Saturday, July 11, 2009

Weekend garden blogging -- help me save the soul of my wayward Kentucky Wonder

First, the weather. Warm and dry. No rain for three days. That's amazing, because it had rained almost every day since May until Wednesday. It's a rarity around here to let Mother Nature take care of watering the garden. Had to return to the hose on Thursday and Friday. The weatherpeople forecast a stray storm or two for yesterday evening. Storms passed us by to put on a great lightning show, huge anvil cloud hovering somewhere over Hawk Springs on its way to Nebraska. Chris and I sat on the back porch and watched the lightning vein the clouds for an hour.

We may get storms today. I'll hold off on watering and see what develops. Watch the skies!

Some of the spinach plants started to bolt so I clipped them off at the base and we enjoyed a mighty good stir fry with garden spinach cooked in olive oil with chunks of garlic. One of my daughter's favorite treats. Rather have that than ice cream, which makes me wonder about her DNA. A dedicated vegetarian. I keep telling her that ice cream is core food group along with beer and Cheezits. But she's not buying it. What's wrong with this younger generation?

Harvested the outside leaves on my green and red leaf lettuce plants. Cut off the broccoli crowns in the hopes that more crowns will grow. Fruits have formed on my Gardener's delight cherry tomato bushes but the Early Girls ain't so early. I have another tomato plants with fern-like leaves and I can't remember the variety. But it's growing like crazy and blooming but no fruit yet. The bush beans are finally bushing out -- think I planted the seeds too deep. Two zucchini plants are attempting to take over the world. My lone surviving crookneck squash plant is finally starting to leaf out. I bought three seedlings in May. Two of them shriveled and died and only one remains. No such things ever happen to zucchini, even in Wyoming.

My Kentucky Wonder pole beans on the side yard are sending out runners. One has attached to the trellis in the way that God intended. The other keeps leaping off the trellis to commune with the Achillea filipendulina and the shasta daisies. Each evening I return his probe to the trellis, only to find it groping its neighbors the next morning. He's obviously confused about his place in the grand scheme of creation. Perhaps I can have Rev from the Free Will Church of Eternal Damnation come down and talk to this wayward plant. Set it straight, if you get my meaning.

Other than that, the garden grows. We continue to watch the skies for hail-laden clouds.

This week's Victory Garden dedication: To Martin Hett, my grandfather, whose birthday is on July 14 -- Bastille Day. He became a fine self-taught Colorado gardener who grew up hungry in County Roscommon in pre-Republic Ireland. Left home at 12 in search of food -- never went back.

3 comments:

Kennedysmyth said...

The Kentucky pole beans "groping its neighbors" made Diet Coke go up my nose! What a great post. Enjoying your garden, and wishing I had one. Considering the free-form jungle in the backyard, my neighbors are probably wishing the same thing.

Michael Shay said...

I would think my garden would be a great setting for a romance novel. What say?

Anonymous said...

I wish to go for more Garden planning classes.....


Thanks for sharing....


___________________
Smarry
Get 28 movie channals for 3 months free