A Rare Sight

It's been a rainy summer, for the most part. Certainly there's been enough sunshine for my gardens to flourish but I need to keep a weather eye out for the dreaded blight that can hit tomatoes and potatoes in damp weather. While there has been reports of blight outbreaks on the island, especially with potatoes, everything here at the DaM farm is doing OK.

Because of all the extra rain, the dam has been flowing constantly. Usually it has dried up by this time and will only offer a trickle after a rain. But this year the waters constantly splash merrily over the dull grey embankment and the dour dam wears diamonds in the sun. The river is higher than usual and more inviting to geese that usually shun my part of the woods except to honk overhead announcing their arrival or departure, depending on the season.

Last week, I discovered a Mama Goose and her five youngsters enjoying an early morning paddle-about on the river from my computer room window. I went out to get a couple of pictures. My camera is not very good and the geese were shy. No matter, it was a rare event and while the pictures are fuzzy and out of focus, the memory of standing in the rain watching the birds is not.

Mid-Summer Garden

I like mid-summer in the garden. Everything that is going to grow is established and thriving, anything that isn't going to do well hasn't and is now reposing in the compost pile waiting to be re-incarnated in the garden next season. Who knows, may-be the ailing basil plant this year will help the next crop of tomatoes thrive.

Mid-summer gives me an inkling of what the harvest might be like, barring an unforeseen circumstance such as a tail end of a hurricane, a brutal windstorm or the end of the world. The tomatoes look good, the corn is beginning to get tassels, lots of little green pumpkins showing up between the broad green leaves and yellow flowers. This season, the inkling is good.

By mid-summer, the weeding has given way to early pickings. Oh sure, there'll always be weeding but by this time, if I've been vigilant with the weeding so far, the weeds and I will reach an understanding. They won't take over the garden and I will only pull what I see, the weeds under the zucs and intertwined with the snow peas are safe. So going into the garden now has a new purpose, instead of coming out with a bucketful of weeds, I come out with lettuce, little zucchini, dill, basil, chard and assorted 'thinnings' for the rabbits. It's a good deal.

Mid-summer is the time I put the tomato 'teepees' up. The system worked well last year so I'm continuing the tradition. But I dunno about the effect, it seems different this year. Last year it just looked sweetly quaint and old-fashioned, this year it has a eerie feel to it. Actually it reminds me of an old horror movie called 'The Blair Witch Project'. Not exactly the look I want for my garden. May-be it's the scarecrow adding a bit of the uncanny especially since it looks like it has a face. The head is just an old soccer ball Angel destroyed, I figured it could hold up a hat. Yet in the pictures, the dents, gouges and rips in the ball kind of look like a face. I made the tepees bigger this year and that might be causing the effect. Unlike the scarecrow face, I made the tepees bigger on purpose. I'm thinking I might be able to dodge an early frost bullet or two by putting heavy plastic around the tepees when a frost warning comes in the fall. It might give the tomatoes a couple of extra days or so to ripen.

The best thing about mid-summer, It's still a long way to fall yet I'm reaping the benefits of the garden already. I have a little time to walk the shores or may-be read a bit of a book. It's a comfortable time. It's not time yet to start planning the Autumn doings, just a time to enjoy every minute Mid-summer graciously gives. Well, I made one plan for the Autumn, I'm definitely getting rid of that DaM scarecrow at the end of the season!