A Bubble Off Plumb

No one needs to be told it is an odd year. We have been stuck at home because of shutdowns and social distancing. The world has turned upside down, it seems.

So, when you are stuck at home, what do you turn to for entertainment? Yard work or gardening for a lot of folks. Mother nature decided to get in the last laugh on that endeavor. First there was a sulky, chill spring, followed by several 100-degree days. When things did begin to sprout, it turned off dry.

Then came the plague of grasshoppers. Those little vermin eat everything in their path. Because we didn’t use chemicals, we turned the young hens out. That beat them back in the yard and flower beds, but they didn’t make a dent in the garden, because when the hens were in the garden, they spent more time eating the vegetables than they did eating the grasshoppers.

Finally, the swarms of hoppers have turned into a small horde and they seem to want to hang out in the garden less. Probably because they are afraid of the horn worms. Giant, nasty, voracious things that can strip a plant bare in a matter of hours these little stinkers are camouflaged so that it is really difficult to find them until their destruction makes the location clear. Happily, the grandson has young eyes and can help find them. Then we feed them to the hens, who are now cooped because there aren’t enough grasshoppers to keep them occupied and out of the garden.

Some plants have been producing, like the squash, and the green beans are starting to come on. The solitary pumpkin has gone berserk and taken over swaths of space. Recently some of the fruit on that vine began to turn colors and I really started to pay attention. That’s when I noticed all the squash bugs that seemed to want to bask on the growing melons. A little soapy water beat them back, at least for a day or two. But the plants are slow

But the plants are slowing down. The nights are cooling off fast and the days aren’t reaching the peak heat we are accustomed to in mid-August. The hummingbirds are gone. The sun comes up later each day. Summer might still be here, but the zenith has passed. It just goes to show that the oddity of this year isn’t only in the man-made sectors of our lives.