Mother Nature’s Practical Jokes
I have come to the conclusion that the likelihood of rain is in direct proportion to whether or not I watered my plants on any given day. No watering by me, the weather is clear as a bell. Sure as the world, as soon as I fill the watering can and have my nightly chat with the veggie babies – the deluge begins within hours.
A few nights ago I watered and fertilized my as-yet-pot bound veggies and within a few hours, Mother Nature told me to sit back and watch an expert at work.
Thankfully I didn’t over water them and they are all set as far as drainage goes, so it isn’t a big concern. It’s just one of those little practical jokes that the universe enjoys playing with those of us who dare to take part in this thing we call life.
Yesterday being my partner’s 33rd birthday I had intended to completely avoid my beautiful plants, but he decided that we should go to a local garden center because I needed a few supplies. It wasn’t my fault that I discovered two heirloom tomato plants there that I had never directly experienced. It wasn’t my fault that he put them in the cart. It really wasn’t.
Now though, we are sitting back and preparing ourselves to enjoy the bounty of Mr Stripey and Russian Black tomatoes for the first time from our own garden. Life is good.
I have potted a few of the seedlings I started last month in preparation for the hardening process. A single solitary Mortgage Lifter seed sprouted this time around, along with Red Brandywine (2) and Abraham Lincoln Original (2), African Beefsteak (2) and German Queen (2). For those of you keeping a tally, that makes a total of seven tomato varieties and a total of eleven tomato plants.
The seedlings will stay in the warm basement for the next few weeks until they are ready for the great outdoors, but the two heirlooms we purchased today will fill the gap in time, since I started my tomato seeds a bit later in the season than perhaps I should have.