I was looking forward to a little vacation, ten days in Indianapolis to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday and four or five days with our three children, their spouses and, of course, our grandson Rider. The only thing that bothered me was being away from Smith, Jones, and the Lorelei for so long. Gardening can be an inconvenient hobby since it involves caring for plants. Living things are notorious for needing nurturing. Especially in the middle of summer, gardens need extra watering if the weather becomes hot and dry. Crops, some just beginning, need harvesting. You’ve got to keep plants like beans, cucumbers and tomatoes picked because that’s what keeps them producing more fruit. We had discussed being away for two weeks but I did not want to be gone from the gardens for so long. A week to ten days was about all I was willing to risk.
Lucky me, lucky Smith, lucky Jones, and lucky the Lorelei that the day before we left, a soaking rain deeply and thoroughly watered everything. A few days before that, another deluge had done the same. Much of Smith’s soil is shaded, being lushly filled with plants that keep the sun from evaporating the ground’s moisture too fast. In the other two, thick layers of mulch help retain water in the soil. Humorously, I even mulched the Lorelei the morning we departed (you should have seen me tossing leaf mold from the van window as we drove away). I departed with a prayer and a hope that it would rain at least once, and that the gardens would be o.k.
Sadly, the week I was 600 miles away from the gardens saw the hottest weather of this year so far, and for these same dates for many years past. Temps in the upper 90s and low 100s baked the Midwest and the East Coast, driving people indoors to seek cool, dark places with icy, tall drinks, and making plants put on a stiff upper lip and try, if they dared, to survive. I didn’t know what the heat was doing to my gardens, but I feared and imagined the worst. I was anxious and a little nervous to see what shape they were in upon my return.
Corn and Cosmos Capture Comment
Imagine my relief to find that nothing had died. Some things like tomatoes, beans and peppers, kept producing and growing, almost as if they hadn’t been abandoned during the hottest week of the year. Winter squash slowed down a little but still had blossoms. We wonder if the heat affected the fullness of corn on each ear, though we’ve been eating and enjoying it upon our return. The flowers at Smith were in full bloom and almost seemed better for the neglect. Even the eggplants at Jones were doing o.k. Four looked healthy (one even has a blossom!), and three others looked good enough.
Still producing, even after some high-summer neglect
Border Sunflowers Defy the Heat
So yes, gardens need tending. And yes, life muscles on, even amid hardships like neglect or less than ideal circumstances. It’s easy to want a perfect garden (or a perfect life), whatever that means. Maybe there’s something more important than getting, or trying to get, everything right.
Laden with Roma tomatoes, even in the heat
