GARDEN PARTY

I have to begin with the fact that we had drenching rains and winds that rivaled the force of a jet engine on takeoff.  If I had been sleeping I may not have noticed anything at all.  But then again at the present time there are three storm phobic and two storm sensitive dogs living in the house which pretty much makes sleeping through a storm impossible.  Of course two of the dogs are in crates in my room and the other is loose, so make that definitely impossible.  I didn't get the opportunity to awake to a large Collie head panting in my face and shaking the bed because Pixie is on prednisone.  Bless her heart she made noise in her crate twice last night, once being the 4:45 a.m. wake up call, to be let out to potty.  This is when I saw the lightening and turned on the t.v. to flashing Thunderstorm Warnings right in my back yard.  Now that you know that bit of seemingly useless information let's talk garden.
Jam and I trudged out to the garden around noon-ish because I knew there would be zuchinni and peas ready again.  And you know those zuchinni, once they start growing they apparently do some weird vegetable mitosis and can reproduce themselves almost magically overnight.  Just a hint to my Minnesota friends going to the Lake Elmo show:  bring a bag or two, I'll be begging people to take produce off my hands by then.  But I digress (and often) the garden took a bit of a hit.  My poor peas were soaked and laying en masse around the ground.  This did not stop them from producing another pea harvest however and I am hoping this afternoon's warm weather will perk them back up.  A handful of the beets were totally uprooted so I picked those.  They are a bit small but it's okay, I'll put some of the tops in my salad.  Other than that the garden is thriving.  I'm still iffy on the beans.  The tomato plants are loaded now with fruit waiting to grow up and the peppers have oodles of flowers so my fingers are crossed for a them.  I need those different types of peppers, my onions and the roma tomatoes to do my salsa.  The zuchinni as predicted were there and I picked two and there are two more that need another day.  But no more or they will develop into baseball bats.  That is one of those magical zuch tricks too.  Oh and the pickling cucumbers are producing!!  Yipee!!  I cut some more oregano and chamomille flowers along with basil and sage to dry.  Next year I want to really expand that herb garden.  Did I mention my poor catnip died?  Yea, it was my fault, I pulled it up when I was weeding.  I was so irritated because it was doing great and I hoped to not only put it in cat toys for friend's cats for Christmas but it's also a great bug repellent plant.  Dang it!
Until next time...