Partly cloudy and another hot day with a heat index of 105°F, though the mornings have finally started to feel a little cooler with a slight breeze. I missed Monday because of a surgery day — not mine, but I was the driver and the one making sure everything ran smoothly, especially afterward when my husband was coming out of sedation and needed an extra set of ears for instructions. A good thing they gave us a folder and printouts when medication started and the exercises he can do.
Yesterday my son handled the morning‑hour duty as he was to have someone here just in case the first 72 hours even though he was getting around just fine. This break let me get caught up on the garden and finally start this week’s plans.
When I turned on the water, guess what — another leak about two inches from the other one. I decided not to fix it until Wednesday (today) because I didn’t want it to disrupt my rhythm of what I wanted to get done.
I had been starting to give the Bocking 14 tea in phases when a rain came, so I put off steeping any new tea until Tuesday. But when I looked at the water, it had a lot of bubbles on top, so I decided that water was no good and started the 24‑hour dechlorinating on two new 5‑gallon buckets. Today (Wednesday) I added the chopped Bocking 14 (sterile comfrey).
Before I did that, I fixed the leader hose where I had snipped it and used the same splice coupling. I just had to rethread the coupler into the hose and refasten the clamp. It is working for now. Since this hose is 1/2‑inch diameter, when I turn the water on I do not turn it on full blast, as my thinking is that would be more pressure than my 1/2″ hose can take, and I am trying not to bust it again.
With the hose working again, I started watering the entire garden, giving each plant a small 2‑ or 3‑second sip of quarter‑strength water to help cool the soil. Everything is looking okay or as well as can be expected with these unusually high temperatures for September.
After those chores were done, I could start my plan for this week — scalping each bed that will get a cover crop. I started in the Pickle Patch and removed the boxes of the two beds that had the dill pockets and yellow and zucchini squashes. I have to report that this Swiss Chard plant is still going strong, and I plan to plant around it. It is the only survivor from last year’s fall crops. It has a massive root poking out. I have never had a fall crop survive this long. Maybe I will break the Guinness world record of longest Swiss Chard producing.
And today I scalped in front of the tomatoes and did the herb/Rhubarb bed. While I was working on the herb bed, I decided to try pulling up the landscape fabric that has mulch and weeds on top. I have to report I was able to pull up about a 3‑foot section before hitting a wall where it wouldn’t budge. I did this because I plan to expand the bed and don’t need the walkways between the two beds anymore. I would rather have more planting space and mirror the space across from it. The solution for the landscape fabric is watering it now and maybe again before trying a second time.
Right at that point my weed whacker died, so I looked around for what else I could get done. I grabbed the loppers and cut the played‑out basil that is in front of the Chinese long beans. This was good because the basil was shading the beans too much. It was a good thing I left the basil there, because James the tinkerer stopped by and asked if he could have it since the plants were brown and ready for seed harvest. I told him to take the whole plant as I have plenty of basil to collect seeds from.
One thing we discussed was all the garden thieves — including the person that pinched my only pumpkin and one of my sugar baby watermelons from the Learning Plot. We each reported seeing suspicious cars driving around that we know don’t belong. I relayed what Gerald discovered with the supposedly garden watcher. Just before dawn he had a headlamp on his head and was in front of a garden that was not his, and he had no garden.
All I can say is that was a big lie — needing that to see the gardens, but maybe to find the produce you were going to pinch. I was thinking that my hodge‑podge fence would deter sticky fingers, as to me it clearly says, “please stay out, this garden is being worked,” but to a thief it was still easy to get in as I had no lock and part of the fence was plastic, maybe 3 feet tall.
After James left, I quickly harvested okra and my first Chinese cucumber. I went by the Learning Plot and based on the brown tendrils, dull looking rind and yellow spots I picked 3 more watermelons. I had to study up on ripeness as my last one from the Back 40 looked good but wasn’t sweet.
A very productive two days and as for the thief I hope he really needed it. My estimation to buy in the store for both would be about $15. Buying the seeds and caring for the plant makes this plant worth more than the $15. Even though he pinched this pumpkin I still have the pumpkin from the back 40 that I can cook up for Thanksgiving pies and save the seeds. If I didn’t have any pumpkins at least Susie in a pinch could give me more seeds as she was the one that shared them with me.
Keeping it real in the Pickle Patch community gardens, where pinching happens.