Best Laid Plans

"But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley..."

As Robert Burns wrote in his Scots-burr...and then as usually translated into English:

"The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry..."

...and as usually paraphrased into everyday American:

"The best-laid plans of mice and men
Often go awry."

Ah well.

It's all the same, however you say it. No matter how well you prepare, life sometimes throws a curve ball. Or, something to that effect.

We had the rest of May all mapped out:

1. Complete the long list of to-do's in the Rose Garden: pinning the soaker hoses, laying the weed barriers, mulching the beds. Planting the annual and perennial flowers as accents. Marking and weeding the paths. Setting the path edging stones in place. And, finally, bedding-in the last three rose bushes to call it done!
2. Completing the harvest of the cool season crops (cabbage, broccoli, spinach, and lettuces) in the smaller Kitchen Garden, and succession planting Lima beans in their places.
3. Getting all the warm season crops (tomatoes, peppers, beans, okra, squashes, melons, cukes, and corn) planted in the larger Kitchen Garden and covered with row covers for protection against the mounting army of pests. Removing the row covers on the sweet potatoes after the danger of bunny bites had passed, and covering the area with straw.
4. Weeding the new strawberry bed in the Berry Patch and covering the plants with straw.
5. Weeding the asparagus bed and covering with straw.
6. Hilling up the potatoes one last time...and covering with straw.

Well...

We were working our way through the list, starting with Item #1, when things began to "gang agley," as Burns said. After weeding the Rose Garden and paths, pinning all 500+ feet of soaker hoses, and hauling 100 path edging stones from the driveway to the Way Back, we used up our entire supply of mulch...and we still need to get another 60-75 bags to complete the project. That's OK, we said, since we had done about as much work in two days as we could manage.

This picture (below) shows our progress as of Sunday night...as approved by Duche$$...:)

Then, without much notice, we had to make the long drive to our daughter's home, as she needed our help when she fell and broke her foot. We harvested what we could before we made our rushed exit on Monday, as you see in the shots below.

We are talking about being with her in terms of weeks, not days...so we will have to create a revised "scheme" for caring for the garden in our prolonged absence.

First, we can whittle down the to do's to the essentials:
1. Water
2. Harvest
3. Water
4. Inspection
5. Water

Second, we can catalog our resources:

1. Friends
2. Neighbors
3. Ourselves

As you can see, watering is top-most important. And we can rely on friends and neighbors to help us with that...and with the harvesting as needed. Mr. T will be going back and forth, so he can inspect and report...and we'll decide what he will be able to deal with...and what we just have to live with.

Here's what the Kitchen Garden looks like as of this morning, when Mr. T watered (since he's already made one trip back to NC). This shot was taken on the north/west side, looking back toward our house. You can see potatoes, beans, and cotton (!) on the right, and tomatoes, then peppers, okra, squashes, cukes, and melons on the left.

At least we got those crops in before the plans changed, right?

Ah well. It's a gardener's life.

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Forgive the spacing on this post. Can't seem to get my iPad and Google Blogger to the negotiation table today. They aren't playing nice with each other Sorry...;)