Heat Wave and the Garden

Everything is drooping in New England, including me. We hardy northern types are not good at 90+ degrees, especially not when it’s been cooler than average for most of the spring. I’m from central New York, which makes Massachusetts look balmy, so I really don’t like this weather. Nevertheless, my husband, who grew up in the Caribbean, and our housemates, recent transplants from Alabama, are the ones who have the AC cranking. Me, I’m too cheap. I’ll just suffer!

The heat wave will be short. It’s dropping back to more typical June temperatures by Friday, and may hit the low 60s on Sunday, which is downright chilly in comparison.

The garden is desperately in need of attention, but I really don’t want to go out into the hot, muggy dusk and deal with it. I’m hoping the few days of heat will be good for my tomatoes and eggplant, set back a bit by the low temperatures in the earlier part of the season. (It was still dropping down to the 40s when I planted them, but they were outgrowing their pots and getting that pale, emaciated, leggy look of fashion models and plants kept too long under grow lights, both young creatures in need of proper nourishment.)

There will be more about the garden later. It’s a source of both ease and pressure for me. I love the act of gardening. I love the fresh food I get, and the stores we put by for winter. But this is the first year I’ve attempted the big garden along with writing and a full time job, and it’s hard to keep up. The weather this season–cold and rainy flip-flopping with warm and rainy, then switching to bone-dry and scorching–makes it harder. And I’m just plain over-committed.

But I eat my homegrown lettuce, or look out on flowers (flowers and weeds, but I can squint and ignore the weeds) and it’s all worthwhile.

Garden from a previous year (complete with escaped recycling.) Some of my tomatoes are flowering, but there are certainly no fruits yet.