Uuuuuh, not really sure why i want to talk about Milly and Tilly. Guess its because they the most exciting things about this Gardening year so far. No seriously they are, it is a game of skill to weave TILLY between the rows of plants and grind up all of those nasty weeds. The nearly everyday downpours that have caused my tomato plants to just give up, not that i blame them. The result is not stronger plants with large tomatoes, no its it is quite the opposite. Making this year not exactly regretable, more like lessons learned.
MIlly has tilled up most of the huge gardens of my younger years, when there were more people at my table and fewer deer in my yard it took half the day to till my garden. It takes less than an hour now to till my tomato patch now.
I I would like you to meet the QUEEN of my tomato patch garden for almost 5 decades, the one and only Tilly. Always there for the heavy work, so i could read seed catalogs and day dream about growing giant tomatoes. Her main job is, of course, was to make sure i wasn't too tired from digging by hand to make a decent supper.
Still have those bootsT they don't really fit right,never have, over time they have become rather stiff. Maybe 40 years ago, there was a an old tyme general store on the back streets of the next town up the road. The owners were aging and decided to sell out, got i alot of useful stuff at that sale. Including steel toed leather boots,it still wear them. They have seen alot of years have, seen alot of snow alot dust alot of mud,most of it caught in their very deep grooves in the outsole. They collected mud that became compacted until it felt like trying to walk on skis. The fun part was getting the mud out by jumping up and down and watching the
. chunks of mud fly.
I bought a pair bright red longjohns also. Made a Christmas decoration for the front door out of the longjohns.
This is Milly, so named because she is "Mini" compared to Tilly. Oh! those are my plastic clogs, bought them about the same time i bought Milly, and still wear them.Now where was i going with this???? ah yes,
Millys job is to till between pants and down the rows, light, maneuverable, and no where near as loud as Tilly...and this year because of the rain which made it difficult to weed, she had her. Hacking at weed and muddy weeds roots. That seemed to make weed grow better.
Milly got her name first even though she is much newer, obviously on a day when my true lack of creativity was showing. Think that might actually explain Tilly's name also.
After the Christmas season is over, and the bright lights fade the snow starts to turn into dirty drifts by the side of the road, then and only then is it time to get out the seed catalogs and daydream. When i go out to the tool shed to get a snow shovel or some of my infamous mix or salt and sand, it's time to pause and reassure Milly, Tilly and myself that Spring will be here some day.
