Harvest Lessons

What the heck happened to Summer?

Just a few weeks ago we were pining for Autumn, wondering when the monotonous sweltering, muggy weather would end. Now, in the mornings there is a crisp cool breeze and the distant scent of apples and squash ripening in the fields and orchards. And the echo of a bucket of golf balls being thwacked out at the driving range.

On TV guys in football helmets and shirts are performing the exhibition thay call pre-season. Viewers call it "Where the hell is the remote?" No sane person has the time or inclination to waste watching practice games with no meaning or importance except to the purveyers of automobiles, beer and boner juice.

The tomato garden is lush with healthy greenery and pinkish promise. I pick anything that shows any signs of ripening (in my ongoing competition with the squirrels, who have such a keen taste for the ripe Jet Star tomatoes, that they will climb the vines to get the high-hanging ripe fruit.) I planted extra vines this year, to allow for the inevitable shrinkage. Still, I pick anything that is blushing and let them ripen on the counter. It only takes three days from pink to slicing in the salad, which is why you cannot get this variety in the supermarkets.

The cooler nights are nature's signal to vegetation that Winter is nigh, and so the tomatoes and the marilgolds get very busy with seed production and less busy with stem growth. Tomatoes turn red and the flowers rush to bloom. I keep the Marigolds blooming until frost by deadheading the faded blooms which encourages them to produce more flower heads.

I have been forced to hand-water the garden nearly all Summer. We are as dry as a Jack Benny Martini here. We have had virtually no useful rain for most of the Summer. The muggy weather usually generates thunderstoms, but this year, the storms have been scattered and drenching. Most of the heavy rainwater has run-off to lower ground. We have had precious few gentle soaking rainshowers in the past 3-4 months. One of the weather gals says we are 6 inches below normal. Good news for gardeners, the forecast is for rain every day next week. We need it. Gentle soaking rain, unstrained, like the quality of mercy.

I have been pretty busy lately. Apologies to those of you who count upon this journal to provide a perspective on your working lives. But, my own paid labors have been occupying an inordinate amount of my time. You understand.

In the next entry I shall bring you up to date with the current hellhole project and the unpredictable events that occure, like lightning and thunder, not out of the blue, but out of the gray.