This last week was a surprise working vacation of sorts, helping far away people do jobs meant to not be done alone. While I was away I wondered if any of my plants, some of which I had just planted a few days before I left, would survive without me! Much to my surprise the plants and seedlings didn't seem to care who watered them, just as long as they were watered.
I think I lost some catnip sprouts that were left alone and dried out on a corner table, though not much lost there. The only reason other than the cats for catnip was to use the leaves to make catnip tea - apparently it makes a healthy tea but I may never find out how it tastes at this rate. Out of the six little starter spots I had reserved for catnip, only one lonely little sprout made it.
For the good news, nothing else died. The strawberry transplant is still struggling, though. And the random ivy starts that were finally transplanted to gallon pots may not make it after all. No big surprises there. Luckily the pinto beans actually are putting up a good fight to survive, and the mystery seedlings are still growing into something. I'm still kicking myself for being in a rush to clean up and so forgetting to label those containers.
I also came home to find 6 strawberries ripe for the picking, so the strawberry stealing squirrels even unwatched by my suspicious eyes did not manage to get the lid off the chicken wire cage protecting the poor little strawberry plants. The single cauliflower that grew and grew for weeks did seem to be attacked at some moment over the last few days while I was away. It looked an awful lot like bird beak marks, so the local crows are once again not liked by me. Best of all, there are now three cucumbers growing where before it looked like there may be none this year.
The gifted bowl of garden bounty seemed fair payment to the stand-in gardener (watering helper) for the few days of help. Though I'm wondering now about a garden hose system timer, not because I mind sharing, but because it shouldn't feel like an emergency to make sure plants don't die while we're away. Yet another idea for the future - self watering timers!