my hat is off to the farmers of America. They must be hardy inside and out to deal with disappointment they face regularly.
Ok……………….so remember in one of my posts where I mentioned my tomato leaves looking a bit thick and different? My initial thought was some kind of bug, but no……it was the beginning of early blight. Never having had blight in my garden before I missed the early signs and sadly lost my entire crop of tomatoes. The unusually wet and cool summer had a lot to do with it, but next year I will make some big changes in my tomato beds starting with landscape fabric to keep the dirt backsplash to a minimum….it’s a learning process this gardening.
I wasn’t going to post about the tomato loss…..I figured the rest of the garden was doing well and I was fortunate for at least that…..and I hated to admit defeat.
………that was until this weekend and the next defeat or “fail” as my Wii raised children like to say happened.
This weekend the weather was the most perfect it has been all summer. Temps in the upper 70’s, sunny, no humidity and a warm wind. Well that wind really picked up Friday night ……a lot. I mean ALOT!
The picture above…………………..shows you what that wind did to my corn. Absolutely flattened it! Holy crapola!
Ken was away visiting family in Pennsylvania this weekend so I didn’t have his shoulder to cry on or his extra arms to help me tie the stalks back up. Yep, I was feeling sorry for myself indeedy! Ok………..so it’s not the end of the world when you are a hobby gardener but I was pretty sad about it all the same.
I’ll tell you straight up I couldn’t even look at the garden. Instead I turned to what I feel I do best….and makes me feel the best when I am finished. I pulled out the dye pot to play with a new yarn I just got in. (Kashmir will be it’s name)
It’s a blend of Cashmere, merino and nylon at a true fingering weight. Lighter than my sock yarn but a wee bit heavier than my lace yarn.
I was feeling a bit sad and lonely, missing Ken and missing my grrlfriends, so the colorway that I knew which would make me smile the most was of course Tupelo Honey.
This colorway always makes me think of the sisterhood of the hive…..it’s a warm and fuzzy colorway.
I am really happy with this new yarn! It’s incredibly soft and cushy, perfect for socks, shawls or scarves. I will be dyeing up a bunch this week and plan to have some up in the shop by the end of the week. 🙂
So that in a nutshell is how my weekend went. The garden stuff was wildly disappointing, but I can honestly say that with each one of these set backs I have learned SO much about how I will do things differently next year. As a society today we are incredibly fortunate to have the resources from the internet right at our fingertips.
Oh………….and my beans are doing pretty darn good!
Onward we go and hopefully still smiling……………. 🙂
The Woolen Rabbit 
I totally feel your pain ~ our gardens were trashed by heavy rain, wind and hail.
Your dyeing is lovely!
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I too feel your pain in regards to the garden. Maryland has had increased blight this year as well. A combination of the weather, and apparently some of the commercial nurseries sold plants as resistant varieties, but they were mistaken, and they were NOT resistant. We use the black paper, and still have problems. I have not completed my reading, but there is some treatment to do BEFORE the fungus affects the plants… I do not know how dangerous it is, but we are going to do some research to see if it is feasible for next year. @We may also just decide not to have anything but “Early Girl” as they are doing fine!
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Yum!! Beans are good! Better luck next year on the rest of it!
I did get a few tomatoes and some very small green peppers. Next year will be a bit more aggressive attempt at gardening!
The new yarn looks good too!!!
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My kids call it “epic fail”. Yup stuff like that just makes you want to cry. And considering how sturdy and pretty well-rooted corn plants are that wind must have been awful. Must have been a small micro-burst of sorts with a down draft. You’d almost have to run a fence on either side of each row to keep them upright. My tomatoes have suffered mightily too, though still limping along. The fungal spores travel from yard to yard, so even if your plants were “clean” they can still get infected. The whole East Coast has been affected. Glad to see your beans are earning their keep. Mine are too as well as the pickling cukes I have. Your new yarn is lovely!
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Sorry about the garden! That has got to be really disappointing. You are so right, it can be so hard when farming and so much of how our crop turns out is dependent on things totally out of our control!
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I’m so sorry you’ve had such terrible luck with the garden this year. But every year is different, and of course, you can’t control the weather. I had a terrible garden experience last year, and this year it’s great, so hopefully next year will be a bumper crop year for you. At least you have beautiful beans!
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With the wet spring you had it’s a wonder you have anything in the garden. The yarn is so pretty. What a great fiber combo and a perfect way to that feel good place. 😉
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Beans are always good! Bummer about the corn tho. 😦 You guys have had a roller-coaster of weather this summer tho!
Mmmm…. cashmere!
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Losing the tomatoes is a big disappointment. But if the corn is not uprooted, maybe it will bounce back. Don’t give up yet.
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Kim- It’s so dependent on the weather. It’s all a learning experience. Good for you for trying.
Kashmir looks divine.
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Don’t despair. I got blight on my zucchini and squash and we got next to nothing from them. There is always next year. It rained a stupid amount here in the spring but it was free water! Your green beans look great! See not all is lost. Nice looking yarn too. Love the color.
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I’m sorry! It is so disappointing. I thought my cherry toms were fine until this evening when I went out and saw the plants turning toes up and dying. Sheesh.
Your corn just adds insult to injury.
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The yarn color is amazing…especially against the blue background…very nice!
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Oh with your corn if I just got knocked over recently you can try propping it up it might just surprise you and still do ok.
Good luck with your tomatoes next year.
I am really looking forward to the yarn that is in the mail. I expect to see it any day now.
🙂 ~A
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Oh, I’m sorry about the tomatoes. We don’t have any tomatoes left, either. The rain got to ours. Mine were mostly Heirlooms, and I mourn their loss. It sucks! The yarn is a good replacement.
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so sorry about the weather damage to your garden. It really is amazing, isn’t it, that farmers can have this kind of devastation to an entire field full of crops. It’s very humbling to me, and makes me very appreciative of all the fresh produce I buy.
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I’m so sorry about the garden. I have to admit, those types of tragedies are why we stopped gardening and started CSAing instead.
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i love that kashmir yarn you showed. what is the yardage? i’m thinking the pas de val cardi from the new fall twist collective. maybe in your new blue moon colorway….
corn is very resilient. and the beans look yummy!
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The same happened to my tomatoes and my corn. I was very upset. The commercial growers grow so much that the corn is protected and in the case some gets knocked down, well, there are acres and acres of corn….not so with me.
Where I live, the agriculture association declared a statewide blight outbreak. I’m disappointed as last year my tomatoes did so well. Guess you are right, it was the wet, cool summer.
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