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Kathy’s Garden Writing |
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THE AUGUST GARDEN Michael Pollen (The Botany of Desire) describes the August vegetable garden as a “sweet wreck.” And he’s right! Despite all our careful plans -- for critter and weed control, a tidy layout, and a harvest in keeping with the number of mouths to feed -- nature asserts its unruliness by late summer. So how do our winter dreams and spring labors go astray? Well, for starters, there’s no predicting weather. Who could anticipate the hail damage to a tomato or corn crop? Or the cool wet spring that gets everything (except the weeds) off to a very slow start? Or the only extended dry spell, just when we sneak away for a much-deserved respite on a beach somewhere? Then there are the garden thugs who climb under or over the fence, or overwinter in the mulch, or hitch a ride with a new plant, or paratroop in after conducting aerial surveillance. These attackers are legion – chipmunks, flea beetles, chickweed, cabbage loopers, and a flock of robins, to name just a few. A nineteenth century gardener went so far as to write an essay titled “Garden Pests, Including Children;” and indeed, an enthusiastic child, let loose in the vegetable patch, can wreak every bit as much havoc as those destructive hail stones. Growth habits of various plants can likewise be surprising. Sometimes the squash vines creep along right where we had intended; some seasons they collapse all together due to the predations of squash vine borers; yet other years they insist on smothering the potatoes while delivering enough produce to feed a third world country. And who knew that an extra dose of compost would have the Swiss chard looking like elephant ears rather than dainty little salad greens? The gardener of course often unwittingly contributes to the August wreck, either planting too thickly, or forgetting to put a row cover over a tempty crop of seedlings, or failing to mark the location of those sunflower seeds that are now looming like skyscrapers over the pepper plants. Trellising in particular always seems to pose challenges in the gardener/plant relationship. Take tomatoes. Most gardeners have tried numerous staking and trellising methods; but tomato plants just won’t cooperate. Determinate varieties would much rather sprawl on the ground or be gently contained in cages. Indeterminate plants think the sky’s the limit; and the carefully-placed five-foot stakes are quickly overwhelmed. So what’s a gardener to do? The experienced know not to fret (too much). The bounty is indeed sweet, and there’s always next year to fulfill our vision of a well-tended edible greenspace. There’s also the Serenity Prayer, whose authorship has recently been up for question. But given the sentiments of this favorite petition, it seems pretty obvious that it was written by a gardener: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And the wisdom to know the difference. Amen to that! Kathleen Arcuri Published August 3, 2008 -- The Danville Daily Item |