I apologize for not updating sooner. Between cleaning up after the homeless, attempting to train a pair of very stupid fowl, and working in the ICU, things have been hectic here in Crooklyn Park.
Remember my hesitation with asking my neighbor about borrowing his tiller? Well, I should have listened to my instincts (as usual), because it backfired like I knew it would. I went over to the neighbor dude's house, and he showed me how to crank that bad-boy up, and had the motor revving up and blades a-churnin' before I rolled it back to my yard. Simple enough - put the red lever all the way down, turn the switch "On," and yank the cord. The first time I did it, it purred like a happy little kitten for about 3/4 of a second, and then turned back off. The second time I attempted it, the cord came out, no noise came from the motor, and the cord then wouldn't retract back into the motor. Now, I don't know much about motors - in fact, I know absolutely nothing about motors. Scratch that - I know even less than nothing about motors - in my opinion, opening the hood of my car and sticking a screwdriver into some things, wiggling them around a few times, then kicking the bumper is a good solution for motor-related issues. So I decided to open-er-up. I know there are more than one of you reading this, thinking, "Oh my God, this is such a dumb idea," and to you I say, I am now currently hiring for the voice of my conscience.
At any rate, fortunately for the tiller, I was summarily unable to disassemble any of the tiller, because the gas tank was sitting on top of the motor, and I'd have had to remove the gas tank. Frankly, I wasn't willing to run the risk of my garage reeking of gasoline, not to mention each drop leaked is now worth about $15.00. After using my phone-a-Dad, the futility of attempting repair on my own was confirmed. Now, I was faced with my only available option: Craigslist.
I found a nice man online who was willing to lend me his tiller for $40 - he even offered to till it for me for an extra couple of bucks, but I figured I'd save some cash by forcing Ted to do it for me. Memorial Day, there was poor Tebby, tilling his little heart out in the humidity of late May. A few of his friends stopped by and I used my charming ways to enlist their help with the fencing. For those of you who haven't had the good fortune of assembling a wire-and-stake green fence, I suggest you try it sometime if you're looking for an excuse to shout the word "GODDAMMIT!" as loudly as possible while suffering eight or so puncture wounds to the thigh. It really is a terrible, terrible thing to assemble, and it never comes out quite right - bowing and swaying in odd places, and just when you think you've gotten the wire completely taught between the stakes, you step back and there is a great, big bend in the top part of the fence. They should really be made illegal.
At any rate, the actual planting commenced later that afternoon and into the evening. I set my tomatoes and basil close to the entrance of the garden, as I'll likely be using those most frequently. The tomatoes and basil that I pre-planted were doing very well in their little egg-carton homes, vibrant and green, with strong stems and good roots. The rest of the herbs I hadn't pre-planted, so I put in some chive, rosemary and parsley seeds in my herb zone. Next to the tomatoes, I planted some spicy peppers - habaneros, jalapenos and red peppers. Those also were pre-planted and appeared to be doing well. Their leaves were waxy and stems looked strong. Then I planted a row of Swiss Chard, one of arugula, a row of green leaf lettuce, a row of carrots and one of radishes, all by seed. I planted my beans close to the fence on the far side, and then I worked on the squash/melon area. I decided to transplant the watermelon, zucchini and cucumber that I'd pre-planted, which had a few brown leaves but looked mostly healthy. Just to cover myself, I added in a few more seeds of each of those, as I wasn't sure how they'd fare. Then in an adjacent area, I put my disastrous Black-Eyed Susans (they never grew in my pot, now I understand why that Susan has a shiner), a few sunflowers, some zinnias and some wildflowers.
It is now almost a week after my initial planting, and I'm a bit distressed. I get agita thinking about it. My basil looks alright, albeit weaker than it did in the pot. My tomatoes are all leaning over, probably secondary to the strong winds we got on Tuesday. The rest of the herbs are fine, the root vegetables are coming up great, and the lettuces are sprouting with ease. The spicy peppers are looking harried. Worst of all, though, the entire melon/squash patch, with the pumpkins, watermelons, zucchini and cucumber, is absolutely bare. It is as though the plants I put there just evaporated into thin air, and nothing is sprouting forth. This is a most disturbing thing for me, as my barbecues this summer are going to be disastrous without the kee-nee. No cucumber salad? I don't know if I've ever had such a summer. I have tried watering, the soil looks great, and they get plenty of sunlight. At the risk of sounding like a total amateur, doesn't that cover the ABC's of gardening?
I returned the tiller, and my neighbor seemed confused as to how I'd managed to break it, but he wasn't surprised. It was apparently very old and a "piece of junk anyway." Made me feel a little bit worse that I'd been picking on this geriatric farm implement with my willy-nilly cord yankin'. I was, however, glad that we'd used the rental, as it was an industrial quality implement with about 5 blades, where my neighbor's only had 2. Maybe it was fate that the tiller kicked the bucket when it did. I don't know, I still don't see too much green in my garden...
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