Friday, July 31, 2009

Garden Blogger's Death Day :: July 2009

Ding, Ding, Ding… bring out your dead!

Welcome to Garden Blogger's Death Day for the month of July, 2009! This is the day for gardeners who overwater, underwater, maim, prune or otherwise neglect their plants to a state of dismal droopage or untimely death. This is the day for gardeners like me with black thumbs who kill more than they cultivate, for cadmium-green-thumbed gardeners who have a lapse in judgment and commit accidental planticide, and for any poor soul whose plants fall victim to that fickle mother who controls us all - Mother Nature.


Since my garden is all but dead right now and anxiously awaiting the Fall crop to be planted, I don't have much alive to brag about. And everything that died has found a new home in the compost bin where it's warm and dark and cozy. You'd be hard-pressed to find a Central Florida garden that's still producing vegetables after this many 90+ degree summer days - at least this is what I tell myself when I look at the barren wasteland that is my vegetable garden.

But I did find a couple of interesting things in the garden this month that have "Death Day" written all over them.

The first is a lovely specimen that I found on an okra plant that was hiding in the corner of my garden amongst some weeds up against the garden fence. This could easily be from a prehistoric gardening exhibit and was quite bizarre looking.


Yes, that is a petrified okra. It was very crispy and apparently took one look at the deathscape that is my garden and expired.

Finally I was quite upset that none of my potatoes grew at all. I wasn't surprised, but I was a bit upset because I cling to the hope that something will grow. When I was pulling the final weeds out of the garden I grabbed ahold of a particularly gnarly-looking weed and was quite surprised to see some baby potatoes clinging to life on the end of the weed.


I guess some of them did sprout - oops. I was too quick on the draw with the weeds again. Such is life - or death, I suppose.

So how about all of you? What fell victim to your gardening wrath this month? Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your blog showing what you killed or maimed this month. We're here for you. Let's not judge, but support each other like a good pair of pantyhose or a well-staked garden trellis.

16 comments:

Kate and Crew said...

Something went very weird for GBDD today. The post posted first thing this morning, then disappeared. Then I had to repost it. I have no idea why.

Here is a comment from first thing this morning from someone that got bumped for some reason:

sb158 said...

Here's my Death Day Post for July:


http://www.squirtbug.com/Garden/wordpress/2009/07/31/garden-bloggers-death-day/



You really MUST check out that post. The video is great!! I'm sorry sb158 that my blog went haywire for your comment...

Daphne said...

July brought death into my garden in several ways, but my tomatoes keep squeaking "Not dead yet!". They are still holding on despite bad gardening and mother nature's whims.

Jeff Vandiver said...

I've really gotta take some death photos sometime.....sigh. After all this rain, my new zucchini plants will definitely be in contention.

Muum said...

I appreciate GBDD! Everybody kills something , from time to time. Mine is about a deceptive buttercup that stealthily and sinisterly took over.

Annie*s Granny said...

I'm on board again this month, but not too much died...I did kill a few things on purpose (they got too large and out of control), and we had a windstorm take out some plants. August should be better, as powdery mildew and tomato diseases are beginning to show up now.

Ribbit said...

Count me in. I've ripped out an entire trellis of cucumbers and some tomatoes that had to go.

http://thecorneryard.blogspot.com/2009/07/garden-bloggers-death-day-cucumber.html

Dan said...

Hi! I am showing off some death today, this is almost like garden therapy!

Urban Veggie Garden Blog

Kelly said...

Well I didn't take a photo, it was too depressing, but I recently ripped out my beans thanks to blight. Next month I will remember to document all fatalities for garden death day.

Kate, so happy you found some potatoes in the earth- did you eat them? or give them to the chickens?

Lee said...

Oh lordy!

I've a dead rosemary cutting that's STILL sitting out in its pot on our deck, waiting to be giving the heave.

But I'm still laughing at that okra. It was mummified! You should be proud! :-)

I'm really enjoying your blog, BTW. Found it through Best Green Blogs, and am really enjoying the read.

Thanks for sharing your bodies.

Cheers,

Daharja (Cluttercut)

donna said...

I'm unable to participate in GBDD this month because of computer problems....one problem being that earlier today I was unable to upload pictures. Had planned to show you my really dead Japanese Painted Fern that was planted back in June. Was also going to share some really sick looking hostas in a bed that's as far from the house as can be and still be part of our yard. They've had no rain/since early June and it's not a pretty sight. Oh, well.....I'm off to see what everyone else has posted. Your pretrified okra was fabulous. Are you sure you didn't lift that from the dinosaur exhibit at the museum??

Cheryl said...

Kate, I thought I'd be able to show off a dead tomato plant that I pulled accidently. I was aiming for the stem of an overgrown borage plant and pulled the stem of the tomato instead. The leaves drooped for a couple of weeks, but it's slowly come back to life.

I guess I do have something. I did murder the borage. It was growing too tall and wide and shading out the tomatoes.

Donna, don't give up on your fern. I divided mine last year and the smallest piece is just now sending out a few leaves. If the roots have any life at all, it will probably put out again.

Momma_S said...

Because it's a sad day, and I have been uppity, I *almost* passed it by. But, remembering it's all a part of gardening life, I took part in GBDD too...

Kate and Crew said...

Thank you SOOO much for participating everyone! I had so much fun visiting your blogs and see the corpses...how sad. It seems like tomatoes were the primary victims this month across the board. Oh how I miss my tomatoes...sniff...sniff...

EG - death? your garden? wha...??? I'm fascinated by this beast you call EG Garden Death, but sorry it's come knocking on your door too.

Kelly - those potatoes were about the size of grapes, so they went into the compost bin. I think raw potatoes are one of the things you aren't supposed to feed chickens.

daharja - thanks for visiting my blog!

Donna - I am so sorry you have been plagued with computer problems. I can feel your frustration with it all. And sorry to hear about your garden death too...

Thanks again everyone! This always always always makes me feel better about my mad gardening skilz. LOL

Lo said...

Sorry I did not have any death to post this month :( but the way my zucchini plants are looking I'll defiantly have some by the end of Aug, LOL

Heidi said...

I love this idea! I just wish I had stumbled across it before today. I will definitely start documenting so I am ready for the end of this month!

Pam/Digging said...

Oh, how funny! Muum's Musings led me here after I blogged about the crispy, dying plants in my rain-starved garden. If misery loves company, it looks like I've come to the right place. ;-)

Your chicken-coop-building story was funny too. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

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