Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I'd better be done with that list …

because today's the day! My dad's widow and my brother are already on the road, driving up from Florida. She is dropping him off here and then traveling on to Ohio tomorrow to visit her children. My brother will be spending the week with us. We're going to Ohio Monday to inter my dad's ashes.

Only these few things remain to be done:



I'm hoping my brother can help me with the screen door. It was on the to-do list long before I knew he was coming, so the extra pair of handy hands will knock that one out in no time. (My husband is great with ideas, talk therapy and even surgery, but not so great at plumbing, gardening or screen door repair.)

I've staked some of the tomatoes, but that's an early-early-early morning job. You see, tomatoes need lots of sun in order to grow, and if you're out there staking them mid-day, well the sun is beating down on you and you'll quickly become exhausted and hot and cranky. My discomfort trumps my OCD-ness about unfinished chores when it comes to staking tomatoes.

Speaking of tomatoes, Winnie asked for clarification about volunteers. The only tomato I know for sure that could be named a Volunteer is the Cherokee Purple, which is native to Tennessee, the Volunteer State. The volunteers which have sprung up in my herb bed started from seeds which were deposited there last year when we were using that spot as a compost pile.

I usually find a volunteer or two in the vegetable garden. I move the tomatoes from one area of the garden to another each year, to reduce the opportunity for disease from year to year. There have always been fallen tomatoes and, thus, seeds, in the ground when I put the garden to bed for the winter (cough, cough … I'm really not much of a fall gardener). It's kind of amazing that we spend so much time in March and April babying those seeds indoors so we can transplant the seedlings when the soil warms up, and then still find plants that have started from seed growing randomly, wherever they've happened to land.

I'll tidy up the refrigerator when I get home from work today. The donation container deadline is Saturday, and I don't think my brother will mind my taking time to do that while he's here. The garden stuff will get done when it gets done. (I'm reallyreallyreally glad I'm not dependent on my garden to feed us for a year. This would be a pretty good year to starve, I'm afraid!)

As always, thanks for reading. I hope your Wednesday is going to be as fun as mine will be! (I haven't seen my brother in two years – too long!)

2 comments:

denise said...

Sounds like a good week ahead of you.

I'm so jealous about your tomatoes. Sounds like my "crop" is headed for a total failure. Of course, the fact that I'm not there to do anything with it doesn't help. Talked to the friend who's looking after it for me last night. The plants appear healthy but are bearing no fruit. We surmise that the slugs are getting to the good stuff before she can. She picked one off of my pepper plant last night.

I can't in all good conscience ask her to attempt slug mitigation. It's too much to ask of someone who's already on the hook for long term care of my place, so it appears the slugs have won for now.

Enjoy your week with your brother.

Winnie said...

Thank you so much for explaining the term Volunteer tomatoes! I appreciate it. Sounds like bonus plants! Cool. It has been raining here for the past 3 weeks and hardly any sun. I sure hope my potted tomatoes get some sun soon. Thanks for your tips. Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you.

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