Battles in the Garden

On Tuesday I visited the garden after the long holiday weekend. Before I arrived, AC warned me that the cucumbers had become unruly and handed me some string. When I saw the growing cucumbers, I realized why she had handed me so much twine.

When we began this gardening venture, we made a tee-pee structure of four large stakes for the cucumber vines to climb, but now there seems to be six vines. Instead of growing up, they seem to be spurting new vines! And with these extra inhabitants, there is a battle over territory. RG and I added two new stakes, but some of the vines have to share. The cucumbers still seem to be growing in abundance, however I am concerned that because the vines are not growing upwards that this might limit our crop.

The other vegetables seem to be battling the heat in an honorable fashion. Some of the tomatoes have turned red, and the lettuce can be harvested again. The orange carrots are also starting to poke out of the ground. They remind me of the radishes; for weeks all we could see were leaves and then one day the vegetable popped out of the ground. This image also reminds me of a pimple. But, I think it is kind of amazing how nature works; like it is hiding the vegetable from us until it is ready to be picked.

Some of the vegetables do seem to be wilting in the dramatic heat. The Russian Red Kale seems to droop towards the ground, but the leaves are growing larger and is still a beautiful color that reminds me of the ocean- it is a misty shade of blue outlined by purple. The newer bush beans also seem to have it a wall in their growth due to the heat.

Hopefully, we will soon have a sudden rain shower that will nourish the garden, but not force us to stay in on a summer day.