Something Borrowed So I’m Not So Blue

The other day I had commented about breaking the rototiller that I use in the garden and Mike bringing in the one that he hooks on the tractor to help break open the larger garden plot. That was a great help but the tractor is too big to get into the space where I had been tilling with my little walk-behind rototiller where I like to start my early veggies.

One of my brothers came to the rescue and let me borrow the one he has. I had been spoiled by my little tiller, even though I thought it was heavy and clumsy to use, the one that I am borrowing is quite a bit heavier, longer, more powerful and not nearly as easy to get around the small corners in the space I use for the cool weather vegetables.

This smaller area of the garden is a checkerboard of partial rows, established plants and planted areas. Marilyn and I have been taking turns working the soil with this piece of equipment so we don’t get too tired and accidentally run over the strawberry row, a clump of chives that have their designated spot, the onions already shooting up green tops or the kale that had wintered over.

Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled to have a tiller to borrow and with the couple of days of sunny weather we were able to get the rest of the strawberry plants into the ground, and the row of peas planted. We were able to begin planting the cabbage, Brussels sprouts, beets and lettuce seedlings that I had started on the sunny back porch of the house. We even got some onion seeds, radish and carrot seeds in the soil.

Now the rain has moved back into the area, and I am back to being blue about not being able to do much in the garden. But I am so grateful for the couple of days I had with the borrowed tiller to get the veggies off to a good start, and this downturn of the weather is forcing me to wait to get back in there to sow the next round. I always like to plant in intervals of a week or two so the mature plants do not all ripen at the same time and it is still too early to plant the potatoes, tomatoes, squash, peppers and cucumbers because of frost at night.

I vow to think of this down time as reigning me in to keep the intervals spaced correctly. Even though we need the rain, the weather has me chomping at the bit to get back out there into the garden.

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