June 3 Soil test is back. Water ph is 6.5. Phosphorous and Potassium are at or exceeding the soil’s potential of production. Limestone is not recommended at this time. Apply a side dressing of ammonium nitrate before planting. OK, so the soil is good. State says the local river (so one can assume its tributaries) is clean. Maybe the Extension Service Ag Officer was right - some type of airborn fungus plus the aphids plus the slugs and the grubs. Could it be a combination of several problems? What’s the fate of the Memorial Day plants? What about the seeds I just put in? What happens if everything takes?

May 31 Freaked out when I found most of the earthworms had risen out of the ground and were dead on top of the soil.
Rutgers, Big Boys and Bradford tomatoes planted in garden. Green peppers, Japanese eggplant and Black beauty eggplant put into soil.
Saw more slugs with horns on the peas.
Watered the grass and the garden with nematodes.

May 30
The plants bought over the weekend are sitting on the patio waiting to be planted. I’m waiting for the soil test results. I’m afraid to plant them in the soil. Odd, the assault continues. These beautifully green tomato plants now have mostly yellow edges trimmed with brown.
Discussed what our plan should be. Temp is rising daily. Frig it. Put in everything. Dusted with vegetable powder.
Planted two mounds of zucchini and three cherry tomatoes grown from seed under the cow fence.
Planted rows of onions and squash on the inside of the 2 big boxes. Summer squash is doing fine inside triangle wire frames of other big box.

Trying a funny white squash called Patty Pan or Bush Squash.

Planted Costa Rican pepper seed on the front rows of the front boxes and 2 mounds of Acorn Squash in the back of the front boxes.

Added peat moss to the back left box and near the entrance where more squash was planted in mounded rows. Planted the squash seeds Geri D sent down.

Sprinkle dill and parsley with garden dust.

Have three surviving tomatoes from the seedlings and the purchased tomatoes of the previous 2 plantings. Put garden dust on tomatoes purchased on Memorial Day that are still not planted.

Sage and basil bought at Home Depot struggling to live. Powdered.

Found horned snails on spinach and peas. Put a dish of beer in the garden. May they all die happy.

Roscoe was in the garden with me, inspecting the plants. I think he needed to see for himself what he had been listening to me rave on and on about. He was licking the plants. Reminded me of Nick licking me on that rare occasion I was sick.

May 26
I call the Water Pollution Control Div of the State. I’m surprised to find out that they do not monitor groundwater from the landfill. Call the Div of Solid Waste Mngmt. Fellow at the Water Pollution Control told me the chemical tests from the dam on Highway 231 are fine: the river has biologically clean water. The fish are fine to eat.

May 25
Called Tony, a local professor who is known as the Wine doctor because He is the Guy to talk to about growing grapes. Tony tells me that mid-TN is having a horrid aphid infestation. Get some Sevin. The neighbor next door has been bragging about the wonders of Sevin. It’s looking more and more likely we’re going to have to use it.

Go to Lowe’s and Home Depot for Sevin, sprayer and full grown replacement plants. I get the last tomatoes and peppers. This will be the third planting. If we can’t find out what’s wrong and these die too, we’ll have to think about a fall crop. Summer will be gone.

May 22
Ag officer thinks it could be an airborne problem.

May 20
Brought soil sample to the County Extension service to see if there is anything going on there. Grew beautiful plants last year in the same location. We are still eating from the frozen produce. Most of the seedlings are dead, the ones started from seed are dead, the ones brought from the nursery are dead. The only ones coming up and thriving are the ones that were sowed from last year’s dropped fruit. Weird. Is it the soil? Is it the water? We live within miles of the landfill area on the Stones River. Looking at the river tributaries, I’m wondering if there’s underground water contamination. I am really obsessive here and driving loved ones nuts with my questions and persistent searching for an answer.

mid-May

Continuing cultivating seedlings. Afraid to put them into the garden because of the pea killings and plant disappearances. Got the Pyola and in hindsight, probably oversprayed the plants in an effort to protect them. Went and bought some plants to round out my seedlings from the local nursery: tomatoes, eggplants, broccoli, yellow and red peppers

I think the 90 degree weather probably fried the the Pyola’s plants. Very sad, these were my babies, grown from seed. How could this be? Now all the plants are shriveling up.

The fellow next store just bought a new rototiller. Took his broken ones. Mike is psyched. One needs a little tuning and a handle bar from the wheel up to the handle. Mike and I went for a ride down to the Holbrook Farm. David works on super tractors, wins a few pulls. I know him from doing his taxes. What aguy - he has the right size pipe and forms it to fit. How awesome. Great guy.

May 10
Called Gardens Alive - nematodes are on back order. I needed those to kill the grubs. The Tric was placed under the rose bush but 2 out of the astilbe have died. No known cause. Membership at the Gardens Solution Club was rejected but Gardens Alive was great. Not only did they put a rush on the Nematodes but they honored the Club discount and refunded my 14.95 club membership. If I knew why my membership was rejected, I have since forgotten.

Been driving family and friends crazy with my obsession to find out what is going on with my plants and why they are dying. Joined the Garden Web… nice group… lot of ideas but no real concrete suggestions.

May 6
Planted sunflowers along the driveway garden: Citrus, Tall Border, Summer Cutting
The assault on the vegetable seedlings continued. There were more pea killings. Placed an order from Gardens Alive. Got Pyola insect spray, 10 million Grub Away Nemotodes, Caterpillar control, and 4,000 Trichogramma pretosum for a total of $115.

May 5
Before work, put down garden cloth after weeding within the garden along the drive.

Sunday, May 4
I thought the seeds from the planting of the 22^nd had been coming up… was it a dream? I could have sworn the radishes had popped. There was only 1 out there. I know I had peas all along the fence. Every day I go out and there’s less and less plants. What’s up? I think the Alaska variety is suffering from cutworms. They are cut off about 2” up from the ground. Some of the others are gone without a trace. I reported the pea killings; it’s still an open case.

I can see feathery shoots from the carrots. The Pak Choi is ringing the lettuce. Seems like the have all started. A couple of lettuce sprouts… The onions and spinach are doing well. There are many green sprouts within the herb area - are they herbs or weeds? Not tall enough to tell.

How are the six week old seedlings doing?

The Big Mamas are struggling. They bend easily.

The Hybrid are about 3” tall.

The variety eggplant had to be replanted as none sprouted from the first planting. Second planting was done 3 weeks ago. Three have sprouted.

There’s one cowhorn pepper from 18 seeds.

The Costan Rican peppers took close to five weeks to germinate. A couple have popped…

I put collars around the peas to prevent cutworms.

Put some seeds directly into the garden: Black Beauty Eggplant, Big Pepper Sweet Pepper, Sweet Long Pepper, large Red Cherries

April 27-May 3

Mike is seeing progress. He gets that black, formable edging and outlines the forsythia plants, relocated for eventual privacy from the neighbor’s driveway. He outline a Cedar tree area that we carefully planned to be at the base of an eventual fish pond. Cedar seedling was growing in the driveway and was moved. TN baked it and then proceeded to bake the holly tree by mid- July that started itself under the spigot. That circle needs something that can break the wind from the west and withstand Summer sun.

Exchanged out with daughter and her husband the scalloped, tan concrete border with what she wanted. Went to Lowe’s and bought them placement red concrete paving stones and took the tan, scalloped ones home. They remind me of my Mom. She loves the scalloped concrete outlines. I didn’t care but it gave us the border that we needed at the same time that it gave Amanda and Phil what they wanted. Aren’t we nice??? The color works well - it’s not offensive at all so it was a good idea.

Four round ones were put together for the hummingbird area which has become known as the Moonhead Garden.

I brought down 2 moonhead garden sculptures that had been sitting on 2 fence posts. The wind knocked one over and broke it into smithereens. Mike adopted the other one and positioned it on the ground amid the cannas under the hummingbird feeder. Transplanted a couple of cannas from the front where they were struggling under a bush. The rest was from the package bought at Lowe’s.

On days off and when he came home from work, Mike would work on the edging of the Butterfly Garden. The scalloped stones outlined the area; it ended up being twice the size that we originally figured. We lined it up so the location of the gazing ball was centered withf looking out the back door… a sense of balance.

I picked the stones out of the clay dirt brought over from the future patio expansion, turned in topsoil and peat moss with some fertilizer. Then planted the Breck order excepting the Paprika Yarrow. Threw Lunaria seeds along the outside sides; Lavender and Stevia seeds along the front, Penstemon seeds near the Budha and the effusive Bachelor Buttons throughout.

Weather in the 80s. Damn hot for sprouting seeds…

April 23
Looking for a rototiller. Placed wanted ad on Craigslist.

April 22
After tax season, recovered from the schedule and then went into our garden work. Not only did the calendar indicate it was time but the body and soul needed the restitution that only comes from wet dirt and spring plantings. We had started seedlings inside but the window sun was not strong enough so the daily exercise was to move them into a protected, warm and sunny area on the patio, bringing them in at night. With devotion, these little tomatoes and peppers and eggplants were nurtured out of their protective seed coverings to the bright world of sun and soil. Yes, there was satisfaction that comes with raising something from scratch. I guess I believe that if you put time and love into the development, they should respond accordingly; that is, grow up straight, tall, strong, produce and reproduce. Isn’t that the action plan that got this culture to today’s pinnacle?

Off to a curious year…

Did the first planting in the small garden boxes on April 22:

Radishes and carrots were placed in the carrot box (vermiculite or was it perlite, some sand, some existing clay soil from the TN backyard)

Pak choi and lettuce went in the next box together

The third small box had onions and spinach

Snowbird peas were planted along the outside chicken wire fence. Oregon and Alaska were on both sides of the teepee cow fence.

This year we turned over the garden area that we did not know what to do with last year. Had haphazardly tried Russian or Yellow in that area tomatoes there last year. Both had failed miserably but we didn’t like the flavor so we didn’t really care. This year, there was going to be a purpose to that fifth of the garden. I was missing fresh herbs so I outlined an herb area with favorites like sage, basil and parsley scheduled for growth. Then, just because we could, we planted Mary Washington Asparagus plants in six short rows of 2 plants each.

Blessed the garden, thought happy thoughts and expected results…

Should have checked the Farmer’s Almanac or did a dance for prosperity… as the weeks went by, it became apparent something was amiss. And as is the case when I can’t figure something out, it becomes an obsession. God help my loved ones, or as they say in the South, bless my heart.

But first, had to drive Mike nuts by starting the patio expansion, wanting to plant a butterfly garden and a hummingbird area while planning the Creative Mask corner… Too many projects at one time for his work style… more than once I heard, “Can’t we just finish one thing?”

Silly boy, well, we are. The dirt that you are removing from the patio expansion can be screened and placed with the butterfly garden or the Creative Mask area…

The 2 trailer loads of top soil can go in the vegetable garden, the butterfly garden, the hummingbird area. The garden cloth is needed between the rows in the vegetable garden, along the fence under the roses and bushes, under the butterfly garden, anything to keep the weeds down.

Last fall (like December. Being from New England, the only cold weather is Jan-March when the temps skirt around 30), Mike moved the forsythia and a tulip bush and a Rose of Sharon. The Rose of Sharon was a baby of a plant from the home I had with Dave (first husband, father of my 2 kids) for over 20 years. Seems to me, I made him move the parent plant at some point when we were first there and he thought he was digging to China as the roots were so deep. So he thoughtfully brought down a baby Rose of Sharon for this home. Mike had to move it after 2 years…

The forsythia were great grandchildren of a forsythia bush I had in my childhood home in Weymouth MA. When my parents moved to Hanover, seedlings went with them. First house we owned as a young married couple was in Hingham. The side yard had a beautiful forsythia plant, grown from my Mom’s plant in Hanover. Then we bought the 12 room Colonial that dated back to 1830 and a seedling from the Hingham plant went to Weymouth. Look at the 350+ year old history between Hingham and Weymouth - there’s always exchanges: marriages, plants, animals, carpenters… we just kept up the tradition. My Mom moved to the vacation land in Maine after Dad died, taking forsythia seedlings with her. When I left my life in Massachusetts in 2005, the forsythia migrated along to mid TN.