Now that he has treated them a couple of times with a copper sulfate spray, the initial distress has calmed.
Then, as luck would have it, we had a bit of a wind-storm later that week. Sometimes we feel like that old Hee Haw song, "If it weren't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all..." The wind-storm blew over almost all of the little fence-tower-thingies that Mike had positioned around the tomato plants to support them.
Now the fear was that the plants were pulled out of the soil with roots exposed or were broken up and fruits knocked off the vine.
The two of us spent a bit of time uprighting (Is that a verb?) the plants and fence-tower-thingies. Mike also drove some stakes in the ground and wired the fencing to the stake to support and hold them steady. (Notice the deep ruts from our feet to the left of the plants in the photo above.)
It was not a pretty sight! We were in mud up to our ankle bones setting the plants and fencing aright. There were some mumblings and rumblings and some outright cursings in the garden that afternoon - no rambling that afternoon. All the plants were saved and we only found a couple of ping-pong ball sized fruits were knocked off the vine, thank goodness!
At this point, many of the plants have climbed up through the fencing towers and are reaching out the top. They are still blooming and we even noticed a pink fruit yesterday with much excitement. This is a first year attempt at having a garden in this particular spot. So, we are fighting Johnson Grass weeds and spend a bit of time pulling them and picking up rocks almost every afternoon. We are mildly frustrated at the thought that we have a fungus in the soil that impacts Mike's precious tomatoes but I think this might be the best garden spot of all we have attempted here.
It is nice and flat. The soil worked up beautifully. We have a water spigot nearby. The barn is nearby for storing gardening tools. There is a nice shade tree. Mike has started a mulch and composting pile in hopes of having a reserve to help prevent damage from the fungus next year. You can see the wood shreds and chips piled up in the far-ground of the photo above.
In other gardening news, my purplish lilies have been blooming prolifically and are beautiful!
My hydrangea is also blooming beautifully.
My Aunt Mae lily has also been gorgeous. She has bloomed - not just once...
...not just twice, but is on her third set of blooms!
Having plenty of rain and unseasonably low humidity and heat days has been such a blessing during these early summer days!
And finally, the children really were generous with this guy for Father's Day and he has enjoyed the bounty while embroiled in all his grass-cutting. Stephen and his crew gave Mike this canopy to shade him while mowing. Although not seen in this photo, the new grey T-shirt with the patriotic Tennessee T from Bryan and his crew is also a favorite. Since I installed a radio app on his phone so he can stream his tunes, the headset that rests on his neck and has ear-buds attached from Bridgette and her crew has become a regular piece of his attire, too. I think it might have been charging on this particular day - but now it is routinely set to charge each evening when Mike comes in so it will be ready for the next day.
So, when the gardener is happy, everybody is happier!
Well, honestly, I hope that by the time you are reading this, a ripe tomato is on my plate making me happier. Yum!
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