Category: Family & Friends

You can read Part I of this post here. 

After eating dinner at my in-laws, I was planing on going to the garden and giving it some extra TLC.  As we started eating, the wind was picking up and the clouds were getting darker and darker.  It started raining, really hard- harder than it had rained in a long time.

As I was helping my mother in law clear dishes after we were finished eating, I noticed from her window, which faces north, a massive, and I mean massive cloud.  It covered the entire horizon, and it was shaping up to be a perfect funnel cloud.

About that time, Joe brought the boys in from outside on the covered patio.  He was looking at the massive clouds forming as well. The wind was picking up, and it was still raining very hard.

We turned the news on, and they said there was a tornado warning, for the next county over.  We relaxed a bit, and left the TV on while we were talking.  The boys were playing an a few minutes later, I heard some wailing like a siren.  I thought it was the boys, who imitate police and fire engine sirens all the time.

A moment later it struck me- our city projects siren warnings in the case of a tornado watch!  I asked everyone if that was the sirens going.  We turned off the TV, and the boys were quiet.  We heard the sirens issuing the warning that we were under a tornado warning!

We turned the news back on, and they had issued a tornado warning now for our county.  The wind was really strong, and the rain had not let up.  The sirens continued for about fifteen minutes.  When our county’s tornado watch was cancelled we decided to go home.  I told Joe I was going to stop off over at Amy’s before I came home.

It was still raning really hard when I arrived at Amy’s.  I pretty much figured the wind and heavy rain probably did some more damage to the garden.  Unfortunately I was right.  The tomato cages had completely come out of the ground, and all the tomato plants were toppled over. 

One of the really large sunflowers, had toppled over across the tomato plants, breaking off numerous limbs and fruit on the tomatoes.  Between the wind, the tomatoes toppling, and the sunflower hitting them, there was a lot of damage.

I wanted to get the tomatoes back in their cages, so some of the limbs were supported.  I braved the mud and the rain, and since the ground was so wet, the cages went back in, but it was a bit tricky trying to get the plants back in the cages, without breaking more branches.  I did the best I could, and went home.

I was so mad all this was happening.  What were the chances that while I was garden sitting, there would be an infestation of bugs, and then when everything was getting better, a storm producing a tornado watch, would whip through?  In all my years of tending to a garden, nothing like this had ever happened to me before- why did it have to happen when I was in charge of someone else’s garden?

At least there wasn’t any hail, I thought, and then immediately knocked on wood. 

I wanted to get over to the garden one last time before Amy came home on Saturday to clean up a bit.  Friday it was raining, so I didn’t think I would be able to go, but it stopped raining.  I tried to anchor the tomato cages in more, and cleaned up more debris.  I also applied another layer of the diatomaceous earth to the garden.

As I was cleaning up, I discovered two giant zucchini’s.  I hadn’t seen them the entire time.  It gave me a good feeling that despite the stress the garden had been under, it was still managing to produce, and continue on. 

I picked the zucchini’s and left them for Amy.  I hoped she would be happy to see them, and hoped she wouldn’t be too sad about the way her garden looked.  Later that night it started raining again, in effect, washing away all of the diatomaceous earth. 

Amy told me when she arrived back home that the garden wasn’t as bad as she had thought.  She was either being very nice, or I perceived it to be worse than she was.  She told me she had found some squash too, so I was very happy to hear that. 

Depite everything that happened to the garden, during those two weeks, I did enjoy myself and enjoyed taking care of the garden.  I loved finding the produce- it was like a little reassurance that despite all the problems, it would continue on- kind of like a metaphor for life itself. 

That is why I like gardening, and growing things.  It reminds me that there is a pattern and order to life, and even though at times, it seems like the problems can be overwhelming, order will always emerge again, and things will be OK.  Every now and then I need to be reminded of this.  

I don’t know if I will be asked to garden sit again, but what are the chances of something like this happening two years in a row?  Knock on wood.

I have been gardening more or less ever since I was six- helping my mother in her her huge vegetable gardens in the summer.  I can’t really remember a time when I haven’t been growing something. 

Some years I haven’t had a full-fledged garden, but always had flowers, or tomato plants, or something growing.  I would never claim to be a gardening expert (I’m not), but I enjoy it and can tell the difference between a plant and a weed on most days.  A few years ago, I even participated in a community garden plot with some of my friends, and to my surprise, I was able to pass down a few gardening hints here and there.

So when my good friend, Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess, asked me to garden sit her garden for two weeks while she was on vacation, at the end of July/beginning of August, I jumped at the chance.  Amy’s garden was just the perfect size-not too big, not too small.  Amy had tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, strawberries, some herbs, a cucumber plant, some beans, and some sunflowers in her garden. 

Due to a few reasons, I didn’t plant a garden myself this summer, so I was really excited to have a few weeks where I could garden!

Amy left town on a Saturday, so I went over on Monday evening for my first time. The garden was beautiful.  Tall tomato plants, with tons of green-just-turning-to red-tomatoes, and strawberries.  There were a few nice yellow pear tomatoes just getting ready to turn.  Everything was green, with no signs of weeds, pests, or any other problems.

Despite it being record heat, I felt confident on my way over for my next visit on Thursday.  I had watered deeply and didn’t want to over water, so I felt my timing would be right on.

Imagine my shock as I slid open the patio door, overlooking the garden, and discovered all the tomato plants top leaves had been eaten!  I could see the bug bites through the door, and saw the sunflower leaves had huge chunks of them gone! Upon further inspection, Amy’s garden was being attacked by insects.  The only thing that didn’t have major bug bites on its leaves were the strawberries, cucumber, and the beans.   

I immediatly thought tomato worms for the tomatoes, but the bites weren’t very large, but there were hundreds of them in the leaves.  I didn’t see any tomato worms on the plants, and didn’t see their droppings.  I searched high and low for signs of what was eating the garden.  I saw an earwig and an ant, but I knew they couldn’t do that kind of damage in just two days. 

Amy’s garden is organic, so I was not about to put anything on it without her permission, but I was stumped.  At the rate this was going, Amy would not have a garden when she came home.  I wish I had taken pictures, but I was really shocked.  I had never seen anything like this before.

After consulting with Amy and our other friend, Julie (who is a master and an organic gardener), Julie said it had been a bad year for pests and recommended some diatomaceous earth, to kill the insects.  She was a lot calmer than I, and seemed to think everything would be OK, and balance out.

I headed out the nursery for some diatomaceous earth, and applied a layer of it over the entire garden Friday evening.  The insects had continued eating, and had started in on the beans, and basil.   I really hoped the earth was going to help, because I was not feeling optimistic about the garden. 

We still had record heat the next few days- until Wednesday- so I went over almost every night to water, and monitor the insect situation.  Happily, Julie was right.  The earth seemed to be working, and it didn’t appear like the plants had sustained any further damage.

The tomatoes were staring to grow new leaves, and I was confident that Amy would still have a pretty nice garden to come home to.  The only thing that concered me was the diatomaceous earth washed away every time it got wet, and we were getting some rain showers at night.  Julie said it eventually washes away, so I figured every other day re-applying the earth would be OK.

On the Wednesday evening (3 days before Amy was due back), I was at my in-laws house after work having dinner.  The heat seemed to have broke, clouds were moving in, as well as a breeze and it felt great.  I was looking forward to going over to the garden that evening and working in the cool air, giving it some exra TLC. 

At the time, I could not have imagined what was in store for me a few hours later, and sadly for the garden.

Stay tuned for Part II

gardening