Well Tended

By September the garden has reached the stage of her life where she can no longer be considered fresh and full of promise.  The best she can hope for is productive and well-tended (I can relate).  It is now when I teater on the edge between sticking it out and enjoying late beans, cucumbers and egg plants and ripping it all out and being done with the whole thing.

Sweet Potato Vine and old wheels

With the cool nights the tomatoes are tapering off, but we still have as many cucumbers as we can enjoy, plenty of zucchini and bush beans.

This white eggplant of unknown variety
has SEVEN eggplants started and is still blooming

There are cantaloupes to be eaten.

And lettuce to look forward to.

I am tired of watering pots, but I have new help.  Radiator Charlie has a compadre "Radiator Clarence" picked up at the Flea Market in Clarence, NY.  Tim wanted to know exactly how many watering cans a person needs.  And more precisely, how many do I have?

Radiator Clarence

Now here is something important we have learned.  If you are going to collect an unreasonable quantity of something it is better not to line them up, but to spread them around so your spouse can't find them all to count them.  My watering cans are scattered around more because the whole point of having a lot of them is to scatter them to where you need them.  I bring them in and refill them every 2 to 3 days, but usually they are out on the job,

This attractive can (note the strap handle) stays around the garden shed area where
 it can keep the herb bed / Toadland watered or rescue a geranium now and then.

This cute little 1 gallon can came with the remnants of a Savory label.  Savory is reknowned for their double walled roasters and other enamelware.  This little guy hangs out in corners looking charming and sometimes is allowed in the house.

Spring Garden arrangement

We have two more modern cans that had plastic (yuck) handles on their wire bales which cracked off over time (modern design is NOT an improvement) and have been replaced with foam rubber grips.  Those guys go out of sight to the far corners like the compost pile or the side yard for watering containers or occasional perennials.  

Our backup rain collection system comes in handy for watering
the whiskey barrels and other arrangements in the far side yard.

This can with the single strap handle is my favorite.  It only requires one hand to operate.  You can sip wine and water pots at the same time so it stays up near the house.

Charlie and Clarence

But my favorites are Charlie and Clarence.  These are serious water delivery vessels.  They hold a gallon more than regular cans, their spouts let me get water into the reservoirs in my large combo pots and really if you are watering a pot full of plants you don't want to sprinkle anything.  What you want to do is fill that pot A.S.A.P. and move on.  These guys can soak a pot like nobody's business.

So I'm fessing up.  I have 7 watering cans.  Well, FIVE watering cans and two radiator fillers.  They sort of qualify as garage equipment.  And I even passed up a second cute little one gallon can in near perfect condition this weekend for 20 bucks.  I seriously lingered there and weighed my options.  Did I really need to trade my twenty dollar bill for a watering can I wanted purely for display purposes?  No.  I saved my twenty and later in the day I came across a gorgeous near mint large wash basin (or baby tub) that was tagged at $55 and I got it for $30.  That was money well spent because I LOVE this basin.  I'm a sucker for oval and this is the first time I've ever come across a tub sized basin in cream and green.  Squee!!!!

I am only slightly regretful about that cute little can.  Maybe I'll find another one another day.