Resting Sunday

James and I took the day off after church. I did a short garden tour just to see how things were doing.

Butterfly on the Zinnia

I heard from the farmers in church that some of them had frost hit a few crops pretty hard. The one morning, Friday, I think. The frost hit on the ground. James noticed that it came in sort of like a fog. We realized that it hit the cucumber plants on the ground and some of the lower zucchini as well as the gourds.

Gourd damage

Zucchini leaf damaged

These two pictures show what happened on Friday morning. Some of the damage did not make it self really evident until later in the day. I have this idea that when plants are well hydrated they aren’t as likely to be damaged by frost. Today after church when I mentioned that, Wayne said it isn’t a theory that is a proven truth. Wow, I do know something. Interestingly I mentioned that to James and he did quite a bit of watering on Saturday while I was peeling up the tomatoes for the salsa.

Top of cucumber fence.

I thought it was very cold from Saturday night to Sunday morning, and I was right. We never heard what the temperature was, but this was a bit higher on the hit. The plants on the ground were good, but those at about 3-5 feet high were nipped in our garden. I noticed it on the cucumber plants at the top of the fence. The leaves on the sunflowers were also shriveled at that height, but I didn’t check the flowers that close. I will have to go outside and look at them tomorrow. Maybe the watering is what moved the damage to the upper parts of the plants on Saturday night/Sunday morning.  The picture to the right is what I found on Sunday after church at the top of the cucumber fence.

Gourd 1

Gourd 2

A few other pictures that I took are included here. The gourds are growing well and I sure hope they are able to all mature. Some of the little ones are just too cute, though. Hopefully we can dry them all out to use for something. I also found that the corn is being consumed by something. What a waste that was.

Messed up cob 1

This was not eating corn. It was for decoration, and now it sort of looks like it won’t be much of anything. Hopefully we can salvage the stalks for

Stripped cob 2

decorations on the posts up front. Although sometimes they just attract mice and squirrels. Well maybe then the cats won’t have to go so far to do their hunting. Yikes.

Well, it is probably time to wrap up this post. It is nearly midnight as I am writing this. I took a nap today and work at 7:30 p.m. I am going to have to stop the super late nights on Saturday. It might help the over emotions on a Sunday morning in worship. I have posted my message from this morning on the lucindalines site. Tomorrow is a day at home, but for this week, I don’t have to do a bulletin or pick the songs. We are hosting the community German worship service during the Schmeckfest Celebration, so all I need to do is show up and give the welcome from the host church. I will probably spend the time tomorrow on Day 3 of the Tomato Canning project. Hopefully this one will make a dent in what remains. For now, Happy Gardening.