I was going to visit Jones and Smith (my two gardens) to see if the seeds I’d planted last week<\/a> would have sprouted by now.\u00a0 In ideal weather\u00a0they should have but with seeds planted so early in the season, who knew?\u00a0 The soil was probably too cool and too dry.\u00a0 To raise the ground’s temperature I planned to use row covers, sheet plastic mounted on metal hoops.\u00a0 That part would be easy.\u00a0 Moisture would be more complicated since the water in both gardens is still turned off for winter.\u00a0 I had a gallon jug I could fill at home, hardly enough for even the smaller Jones, and it seemed dumb to drive around town with a full bucket of water.\u00a0 I didn’t want a two or three gallon deluge in the (VW pop-top) van, our home on wheels.<\/p>\n Row Cover? (check), Blue Bucket? (check): Let's Garden in February!<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Wait a minute!\u00a0 Home on wheels?\u00a0 Home on wheels!\u00a0 Of course!\u00a0 The van has a twelve gallon water tank.\u00a0 I’ll fill it up, then use the shower hose in the back of the van to fill the bucket.\u00a0 The day was lovely, I’d finished lunch and the Sunday paper, and was excited to get out to the gardens.\u00a0 It’s a little work getting the hose ready:\u00a0 drag it to the outside laundry room door, run back through our apartment, across the hall to the laundry room, run in the laundry room, open the outside door, pull in the hose, connect it to the utility sink faucet, then stretch all 100 feet of the heavy thing to the van.\u00a0 The sweet sound of running water filling the tank was music to my ears.<\/p>\n Odd? What's odd about this scene? Perfectly common, this.<\/p><\/div>\n At the gardens, my plan worked like a charm.\u00a0 I wondered if I looked strange to passersby: a kilted guy (I garden in a khaki kilt) standing behind a van, filling a blue bucket with water from a little hose coming from the vehicle.\u00a0 I didn’t care.\u00a0 My water delivery plan was more important than that.\u00a0 In Jones, nothing was sprouting yet, but that was o.k.\u00a0 I was ready.\u00a0 I watered the areas I’d seeded (three buckets), then put up the cover.\u00a0 In Smith, I was disturbed to see what looked like animal prints in part of the area I had seeded.\u00a0 I was about to smooth and re-seed it when I saw a miracle: a tiny sprouting seed.\u00a0 Probably a radish.\u00a0 It thrilled me.\u00a0 I watered the area (five buckets), covered it with the row cover, and planted more spinach to make up for what might have gotten ruined by the marauding animal.<\/p>\n The Miracle Sprout - One of several<\/p><\/div>\n I spent the next two or twelve or who knows how long hours pulling weeds and preparing the bed.\u00a0 I love writing butI get lost in gardening.\u00a0 Back at home, I transplanted seedlings and planted more lettuce and parsley<\/a> and didn’t finish until dark.\u00a0 Five hours of garden work exhausted and revived me, made me ready to rest and exult.\u00a0 And it’s not even March yet!<\/p>\n The Few, The Proud, The Gardeners<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Call me water boy. A colloquial way of describing someone else doing a tough task that others benefit from is to say that person is carrying the water.\u00a0 On Sunday afternoon, I was that guy.\u00a0 And, not only did I … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_8175-1024x768.jpg\" "\\"At")
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