Our Vegetables Learn to Swim

We've always grown a few tomato and basil plants, but this year we put in a more significant vegetables garden. We filled in our 20 by 40 foot in-ground pool last fall, so we have a flat large area right outside our kitchen door -- perfect for a garden.

Our serious gardening friends wanted us to turn the whole thing into a garden -- 30 by 50 feet or more -- which we thought was probably overly ambitious to start out with. So before the excavator arrived to seed a lawn on the newly-spread top-soil, we covered a 15 x 15 foot area with the pool cover, so no grass or weeds would grow there. This spring, Jordan rototilled a boat-load of purchased compost into four long rectangular beds, and Margy began to plant.

There's been only one hitch: it has rained just about every single day since mid-June. We're not just talking about sprinkles; we got three inches last night. As a result, parts of the garden have been underwater for hours at a time, and a mushy bog most of the time. The worst spot is the center bed, which is directly over where the deep end of the pool used to be and has probably subsided an inch or two.

The tomatoes, peas, lettuce, artichokes, eggplants, onions, and basil are undaunted. (Of course, none of them are growing in the boggiest bed.) But four out of the eight brussels sprouts have folded their tents, and hot peppers don't appear to be growing at all. Naturally, the zucchini are soldiering on in the swamp. (Typical!)