Dog Days Gardener

In January when the seeds are dropped into flats by stiff, frozen fingers, I am just thinking about shoots of Kelly green, of tidy rows, and maybe imagination runs as far as the first bite of summer salsa.

My thoughts never get to the dog days, when it is hot and still, Mosquitos are out in droves, and I am too busy with school to give the garden more than a passing glance.

I kept my garden in fairly good shape all summer.  The raised bed meant that my weeding was at a minimum except in the new area that was carved out as the asparagus bed.  That was a ton of weeding all summer, but I kept it looking good.

Notice the past tense of that "kept" . . . things have gone wild now.  I think it started when a wind storm blew my tomato cages over a month ago . . . Or maybe when my leg was hurt and I didn't more than make sure  the sprinkler got turned on.  Whenever, whatever, my attention shifted to getting by and school and the garden might have been neglected a wee, bitty bit.  The kind of wee, bitty bit where I didn't train the pumpkin vines to go down the hill instead of up the hill and into my tomato cages.  The kind of wee, bitty bit where weeds grow from the hay bales making the raised bed and hide the peppers.  And that asparagus bed?  It is so overgrown with pumpkins and weeds that I only vaguely know where it used to be.

The upside is that I still have plenty of tomatoes and there are 6 pumpkins out there that are bigger than basketballs.

I have a Mt. Everest stack of school work to do today, but I think I am going to take my garden gloves with me when I go water in bit.  Some therapeutic weeding is in order.

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 And four hours later, I not only watered and weeded, but also potted most of the flowers in my beds to take to my momma to use for wedding dinner decorations.  My beds look sad and ravaged now, but those flowers would have only lasted another month or so.  Now mom will have pots for the porches and tables, pots spilling over with coleus, sweet potato vines, vincas, four o'clocks, and every other pretty thing I grew.