Garden Tragedy

So, ever since I drilled holes in the liner of the fountain, it has been taking on water.  I thought it was just the new cap on the sprinkler, since that's when it got worse, and bought a new one.

Turns out, the liner had been masking a problem.  When I drilled the holes, it allowed water in from underneath, rather than draining it out.  At least I had not drilled through the sprinkler line.  That would have sucked.  There was a broken sprinkler under some bushes I hated which was causing the flood.  The gardener found the problem and capped it (while disposing of said ugly bushes), but everything except for Gus and some stray onions that had regrown from last year was waterlogged.  I haven't ripped out Tommy and Brad yet, just in case they miraculously spring back to life, but I'm prepared for the worst.

The next step is going to have to be emptying the fountain and taking out the liner.  That's the only way I can re-landscape the area so it never floods again.  I'll try to salvage plants in pots during the process, but I'm probably going to have to start again from scratch.  No tomatoes this year.

Not all is lost.  The pumpkins did well during my vacation.  A few of the vines have disease issues, but most of them are healthy and working on escaping the planters.  I'm going to have to train them up a trellis or something.  A few are even preparing to bloom.  This is happening too fast!  They're going to be fruited and gone by September at this rate.

Artie is almost done for the year.  I used up the grandbabies and great-grandbabies on a salad, which will be the next post.  there are a few mini-buds which may be edible next week, but that will be it.  I lost count, but I think there were 10 decent-sized buds this year, including Heidi.  I'm happy with that.