Hard Labor

Way back in March, I assured Sharon that when Spring finally hit, I would be up to my eyeballs in dirt and would have no time for anything but staring vacantly at the TV late at night.

Now that it is mid July, that time has finally arrived. The garden had gotten completely out of control due to lack of attention, a whole lot of rain, and horse poo. Yes, horse poo. A neighbor has horses and gladly gives us all the manure we can use, but with that rich-soil-making-poo comes an awful lot of weeds. How bad did it get, you ask? I was much too embarrassed to take pictures, but last year's messy garden pictures don't even come close to this year's nightmare.

I managed to get one picture this morning before my camera batteries died. I've spent the last week and a half getting the garden to this state and staking tomatoes (which was supposed to happen when the plants went into the ground, but didn't). Without much attention from me, the plants are healthy and happy; I've harvested two heads of broccoli and a few jalapenos so far, but everything else is gearing up. We have tiny cucumbers, tiny green, purple and yellow beans and a lot of green tomatoes. I think canning season is going to hit soon and hard.

In the meantime, we are hoping very hard for rain on Saturday. We need both it and a day off.