Water, Water Everywhere...

You know what I really hate? I hate it when my husband gives me advice and I ignore it, and he repeats the advice and I ignore it, and then he reminds me good-naturedly and I still ignore it…and then he turns out to be right.

I really hate that.

All of which is to say, at least one of my tomato plants is dead dead dead and I suspect that it’s my fault.

Sigh.

The advice I refer to is the perfectly serviceable water meter that he gave me, so that I could check and make sure that the plants in the garden were getting enough water. And did I use it? Um…well…not really. And come to think of it, it hasn’t been raining here much. And it’s not like I don’t have a hose. And a sprinkler. And a soaker hose. And buckets and pitchers and bottles and coffee cups…I mean, if I had known the poor thing was drying out so badly I could have gotten water out there some way. I could have done something about it and now it’s too late. But no, I was too busy canning tomatoes like they were just going to keep on coming.

Shame on me.

So yesterday morning I went out with the hose and the bag of tomato tone and I gave the still living (but possibly also on their way out) plants a few spoonfuls and a good, luxurious soak. We’ll see.

But that’s only part of our ongoing water saga.

I mentioned that I had started some broccoli, Brussels sprouts and kale seedlings in the house a few months ago, and after popping up quickly and looking initially quite happy, they all shriveled up and died. I didn’t understand this, because I had them under the grow light, and I used a really good, clean seed-starting medium, and I made sure the soil stayed moist, and they still seemed to be drying up.

Well, check out what I learned yesterday.

I also said a post or so back that I was looking for a local source for my fall transplants, and the perfect place finally came to me. There’s a nursery not too far from me where my husband and I used to buy saltwater fish back when we kept tanks. I never really bought plants from them, but I remember from our trips there to get fish that they were a pretty knowledgeable and committed group of people there, so I thought I’d check them out. And I found BEAUTIFUL transplants. I got broccoli, Brussels sprouts, red chard, kale, collard greens, cabbage and lettuce. I got a whole flat in fact, 48 individual plants, for twenty bucks. You can’t beat that. And that’s not even the best part.

I was commenting to the man who helped me that they were really beautiful little plants, and he said thanks, that he had raised them himself. I told him about my seedlings that didn’t make it, and then he imparted his secret. “You have to mist them,” he said.

Aha!

This makes sense to me, since, as I said, I kept watering them, and the leaves still shriveled up and dried out.

So now I know. Mist them. I’ll do better when I try again to start them for next spring. So yesterday when I was at Lowes for manure compost I bought a mister.

Who says I can’t be taught?