Scenes from the Carnage

I decided not to take a picture of the salad I had for dinner last night because I thought that would be weird, but it turned out pretty well.

I did, however, finally steel myself to take pictures of what's left of the lower garden. It's bad journalism to withhold the worst from my readers. So here it is, the mudflat that once was a garden:

 

 Almost all of what you see living are weeds. Most of my plants look like this brussels sprout:

As I mentioned in my previous post, a few plants, such as the lettuce and onions, look like they might survive. I don't know what has happened to the onions underground though, being in saturated soil for so long.

This will be an experiment in resilience. In the meantime, it looks like a deer and a raccoon have enjoyed the newly receded waters as well.

Harvesting Greens

The spinach and lettuce in the upper garden were ready so I harvested them today. I can probably manage to make two salads out of what I collected, and I don't have any other vegetables to go with it. Maybe I'll plant some more.

I also weeded the upper garden because it was getting a little overrun with clover and volunteers from Grandma's cilantro patch.

I was surprised to see the lower garden pretty much dried out, so I took a trip down the hill to check it out. It's muddy but there's no standing water left. There aren't many living plants left either. The lettuce seems to have held out OK, I think because it's in the highest part of the garden. There are two or three peas that might pull through, a handful of broccoli plants, and the onions seem to be alright, at least above ground. I don't think any cabbages, brussels sprouts, or cauliflowers will make it.

I'll just have to watch and wait to see what springs back to life.

Some of My Plants Aren't Drowning

I thought I should share some pictures of the upper garden since my last post was such a downer. If the lower garden never dries out at least I won't be left with nothing.

The lettuce and spinach are all looking awesome and are ready to harvest. I think I may even plant some more lettuce because for some reason only three lettuce plants grew in the upper garden even though I planted at least three times that many seeds.

The carrots (below) are also beginning to grow nicely, though I guess I have no idea how the actual carroty part looks underground. As you can see from the picture, I have some weeding to do.

And below is a better picture of the tomatoes than what I showed you last week. They're beginning to grow upright and looking very happy. As long as I don't look over the hill I'm happy too.

Did Someone Say Something About an Ark?

I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry when I looked over the hill this afternoon. It didn't matter because I was too shocked to do either. I knew the lower garden would be flooded after the buckets of rain that have poured on us endlessly but I wasn't expecting this:

The water stretches continuously from the lake to Grandma's pond through to the garden. And here's what it looks like inside:

Those are the only stakes that are still above water. And on the right is a pea. Most of the plants are underwater but a couple of the taller broccoli, cauliflower and pea plants are poking up above the water line.

And just to add insult to injury, a bunch of tennis balls have been washed down the hill from the courts at the neighboring country club. Looks like I'll be playing water tennis for a while. That's a sport, right?

A Little Thumb Twiddling

It's been almost a week since my last post. Sorry about that. I've had some chaos to contend with, not to mention the garden never gets a chance to dry out so there's not much to do. And I'm afraid I won't be doing a lot of gardening for the next couple of weeks, either.

I've had a strained muscle in my back for a couple of months. I won't bore you with too many details but essentially what happened is it was almost completely better and then it wasn't. It needs about two weeks of rest which I haven't been able to give it. I have just now come into a position where I am able to quit a physically demanding job, allowing me to rest my back and, I hope, finally fix the muscle strain for good.

I said I wouldn't bore you with too many details and then I just did. The point is gardening is not a good thing for me to be doing right now. That doesn't mean I won't blog, though. I'll still be checking on the garden and keeping you guys updated on how things are looking. And I'm not a complete invalid. I can still wrangle a hose and do simple things like that. But I probably won't be planting the beans, cucumbers, and squash for a few weeks. Hang in there. I'll try to keep you entertained.

Muddy Cabbages and New Tomatoes

I ventured down to the lower garden yesterday and managed to tiptoe my way through the still slightly flooded gate. The lettuce and peas made it through the deluge unscathed and I think most of the cabbage family plants will pull through as well. Their lowest leaves have yellowed and a few of the smallest might not make it but there are plenty, so I'm not concerned.

I have officially decided that there is no spinach in that garden. I don't know what happened to it but it's just not there. That row is just a weed patch because I've pulled or sprayed the weeds everywhere else in the garden but I wanted to protect my nonexistent spinach.

Speaking of weeds, though, except for the patch where the spinach is supposed to be, they're almost entirely gone or shriveled up. I think a combination of weedkiller, pulling, and flooding did them in. And speaking of spinach, at least the spinach in the upper garden is doing well.

And, to overuse a phrase, speaking of the the upper garden, I planted my tomatoes there when I finished squelching through the mud of the lower garden. I have four tomato plants, all of different varieties, and I planted them to one side of the rest of the garden. Grandma recommended planting them on their sides and instead of staking them, using a bed of leaves to keep them off the ground. As the leaves rot and settle I will replace them with fresh ones. I guess this is just another, equally effective way of supporting tomatoes. Staking works too. Grandma just happens to have a bunch of bags of leaves left over from the fall, so why not?

This picture of the tomatoes is not very good because I took it with my phone, but you get the idea.

Sometimes My Brain Doesn't Work

Yesterday I was weeding (see the post entitled "Weeding Buddy") and set a pile of yard waste bags on top of my car thinking I would move them to the garage next time I made a trip in that direction. I promptly forgot I had put them there until I had gone inside for the day and when I looked through the sliding glass door and saw them still sitting on the car I decided it wasn't going to rain and I would deal with them later.

I kept forgetting about them and this morning that thing that only happens in sitcoms happened. I somehow completely blocked them out of my field of vision as I got into my car, backed out of the driveway, and drove to an appointment.

My guess is some enterprising neighbor has found a few free yard waste bags in the road this morning, but I'll retrace a few blocks of my route just to make sure. After that I think I'll be making a trip to the hardware store.

It's a good thing I don't have children.