The Ungreen Thumb

At the beginning of summer this year I planted four zucchini squash, four pumpkins and two butternut squash. These plants were haphazardly watered whenever I noticed them wilting. The zucchinis were quite prolific, so much that I couldn't get rid of them fast enough and many ended up in the garbage can. The pumpkins produced fairly well and I would be picking them today if it wasn't raining, very windy and otherwise a totally miserably dark day outside. (If I was smart I would shut this computer down because I hear thunder echoing off the mountains. Not smart, I guess.)

Eris had given me a tomato plant and in spite of my nearly total neglect that thing grew incredibly large and produced lots of little red gems. A couple of weeks ago while picking some cherry tomatoes for Zeus' snacking pleasure I came across a forgotten watermelon plant that I thought was long dead. It's vines had wandered behind the wild roses and were hidden from view. Little and Littlest helped cut them off the wilted vine and we took them in the house to cut them open.

Those little melons were the best that we had all summer! You can see that Little totally cleaned hers out!


The chances are good that we will still have this dirt field behind us next year. I'll probably plant vining plants again next spring just to keep the dust down and give the birds a place to perch. There is snow on the mountaintops right now. I have seven months to decide what my sorry excuse for a farm will contain.

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