I hate how we’ve had two tiny rain events in the past week or so and they have failed to lighten the air. The humidity is killing us outdoor working folk. Don’t get me wrong . . . I’m very grateful for every sprinkle. It is odd, however, that every place else on the East Coast is getting drenched but not us. A few weeks ago I planted beets and carrots. The carrots finally came up a full 10 days behind the beets. They are so small, a person practically needs reading glasses to see them. The weeds, however, in the freshly prepared seedbed are growing like crazy.

Violet and I sat on buckets Sunday evening and happily weeded and gabbed. It was a simple task unlike the enormous growth in the other beds that has long been neglected. Some food is harvested purely from memory. A stranger could never find anything in the tangled mess that is hiding peppers, tomatoes and eggplants. How I wish I could follow my own advice and stalk those tomatoes in a timely fashion.

In the perennial beds, it is time to cut back the irises. I make a fan-shaped cut about six inches from the ground. Also, the salvias and nepeta could use a freshening. These should be nice new growth ready to bloom again once the tired and floppy stems are cut to the quick.

I’m fond of the window boxes at Lorraine Parish’s shop. They match her pink building. There is plenty of time to enjoy them in the queue entering Vineyard Haven.

Our family was happy to celebrate the wedding of grandson Christian and Ellie. Perhaps you saw the Albert Fischer photo in last week’s Gazette? They were traveling to the reception on the tractor. All the bouquets were in the bucket. They were all lovely garden arrangements with both red and green love-lies-bleeding. Best wishes to the happy couple.

Cronig’s’ down-Island parking lot is simply beautiful. It’s nice to see an establishment keep up with the maintenance, especially in this heat.

Speaking of parking lots — I have a new favorite coleus: Texas Parking Lot. It’s fabulous in window boxes and almost any other colors. Who makes up plant names? I would love that job!

I ran into my colleague, Abigail Higgins, who mentioned I should once again tell my dilly bean recipe.

Boil three cups water with one cup apple cider vinegar, two tablespoons salt and several cloves of garlic. Pour over raw beans and two heads dill in sterilized jars. Process 10 minutes in a water bath canner. Children love them.

Or for the fridge, add beans to hot vinegar mixture and cook a very few minutes. They will keep until Christmas if you never put your fingers in the jar. Use a fork and don’t put it into your mouth and back into jar. Just saying.

When I first began writing this column over 10 years ago, I had some sort of rant about one thing or another. One of the first was about Monsanto and genetically modified food. Naturally, it grew into more outrage about the use of their product, Roundup. I know I often compared Roundup to Agent Orange.

It has finally happened. A California jury has awarded a school groundskeeper $289 million. They (the jury) believe that his cancer was a result of two years use of Roundup.

Scientists in the Obama administration had studied the effects of glyphosate (Roundup’s main ingredient), especially on children. They found it to be neurologically damaging.

Scott Pruitt, as Trump’s EPA director, ignored those scientific conclusions and reversed Obama’s effort to ban glyphosate.

By the way, this decision was made after a meeting with Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris. Did I mention that Liveris wrote a hefty $1 million check to the Trump inaugural festivities? Way to drain the swamp, guys.