A Gigantic Growth Spurt

A very strange thing happens to the homestead garden when no one is home for a day.

Yesterday we had to make a trip to The Big City; left as soon as we got up and going in the morn and didn't return home until after 10 p.m. By the time we unloaded and wound down a bit, bedtime didn't come until close to midnight.

This morning, after pulling my beat-up body out of bed (with the help of a small crane), I took a garden tour to see what needed to go on my To Do list for the day.

First let me make the point that as of late afternoon Wednesday (day preceding aforementioned Big City Trip), things looked to be well under control. So what happened yesterday when no one was here to keep an eye on things? EVERYTHING grew about three times as fast as it normally would have. The garden looks as if I'd been gone for a week! Today I need to pick raspberries, blueberries, pickling cucumbers, green and yellow beans, lemon and slicing cucumbers, cabbage, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini. (All tomato plants are in dire need of pruning again -- wow, what a growth spurt they've had recently.) And, of course, once harvesting is completed, that means all will need to be processed. Either frozen, canned, made into jam, or readied for delivery to the restaurant.

AND . . . it looks like it may start raining at any moment. This is not a bad thing. We haven't had any rain for nearly three weeks and watering the garden and berry patches has been a routine occurrence. But it does mean that if I don't stop this yammering and get my rusty-duster out there, I'll be even farther behind. Gotta go . . .