Signs of Summer
A beautiful, light rain fell this afternoon, the kind that leaves a mist hanging heavy in the air through which the sun sets. I know it made the garden happy -- it’s amazing the difference between a good hose watering and an adequate rain shower. There’s something more complete and nurturing to a plant about rain; you can see it right away. The greens fairly glow, and you’d swear every rain drop opened a spot of soil for a weed or planted seed to pop up in.
And while I look forward to these warm, late-spring showers, I must say I am less enthralled by some other signs of summer coming. Something is turning tomato leaves into brown lace, and burrowing holes in our earliest-ripening fruits. They are probably two different pests, and are probably different still from the bugs that are munching big holes indiscriminately throughout the garden, but the evidence seemed to appear all at once in these past few weeks full of mid-eighties days and occasional thunderstorms.
But still the planting goes on. Robin donated two dozen plants late last week, almost all of which we’ve found homes for. We used a bunch of them to start back up the little bed next to the east side of the bottle wall that had gotten kind of overlooked and neglected for a while. In fact, the plants who lived there ended up meeting a sad end -- in their disguise among Virginia Creeper and poison ivy, they got weed-wacked. So we planted up a bunch of four o’clocks, a few shrimp plants, a comfrey, and a pineapple sage and promised to take better care this time around.
In our effort to take better care in general, we’ve stepped up the weeding effort and even utilized some organic insecticides on the tomatoes. We’re also being less emotional about fading plants -- in their weakened states, they attract bugs, so up they come.
On a happier note, Kitty Kerner has written a review of Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire that will be published in next month’s Apalachee Tortoise. I just finished editing the review, and thoroughly enjoyed remembered how much I liked the book when I read it a few years ago. It’s at both the public and the university library should you be inspired to pick it up (and I think you will).
And while I look forward to these warm, late-spring showers, I must say I am less enthralled by some other signs of summer coming. Something is turning tomato leaves into brown lace, and burrowing holes in our earliest-ripening fruits. They are probably two different pests, and are probably different still from the bugs that are munching big holes indiscriminately throughout the garden, but the evidence seemed to appear all at once in these past few weeks full of mid-eighties days and occasional thunderstorms.
But still the planting goes on. Robin donated two dozen plants late last week, almost all of which we’ve found homes for. We used a bunch of them to start back up the little bed next to the east side of the bottle wall that had gotten kind of overlooked and neglected for a while. In fact, the plants who lived there ended up meeting a sad end -- in their disguise among Virginia Creeper and poison ivy, they got weed-wacked. So we planted up a bunch of four o’clocks, a few shrimp plants, a comfrey, and a pineapple sage and promised to take better care this time around.
In our effort to take better care in general, we’ve stepped up the weeding effort and even utilized some organic insecticides on the tomatoes. We’re also being less emotional about fading plants -- in their weakened states, they attract bugs, so up they come.
On a happier note, Kitty Kerner has written a review of Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire that will be published in next month’s Apalachee Tortoise. I just finished editing the review, and thoroughly enjoyed remembered how much I liked the book when I read it a few years ago. It’s at both the public and the university library should you be inspired to pick it up (and I think you will).
posted by Honey Youngblood at 10:54 PM
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