The Gardener's Morning

The robin's song at daybreak
Is a clarion call to me.
Get up and get out in the garden,
For the morning hours flee.
I cannot resist the summons,
What earnest gardener could?
For the golden hours of morning
Get into the gardener's blood.
The magic spell is upon me,
I'm glad that I did not wait;
For life's at its best in the morning,
As you pass through the garden gate.
- Howard Dolf


With the temperatures reaching 90+ each day I have had no ambition to go into the garden other than in the mornings.  I pull a weed here and there, check for bugs and dispense punishment up on the bad ones.  Then if it looks like it needs watering I turn on the sprinklers and go back inside for a while.  I water in the early morning because I do not want to get late blight again.  There have been several cases of it in PA and NY.  I planted in a newly plowed section, started all my own tomatoes, bought seed potatoes, mulched shortly after planting and today I pulled two plants because their leaves were yellowing and one tomato on it looked like it had a bruised area.  They were the only Sheboygan tomato plants I had.  They did not show spots or have lesions on the stems but out them came.  Call me paranoid but tomatoes and potatoes are a huge part of my garden.

Spring in the garden is rewarding because the newly tilled earth is a blank canvas, like a blank piece of paper to a writer it holds endless possiblities.  Summer in the garden is rewarding because you can go out and pick whatever is producing and plan your evening meal around it.  Of course when it is really coming in you get to can it for many meals to come. 

Today's haul was some kohlrabi, squash, pea's, a duck egg, and some chicken eggs.  As it is just the man and I tonight I am going to freeze the kohlrabi and squash. 

Hopefully it cools off a little because next week the garden is going to explode.  The beans are loaded and so are the cucumbers so I know there will be some canning going on.  Till then I will continue to knit.  I finished another hat that looks like Bella's from the Twilight series and I have another on the needles. 

I was going to keep making them for #2's friends but then I got an email saying there was a new Knitty. There were a few things that caught my attention so her friends might be out of luck!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Stay cool.