Garden dwindling

I think we've had about the last of the tomatoes from our garden. Grasshoppers are eating the leaves and fruit is rotting on the vine. The strawberry patch needs weeding again - the prairie grasses refuse to give up. They laugh at my carefully placed bed of straw mulch and move right on through to the sun. I have watermelon and a few canteloupe. There is one watermelon that I had particular hopes for but it seems stuck for the past couple of weeks at about eight inches in diameter. And on the seed packet it says this variety matures at between 10 and 35 lbs. No way we're getting there.

It is going to take some time to make this soil fertile. I've got a handle on some free compost from the Emporia Recycling Center. I need to confirm the truth of this rumor and then find someone with a truck to hall it for me. Tractor and husband stand ready to till it in.

I'm not exactly down about it. Just humbled. Maybe even momentarily cowed. I just couldn't bring myself to go back into the strawberries today. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just get the painting done at my office (bathroom, screen doors, kitchen cabinets) and then go back to thinking about the soil.