It rained last summer. What I mean to say is, it rained all of last summer. All of it. Julie and I would sit like the kids in The Cat in the Hat, looking out of our dining room window at the rain falling on our garden, feeling slightly depressed as the weeds grew and grew, neither of us willing to go out in the rain to work in the garden.
Then it got hot. Moisture + heat = Weeds.
We felt discouraged. The garden went into winter a mess of tangled weeds.
Remember, we also spent 8 months in and out of the hospital with our daughter. We lost our garden. No fun.
For the last month we have been working to reclaim our growing space.
Our gardening ambitions are few, however. The main garden has been planted to a few fruit trees and berry plants. We have a row of potatoes for fertility. We have a row of jalapenos for poppers. Our younger son is planting row after row of corn. Otherwise, this is a maintenance year. A year of weed control and added fertility. We are making next year’s garden now.
Every day we try to do something small.
- Hoe the corn.
- Hill the potatoes.
- Pick the strawberries.
- Cut an edge to the grass surrounding the beds.
- Haul in more manure.
- Have fun.
Have fun.
Are you having fun in your garden?
Chism Heritage Farm 
We just got back from a week out of state. The state we visited was green everywhere, they washed the streets with water and the businesses were encouraged to plant flowers. We returned to dead plants we didn’t remove before leaving, brown every where and water use restrictions. Such is living in the Central Valley of CA. Though the tomatoes and peppers are starting to produce and the driveway corn is moving along, so some things are a success. We did give up using the neighbor’s yard. That is fun.
Tell me of the waters of your homeworld, Muad’dib. We tend to be feast or famine on rain. Right now I have had about enough. Ask me how I feel in August.