DANGER WILL ROBINSON...

Second week of May...RIGHT?? Danger of frost?? What about my plants?!! Danger, danger, danger. So, that is where we are. Hopefully, as I look at the weather forecast, the worst of the cold is over. We had to resort to drastic measures in order to protect our more fragile plants for the last two nights. Our watermelons, cucumbers, zucchini, spaghetti squash and pumpkins have been peering at the moon through windows. We scrounged up as much glassware as we could- mason jars, old salsa jars, cups and glasses...thank god I had all that barware on my registry.... As I gaze down at my garden, though, all seems good! All plants are alive and accounted for.

So, now onto better news! So much has happened in the garden over the past two weeks. Not only have we had a lot of plants come up and sprout, but many of our seedlings have been placed in their new home as well. After our semi-large repurchase of seeds, we were able to replant our broccoli raab, broccoli romanesco, cauliflower, iceberg, scallions, quinoa, red and green cabbage and celery. Plus...BONUS...a few of our 'presumed for dead' plants survived! Therefore, we got to plant those as well. That's a good thing, since they will be available to harvest first before our directly sowed seeds will. Talk about maximizing harvest without even knowing it... We were also able to plant our wheat, turnips, mustard greens, endive, black seeded simpson and even more pak choi. Not that anyone is counting. We will tuck our premie-plants into their new found condos for one more night, we decided- just in case.
And finally, I thank the lovely store associate that mans the return counter at Lowes- and may I add an apology as well. This past weekend, we spent more time at Lowes than the birds that poop all over their garden center. Josh and I were determined to figure out a way to layout a sprinkler/soaker system for our garden. This way, we wouldn't have to spend as much time watering and we could rest assured that all of our garden would get the same amount of love, since of course, we would never play favorites. When we realized we were not made of money, at least not yet...that was a joke...we came to the conclusion that soaker hoses will have to wait until next years endeavor. So, off we trotted, down the garden aisle at Lowes. We picked up some nice hoses, some great hose sprayers and we called it a day. UNTIL...cue the music...we realized that it may be possible to set up an automatic system. So, off we went, again, to Lowes, down that damn garden aisle. This time, we were excited. Oh, the possibilities! How high tech we would be! Another swipe of the credit card and our minds were racing- we couldn't wait until we got home...until we did. Apparently, 3500 square foot coverage on a hose doesn't actually mean that. Don't get me wrong, we were not expecting a Vegas casino fountain showdown, but we were at least hoping for, 40 square feet?? 30?? 20? Nope- MAYBE we got 6. Not sure, I'll confer with Josh, but in the meantime, let's get back to the story.
Obviously, these sprinklers totally sucked. So, off we went...to the store with that happy blue and white sign, again. This is where we get to meet our fantastic 'customer service associate'. Let's call him Frank.
"Welcome to Lowes. Do you have a return?" asks Frank, the Lowes associate.
"Why yes, Frank, I do," replies Lauren.
"Any problems with all of these sprinklers?" asks Frank, considering there were 4.
"Yes, as a matter of fact," insists Lauren. "They are the worst sprinklers I have ever seen in my whole life."
"Alright."....
And so the story goes, you get the picture. Please note, that although this part of our story can sound mean and rude, I insist that it was not. All was done in fun- Frank was fully aware...I could see it in his eyes.
Anyway, down the aisle, blah blah blah....another swipe of the card and we were off. This time, we covered all our avenues. Since we were obviously not only good at buying things but returning them as well, we figured we would not only buy the sprinklers that seemed sufficient, but also the ones that seemed ridiculously over-sufficient. Wahoo! We knew that we had done it. Okay, let's make one thing clear. We did have a 50 ft hose going from the house to the garden, we did have a timer with a 4 way splitter attached...SO WHAT if MAYBE we had 4 more hoses attached to those... We were totally planning on just running two at a time....REGARDLESS...even with just one of our sprinklers going (even the one that said it would cover 8500 square feet), we maxed out at 40 square feet. I will spare all of you the details, although I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats...especially to hear more about Frank...we returned the sprinklers, we returned the timers. Now, here we are, back to square one and we like it like that. Nothing wrong with a little quality time with each other as we water the garden. Plus, truth be told, the sprinklers were a bad idea from the start and we knew it. They are inefficient and wasteful. Guess it was karma kickin' our butts....
Well, that's all for now. We can already start to really grasp how big our garden's harvest is going to be- super exciting and it will be really fun to watch happen. Almost as fun as watching grass grow. See? I told you it would be exciting...