Stuff is growing...I guess

Remember the garden plot? 'Cause I do, vaguely.

I have good cause to remember the beginning of July last year. At that point, I'd been in the garden three to four times a week, starting with the planting in May. This year? Five times.

Do I mean Five times a week? No, I mean five times altogether. Twice for planting, once (for thirty seconds) to see what had died, a fourth time to replace what had died (took two minutes) and once to weed.Which lasted perhaps a minute.

No, I'm not anti-weeding. I'm anti being bitten by thousands of mosquitoes. I pulled up one thistle, a thistle so tall it was mid-thigh on me. And for my pains received many many mosquito bites. So many it looked like I had the chicken pox.

I tried to go out last night. Honestly, I did. But...just getting out of the car and taking a couple of steps landed me in clouds of mosquitoes and a dozen new mosquito bites. So I got back in the car. And killed all the mosquitoes that had managed to get in the car. I guess I am partly to blame as I didn't get out there until early evening when they're at their worst.

I know from the minute I spent of taking out the thistle plant that some things are growing. Potatoes appear to be up; couldn't tell you if they all are, as I wasn't willing to stay and count. Not to mention taking the time to figure out what was a weed and what was a potato plant.

Peas are also up; I guess they really do like cool wet weather God bless them. There seemed to be some sort of green fuzz where carrots and parsnips were planted, but I didn't really check. Could be moss, given the weather. The onions? Yeah, they're there, but I couldn't tell the difference between onions and grass. And I won't be able to until I can get some weeding done. And I'm not going to do any weeding...unless. Hmmm. I have, on loan, a bee suit. No, not a costume. An apiarist's bee suit. Surely even Saskatchewan mosquitoes couldn't get through a bee suit? I can be crazy lady out in the garden lot in a bee suit. All I need is a hot sunny day, a light breeze and time off work to go to the garden in the middle of the day.

On a vaguely related note: I've met a number of people that mosquitoes don't bite. I've seen it with my own eyes, in fact. How does that happen? Is there some old wives tale? Eat lots of garlic and they won't bother you? Not that it would be garlic, of course. I eat a ton and mosquitoes love me. Maybe it's the other way around. Don't eat any garlic and the mosquitoes keep away!