I had started feeling pretty encouraged by the proliferation of blossoms. The first zucchini blossom was exciting, but suddenly there were a lot, and lots of pea blossoms. By Wednesday I had noticed a few small green tomatoes, and in addition to little pea pods shooting out and filling out, there were at least two new zucchini forming.
This was all very encouraging, but it led to a new worry: what if I don't know when to harvest? I know you don't want to let zucchini get too big, because they start getting tougher and less flavorful, but what size is big enough and ripe enough? The pea pods apparently start out flat, like snow peas, but then get thicker. When should I pick them?
It was clear from the start that I was going to be neurotic about this, and I had decided it was going to be a learning year, so that should take some of the pressure off, but it is kind of interesting watching new worries crop up.
When I focus on Wednesday, there are two reasons I focus on that day. One is that it was my day off, so I spent some extra time in the garden. The other is that in the Beaverton Leader I saw that there was going to be a presentation the next night at the library on maximizing your garden space. This was something I have been thinking about a lot. Normally a friend and I go walking on Thursday nights, but I thought she might be interested and she was. We decided we would go and then walk.
The presentation was really good. I don't know that I will implement anything this year, but it gives me some ideas for next year, and knowing more about the possibilities is exciting. Also, as we were talking about biennials, it was brief, but it filled in some understanding for me on how they grow. In addition, they gave us a seed packet with some different lettuce in it. I do have some space where I can put that, and I will. What a great night!
The low came the following evening. I went to water the garden. A few of us have been sharing a hose, and one other person was there and using it. I waited for my turn, and I did try using the hose from the tap it was attached to, but it did not quite reach right. I asked if it was all right if I moved it, and she was fine with that, but I needed to turn off the water before disconnecting the hose.
I turned the handle, but the water was still going. I thought that was odd, but maybe I had turned it the wrong way, so I tried turning the other way and it came right off!
A geyser was now erupting from where the handle had been. In panic I dropped the handle, so my first thought was to try and find that and maybe I could jam it back in. Once found, the water pressure was too great for reattachment. Okay, maybe taking off the hose would cause the water to come out of the spout, and then I could reattach the handle. The hose came off, but the water kept on shooting up from the wrong area. This was bad.
Fortunately, I did have my cell phone on me. There are two numbers posted at the garden: one for garden information and one for the park patrol. It was 9PM on a Friday night, so I called the park patrol. He said he would try and get a hold of maintenance.
I didn't feel like I could leave. The garden has a gate with a combination padlock. Regular crew would probably know the combination, but this was sort of an emergency situation and I didn't know who would be coming. I didn't want to accidentally lock someone out, and I did not want to leave it unlocked. Besides, I wanted to know that it did get fixed.
So, I stood outside the fence and watched my garden flood for about half an hour. There were mainly three plots that it was hitting, but mine was getting the brunt - surprising, but I guess it was appropriate. I mean, I had gone there specifically to water.
That half hour was not all waiting. Two patrol vehicles showed up relatively quickly, but they were having a hard time getting a hold of the right person (Friday night) and finding the shutoff. Once that happened, shutting off the water was pretty easy. They were then able to reattach the handle, and then turn the water back on to make sure it would not fly back off.
They were very nice. I felt stupid, of course, but it was not really my fault. I know that Monday someone will probably come out and do a more permanent fix. I also know that I will never tough that particular tap again, and that I will be a bit gun-shy for a while, just knowing that such a thing could happen.
Still, I survived. I got wet, and at least one mosquito bite, but I survived. No one yelled at me. And the garden took the heavier than usual watering without dying. Who knows? Maybe this will be the push that the bush beans needed.
This is still a learning year.
Here are some pictures:
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