were a County Song

I sent an email tonight that I want to write a county song titled: Into Every Life Some

Rain Must Fall, But Why Can't it Fall Into My Rain Barrel?   The gutters keep clogging with the freakish amount of tree pollen we’ve received this year and, despite receiving more than 2.5 inches of rain in the past 10 days, very little of it is making it into our rain tanks. Sigh.  Then, Frank and I have been stretched thin by family emergencies and my travelling garden shed (i.e., my dirty Jetta) being severely damaged by another driver.  Through all of this, however, our May flowers look spectacular as ever.

Our pretty chives with evil bindweed

On Monday, we received 1.5 inches of rain.  What joy. What bliss.   We need not water for a week.  However, none of it (or at least very little) made it into our rain cisterns. 

On Wednesday, our new WEP volunteers did not show up.   Barb came to supervise in case they did.  It turns out that she used to work in the hospital wing where my father is staying for the next two weeks, and so she gave me the scoop.   She was weeding away .

On Friday, Barb and Frank put tree frames around our sweet cherry trees across the

street in the Block Watch lot  Cathy took me in her SUV to Straders to exchange our new Montmorency cherry tree (which never leafed out).  Apparently, this was a common problem with their Montmorency cherry trees this year.  There was only one left that had leafed out and we took it back to the SACG to put in the hole that had already been dug.  Like me, Cathy is hosting her mother this week too.

Melinda emailed me that afternoon that she and her son Daniel spent quite a bit of time fixing our rain flow problem.  They tested and unclogged and felt the water was properly flowing from the third floor gutter to the second floor gutters and unclogged the downspout screens.  I was so relieved.  Melinda and her Vineyard pals were planning to finish filling their raised bed garden next door today.  They also created a number of baby pool gardens, too.

On Saturday, I was pretty much alone at the Garden.  I weeded, planted tomatoes, and checked the gutters. The flexible downspout to feed the rain barrels had fallen down and so I put it back.  The tanks still sounded empty, but what do I know?  I planted celebrity, amish, roma and Ohio Belgian tomatoes in my plot and the food pantry plot.   I noticed that Kaci and Tony still hadn’t weeded their plots and their weeds were getting pretty high (and therefore, the weed roots are getting pretty deep).   I left extra tomatoes for the gardeners to plant in their own plots.

Neal stopped by to figure out what he was going to buy at  Dill’s.  When I arrived this morning, I saw that he had spent Friday digging out what has to the be largest stone every excavated at the SACG.  He has what used to be my plot in 2009 and 2010.  That stone was so large that Dwayne and I gave up on it and let it be.  Not Neal.  He thought that he could turn it into a makeshift bench.  Barb suggested that he paint his name on it.  I laughed really hard when I saw it and I really needed a laugh after this week. 

We decided that it wasn’t going to rain until the evening.  I went to Ohio Mulch to buy some Com-till for my own house.  I was only able to piddle around for about an hour before it began pouring down rain.  Poor Neal!

Neal also brought a number of gardening tools, like garden rakes, forks and hoes) which had been donated by Kim Yee.   Our shed is now pretty much overflowing with tools.  I need to organize them better.

I returned this evening when I saw a rain storm heading for the Garden.  I waited for two hours and the storm never came.  It just drizzled and made me look like a drowned rat.    I spent my time weeding, planting leeks (that Neal had picked up), planting some zinnias and cosmos in the front bed and transplanting volunteer sunflowers.   However, I was able to confirm that water is draining from the third floor downspout and is running over the gutter just above the big tank (instead of into the downspout and into the tank).  Sigh.    Luckily, it is supposed to rain again in a week, but this will be a giant weekend for planting. I have beans, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, flowers and peas that demand to be watered.   Grrrr. 

Oh well, at least I have lots of fresh flowers in my plot, my yard, my house and my

father’s hospital room.

Also, I received a correction from an earlier post.  John was not the only SACG gardener to make mint juleps for the Kentucky Derby with mint from our Garden.  Amy sent me a picture of her cocktail as well.  With the Belmont coming  up, I’ll need to research what the state cocktail of New York is.  . . . .