The 6 to 8 p.m. Gardener

It's hot. Brutally hot. And it's only May.

Maybe it's an anomally...
So we garden late, late in the evening.
Even as I ducked under the tomato plants
brushing aside leaves and looking for red
sweat poured down my face and neck.

Maybe it will rain sometime.

Will was fooling with the watermelons.
He had buried drip hoses under the raised rows
and only needs to plug in the hose to water
This evening he had one of those containers you screw into the end of the hose
that carries fertilizer to be mixed with the water.
He had filled it with Fish Emulsion.
It was not cooperating,...it was leaking
and it smelled to high heaven.
I still don't understand why he wanted only yellow and orange watermelons this year
no red.
but, hey, he is the master of the unusual vegetable, intrigued with what no one else will have in the garden.



Porch-sitting at dusk, I heard thunder
and I saw the cloud boiling northeast of here
Some lucky people got some rain this evening.