Bright Ideas

We have waited for weeks for our garden to dry enough to till, only to have more rainfall. Lawns were mowed quickly between showers. Yes, it is nice to have the moisture, but when can we plant?

Our forecast for the week was warmer and drier. On a Monday, Brice planned to till the garden; he cleaned the tiller, getting it ready to go to work. He pulled the rope to start the engine and it remained silent. Additional pulls did nothing.

After nearly thirty years of reliable service, it deserved retirement. Brice purchased a replacement tiller and tilled five trips around the garden. That’s when the new machine developed problems that stopped progress in the garden.

It was raining a little when Brice needed to take the machine back where he purchased it, so he used our handicapped van with its hydraulic lift to put the tiller inside the vehicle. In Baker, two young men just lifted the machine out and repairs began; other issues were spotted and corrected also.

He would have begun tilling last Saturday, but it started raining Friday evening, and was snowing throughout much of the weekend. A total accumulation of moisture Monday morning was nearly two inches. That will take a while to dry out.

Sooner or later the potatoes and onions will be planted. We have all our garden seeds, and tomato plants will come soon enough. The garden will eventually take as much care as I.

The wind usually ramps up soon after he puts in the tomatoes, testing the strength of their stems. Brice has learned to bury them with long stems positioned sideways, pulling off low branches where roots will grow.

He’s never had much luck with cucumbers; they’ll form blossoms, and bees can be heard and seen, but cucumbers never form. Generous gardeners share their bounty with us and when the volunteer dill is ripe he makes dill slices and spears,

With all the talk of home grown vegetables, my mouth is watering — green beans! Green beans right off the plant, gently boiled until as green as they can be, and just barely tender but still with a little resistant are my favorite surprise.

Who knew green beans could be so good?