Mother Nature Continues to be a Mutha

Apricot – Blenheim

Okay.  It’s difficult for me and many like me to thin vegetation in the garden.  Things like onions are much easier as the baby onions are harvested to use as green onions.  Items like apricots are something I leave completely to Mother Nature.  The outcome seems to be the same whether it’s me or nature doing the work.  The strong survive.  The only fruit on the nectarine dropped recently.  It was a sad piece of fruit that was destined to wither.

This evening I was clipping the parsley, thyme, and chives when my pruning shears demonstrated exactly how sharp they really are.  Slash!  The drip line was clipped clean through.  Luckily Farmer MacGregor has extra line in the shed and the repairs were made.  While cleaning up the clippings (along with the black widows and earwigs) I noticed that Mother Nature was again having her way in the garden.  A few more apricots will not reach maturity.  They rested on the gravel almost as helpless as a young mourning dove.

The trees are due for another trimming/fertilizing session.  No threat of sunscald yet with the wonderfully cool weather that is lulling most of us into a very false sense of security.  July is on the way.

Garden Note:

• Radishes planted as beneficials amongst the pumpkins.
• Parsley and green onions planted as beneficials to the tomatoes.
• Coneflowers, nasturtiums, zinnias, and some other flower seeds I picked up at the Rite Aid were planted in the front yard flower beds.
• The 1st tomato set on a plant mislabeled as Al Kuffa.  This is a mystery variety.  It looks to be a tall, lanky variety.  Maybe as time goes on I’ll be able to determine what variety it is.

Tomato – Variety unknown