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A gardening mystery

3 min read

Has spring finally arrived? The sunshine suggests it is true, but the biting wind and the chill in the air says not quite yet. Still, I took the chance and put some vegetable plants in the ground this weekend.

The space where I had decided to plant is a raised bed that has been highly neglected for several years. Weeds, briers and even a couple small shrubs have taken up residence where I wanted to plant my lettuce. Armed with brush trimmers and a spade shovel, I began turning over the dirt and trying to remove the debris.

The dead grass and softer root pieces went into the compost pile and the woodier stems and briers went onto the burn pile. My son helped me turn over shovelfuls of dirt, and we spent an hour or so breaking up the chunks into powder.

Then, we mixed some potting soil in, and added a little bit of fertilizer and worked it in as well. Finally, I felt like we were ready to plant.

He then brought the lettuce, cabbage and broccoli plants out to the bed. I gave half to him and let him put them in the ground while I did the same with the rest. After they were in the ground, I put in a few bean seeds. We watered everything in and then sprayed deer and rabbit repellent around everything to try and stave off losses.

I was pretty pleased with the progress we made. There is still another section of the bed that needs worked, and tomatoes and peppers will go there, but I think it is still a bit early to expect them to thrive. I went to bed that night dreaming of fresh cabbage and green beans.

The following morning, I awoke to get dressed for work. My son went outside past the garden to check on our calves. He came running back to the house, distraught.

“Something tore our plants out,” he huffed and puffed. “Come see!”

I followed him out to the bed and discovered that he was correct. Several of our plants were uprooted, lying on their sides. There appeared to be no bite marks, no signs of digging and no tracks in the dirt. I was at a loss.

I remember hearing once that if you plant during the wrong sign of the moon, that plants can actually be uprooted by the pull of gravity or something. I don’t know if that is what happened, but with no other evidence to go on, that is as good an explanation as anything else.

I quickly plopped the plants back into their holes and scooped dirt back around them. I’m still excited for the vegetables, but I am not getting my hopes quite so far up about how soon I’ll be eating them. Instead of fighting off critters, I’m battling the moon.

And I don’t think we stock a spray for that at work.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.

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