The evening we arrived in Wabasha, we went for a walk on the dike road, which leads to Lock & Dam Number 4 on the Mississippi. The Riverman insisted we wait until it was dark so we could see some fireflies. It was cloudy, but we could still see some stars. And, the limestone on the path was light enough for us to find our way. I confess I was skeptical about the fireflies, but they did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, it was breathtaking -- like walking through a crowd of paparazzi! (We heard some frogs, too.)
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| They are lonely but otherwise fine |
While we were having this magical experience, it poured buckets of rain back home. We listened to the radio on Thursday morning to hear about rain totals of between 4 and 6 inches! All we could think of was our poor garden—so carefully planned and planted—getting pelted by hail and washed out by so much water.
We tried hard to not worry, but by evening, we decided to check in with the neighbor who had agreed to keep an eye on things. When I got her text, shown here, we both had a good laugh!
Sunday brought deluge part deux – which we watched from the sunroom. “The crops” survived the strong winds and the 1.25 inches of rain. Whew! The forecast shows some fairly dry days, so I’ll be watering again today.
I was struck by the role water played in our vacation. We canoed in it, saw birds over it, heard the frogs in it, and were dazzled by fireflies near it. Sunday, when it was so steamy, we drank lots of it! But, we also heard the sump pump going off pretty frequently and worried about “the crops” getting drowned from it.
I can't believe it's been a month since we planted "the crops" for the Urban Farm Project here at Auntie K's Garden. It seems like yesterday we were mixing soil and compost and building the raised bed and planting seeds and seedlings. According to the seed packet, the radishes should be ready to harvest any day now. (Don't tell the Riverman, but I pulled one yesterday to see how ripe they were, and I think they're going to need a few extra days. They still look like radish pencils rather than round radishes.)
I'm astounded at how full the raised bed looks and how lush everything seems! We've got weensy peppers and tomatoes and the peas are just starting to blossom. The onions are doing really well in their special box. We've eaten a handful of strawberries already (now that I added extra squirrel protection) and there are more to come. The raspberries will be ripe any day now, and we're seeing color on a few blueberries.
I think a few things have suffered from a little too much lovin' in the watering department. Two pepper plants lost blossoms and the cukes and squash ended up with a few yellowing leaves. We've held off on the watering for the last couple of days and they look like they're starting to recover. Whew.
