Posts Tagged → basil
Politics…? Nah, let’s talk gardening
Everyone needs a light moment, a break from the heavy stuff of politics. Me, too.
So let’s talk about gardening, something I really enjoy in the spring and summer.
First, the basil and peppers planted back in early May have not yet sprouted. I “cheated,” and bought started peppers last night, after procrastinating for weeks, in the hope the seeds would erupt into a profusion of colored peppers, like last year.
Second, the garden is exploding with volunteer tomato plants, from seeds scattered by the kitchen compost we throw into the garden all Fall and Winter. Maybe forget about the basil and peppers, and just focus on what is working now. Everyone ready for me dropping off extra tomatoes on your porch?
Third, the heavy-gauge tomato cones really do work, but I am sticking with the re-bar and string construction Patricia encouraged me to try back in April. The cones exist within the string…
Fourth, as rodents decrease in number, so the targeted garden plants grow. Never saw chipmunks eat zucchini and cucumber plants before, but they were eating every little shoot and leaf. Until….
Fifth, the electric fence kind of works. Once the squirrels learned how to jump up onto the heavy gauge wire and perch there, they only risked me catching them, and a lot of rodent damage was done to the garden, until…..
Gardening can be a metaphor for so many things: Our daily job and work, a career, a relationship, a political effort or campaign…life…yeah, I will bet that Siddhartha was a gardener.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the first day of Summer and the Summer Solstice tomorrow!
The garden as metaphor, part deux
Basil is erupting by the bushel. Four types. The pesto I made for my wife today had all kinds of exotic tastes she worked hard to identify, and it was all good.
Tomatoes are laggards, every one of them. Green, small, looking nothing like what Giant provides, they are just takin’ their sweet time.
Where did that dill weed come from? Well do I recall planting a wee sprig. Now it is about to flower, so it must be harvested in order to regenerate.
Showy zucchinis, with their big nodding leaves, they are a bunch of braggarts, with nothing to show underneath. Lots of colorful flowers, sure, but nothing edible or useful. Intrigued by the nipped flowers. Are chipmunks running amok again? Only recently did I trap the last one out of the house. Hopefully the garden isn’t inviting them back….
Not one of the peppers has produced, either, although clearly something has ‘et them but good, leaving bullet holes zooming through all of the young fruits. My pocket is picked!
Finally, the cucumbers are lazily snaking their way into the other plants’ areas, and showing nothing for it. Like the zucchinis, they are all about showmanship. But fellas, we don’t see anything to support your territorialism.
And that run-down right there is the world in a nutshell, with yet another edition of Garden as Metaphor (C)…..