The Madman And My Tick Bite
The tick bite is behind us. And a new gardening season is about to begin – remember, we consider the fall the start of the new season. But I must say, in spite of the tick, this summer was pretty good, and the garden did well.
The Bite Of A Tick
First, let’s talk about the tick bite. The tick bit me, but the madman dealt with the aftermath. After all, he was my caregiver. Here in Connecticut when most people think of tick bites, they think Lyme Disease. After all, it is named for a town in Connecticut. But the Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis) carries a number of other uncommon diseases.
In early June, I started feeling off. I blamed it on feeling tired from a road trip to Maine. When we returned, we had a lot of planting to finish and I figured I was just stressing out. Then the weather turned hot. I am not a fan of humid 90° temperatures, especially at planting time. But, this year, my discomfort was worse than ever.
Wilting In The Heat
As the thermometer rose, I started wilting like the plants in our garden. I wore hats and cooling scarves. I drank water and sports drinks. We gardened early in the cooler morning hours. For some reason I began to lose interest in the garden. When the madman politely asked “What shall we plant here?” I would curtly respond, “I don’t care, plant whatever you want.” And he did.
I got depressed because I lost interest in one of my favorite activities. Then we would have a couple of days of cooler weather. I felt better until the next heatwave. A growing heat intolerance, we figured. Then the fevers and chills came. 101° fevers at night, normal the next day. In July I felt good enough to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary. But when the madman looked at me the next morning, he dragged me to the emergency room.
Anaplasmosis
Wow! What a shocker. I was in Atrial Fibrillation (basically a fast, irregular heartbeat). That began a day of poking and prodding as the doctor searched for an infection that had overwhelmed my immune system. The answers weren’t very clear until the results of the tick panel arrived. A tick had passed along Anaplasmosis. My PCP said, “You’re my first patient with this.” And, my Cardiologist said, “What the heck is that?” Not a common condition. Surprisingly, treatment is pretty much the same as that for Lyme Disease. Within days of being placed on an antibiotic, I felt better – now I’m approaching normal.
Let’s go back to the start of this journey, the tick bite. We live in Connecticut, so like most people we know we do daily tick checks. Although ticks are most prevalent in spring and fall, we do the checks throughout the summer.
And, yes, we did pick ticks off each other, mostly in May. The madman thought he was pretty thorough, but maybe one slipped by under the radar. No blame here, it just happened. But it meant that the madman had to do more than his share of the gardening this summer as I languished and then recovered. Even with our stumbles and Mother Nature’s erratic behavior, we can’t complain about this year’s garden. It thrived, surely not all of it, but enough to keep us happy.
Early Promise
Early on, the garden showed promise. Spring weather cooperated – no late snow storms, no late frosts (remember the beautiful Hydrangeas? No frosts to kill the buds.) The madman only needed to plant those peas one time. And, with our new pea tunnels, we had a fine, well-behaved crop. The good weather didn’t stop. The madman got his potatoes and onions in with very little complaining. Even the suicide tomatoes were doing well.
When we left for Maine, we were eating salads from the garden and talking about planting tomatoes, eggplants and peppers when we returned. We would have the rest of June to get the flowers in and tie up loose ends.
Not So Smooth
The planting didn’t go as smoothly as planned. We danced around hot weather, heavy rains and my increasing discomfort. June ended and we still hadn’t finished the planting. By then, we had a seven-day heatwave and two large rainstorms. We were definitely behind schedule, but every morning we would go out to plant. Little by little, the garden got planted. Well, as done as it was going to get anyway. Planting it was one thing, maintaining it was another thing altogether. We never really got around to the maintaining, so the garden pretty much took care of itself.
Madman’s Observations
As we enter the final weeks of warm weather, it is too early to do our final garden assessment. But the madman has made a couple of observations. First, he will always plant suicide tomatoes – these are the ones he plants extra early – if they live great; if not, well it’s just suicide. This year they outperformed the main crop of tomatoes. He attributes their success to the same thing that gave us the great Hydrangeas – a mild May with no surprise frosts. These tomatoes were established before the heat kicked in. They flourished in the heat while later transplants struggled to survive.
His second observation was that taking the time to mulch really pays off. Last fall, we heavily mulched the paths – giving us a nice platform to work from. At the beginning, we were mulching as we planted, but mulching became rather erratic as the heat ramped up and I began to fade. Remember, mulch helps keep moisture in, soil temperature down and weeds under control. Ponder this over a glass of lemonade.
Speaking of lemonade, it must be time for a glass.
