Life Support

As I've suggested before, my morning round of the garden is a key to avoiding failure (see "Gardening/Life 101 Morning Round," April 27, 2010).  Miss a day and invaders could take over.

Peek-a-boo!

See the window in this grape leaf?

I only found a couple of these guys this morning.  Where do they come from overnight?  Of course, I could have missed them yesterday.  Gotta keep on keeping on.

Some days I enter your aura expecting
invaders, fingers itching for a fight,
other times on the verge of surrender
to the villain I will challenge
to the end of my time, blaming you
before I remember it is like exercise,
showering, brushing teeth, trimming fingernails,
to me endless as the end comes nearer.

I kick myself. Don’t be a fool.
What are you and I, but an endless
cycle of same-ness, if we so choose?
No, I refuse, we are much, much more.
I brush my teeth and clip my nails
because tomorrows are different.
Let another crowd take euthanasia;
we shall insist on life support.

(from Conversations with a Garden, by yours truly)


A good neighbor friend continually discards items from his overwhelming collection of odds and ends by offering them to us.  I've used several of his gifts to support what will become sprawling tomatoes, if all goes well.  Will these caged tomatoes someday sing?

A typed label stuck as an afterthought on the packet for Carwile's Virginia peanuts instructed, "Remove shells from peanuts before planting."  I guess some people must have planted them in the shell and complained.  It feels risky to plant the little red seeds 10 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart, but I remember being glad I followed the rules.  Here's yesterday's planting.  See how I hoed aside the mulch and then planted in between?

I also hoe the mulch aside for hilled plants like acorn squash:

A week ago I stuck in some dill and basil seeds.  They've sprouted.

Dill

Basil

 "Have you found any more volunteers?" asks Virginia.

"Sure, a few tomato plants here and there," I say.  When I weeded the spinach yesterday, I couldn't bring myself to exterminate this "weed," which could be defined as an undesired plant in the wrong spot.

Tomato Weed Among Spinach