her able hands

The heat wave must have brought a new crop of bugs with it, because my garden is being decimated. Bean plants turning into lace again, and something taking bites out of and then turning the leaves of the peppers rusty brown. Then their leaves are all falling off. Cucumber vines turning brown and shriveling up one leaf at a time. Then last night I noticed that every last one of my tomatoes has blossom end rot. The powdery mildew is taking over the squash just as I suspected it would.

And of course, I’m leaving to visit my family back east in a few days, so whatever corrections I try to make before I go will likely need repeating while I’m gone. So that won’t happen.

I’m just going to quit making contingency plans in my head, and finally accept the message the garden is giving loud and clear: the market will not be happening this year. I know I have enough other things to do, but it’s still a disappointment. I like to think I can manage it all, but I can’t.

So! I’m going to enjoy whatever the garden brings forth, which right now is beans by the five pound bucket, chard, beet greens (and beets are forming,) and whatever little bit of Nero di Toscana Kale the rat bastard runny babbit has left in the sea of munched down stems. We had our first Eight Ball Zucchini, and the crooknecks are setting fruit like crazy. Maybe we’ll get to enjoy ratatouille before the mildew kills off the squash plants. The Vermont Cranberry beans are starting to climb their trellises and I’ll be tossing a bunch of peppery nasturtiums into our salad tonight.

The temperature is supposed to break tomorrow, bringing some thunderstorms and rain, and nighttime temps back in the 60s. Last night it was 78, and the air conditioner doesn’t cool off the upstairs worth a bean because the attic isn’t properly vented. We’re sleeping horribly, so I got up and put the fan back in the window and let it blow the warm wet air over us because at least it circulated a little bit of oxygen. Sort of. I need to change the sheets again (3rd time in five days) because we lay there sweating buckets and cursing into the night.

Is it winter yet?

Technorati Tags: heat wave, disappointment, garden

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