Ten-Finger Exercises

sweating in the garden, will the corn be salty?

We're having another short dose of summer, three or four days in the 90's, and then it will be back to the 60's by Wednesday. It sure made the grass grow! Fortunately, (I say that as if it was just good luck instead of Bill's hard work) the sprinklers are now working. We knew one line had been pulled up by the root of the tree that fell, but didn't know what else might have happened. Not much, as it turns out. So, we're back in the grow and mow and grow some more business. Does that seem like good sense? I'm never sure.

My little turnip greens are sprouted out in two nice rows. I've never tried them young and fresh in salad, but that was a suggestion on the seed package. They're full of vitamin K, and I need to keep a regular dose of that in my daily diet, so we'll see how they taste like that. I like them cooked, southern style, but that means bacon-- not exactly health food.

The green beans are coming up, the little arches of their stems sticking out with the fan of leaves just showing through the hole in the dirt. I love to watch them every day.

I planted some corn tonight, but the seeds aren't new, and it probably won't grow. Didn't work too well last time either, but what the heck. There's a lot of space in the garden.

Two cucumber looking plants have volunteered, but they might be melons. I planted some of each last year, and they were shaded out by the sunflowers which I'm pulling up by the handfuls this season. I planted some more cuke seeds nearby, hope they aren't one of those cross-pollinating veggies. One year I put something too near something with disastrous results, but it was so many years ago now that I can't remember. Squash and gourds? Cukes and loofahs? Something like that. Last year I had yellow and green striped crook neck zucchinis, but they tasted about the same as always, just fancier.

Special thanks and to Nada for the wonderful merit badge. This particular award means a lot to me, and I'm really proud.



Do you think that brown thumb on top of the green hand is any indication of my gardening skill? You'd be right. Just remember loofah cukes.