Category Archives: garden

quiet

I haven’t been posting much lately. As my family-of-origin can attest, silence is pretty atypical in the Jana-verse. 🙂

Some reasons for my silence:
1) the garden. taking all of my free moments. no wireless access there…
2) the kids’ swim season began. we had out first meet yesterday. six hours in the blazing hot sun. cheering the kids in each of their races, forking out money at the “shark shack” for popsicles, chatting with other parents. C&E practice every evening for two hours, which means a huge chunk of my day is spent at the pool sans junebug (my trusty laptop)
3) end of the quarter fatigue. wanting to shed responsibility, nap, and lie in my hammock (which just emerged from the closet for the summer)
4) our digital camera is sorta-broken. it’s now a battery-sucking monster (meaning, that you have to replace the batteries after using it for about 5 minutes).
5) i’ve been doing a lot of contemplation. thinking rather than writing. it’s a good place to be for now.

i expect that i’ll be back to my regularly scheduled daily postings soon. in the meantime…you can find me in the garden.

“want a taquito?”

I was pulling the thigh-high weeds along the back fence of my garden. The professional gardeners who were working to clear an adjacent area of the community garden were taking a mid-morning break. I’ve worked side-by-side with these guys all week long–me puttering around in my garden, them using their industrial-grade equipment a few yards away. They’ve shared some advice with me, and we’ve worked to overcome some language barriers (they all speak Spanish).

So today one of them gestured to catch my attention as they were snacking on corn tortillas, beans, and Squirt. He called out:

“Hey, garden lady…want a taquito?”

I vascillated. I wanted very much to fraternize with these guys–they’d been so nice to me over the past few days (even carrying out some of my loads of weeds to the dumpster for me). They were having a jolly breaktime together and I was envious of their cameraderie. But I was too nervous about whether I would be offered meat, and I wondered at the impropriety of my lunching with a bunch of sweaty, very manly, guys.

I smiled as sincerely as I could and yelled back:

“No…but thank you.”

But as I continued to work in my garden and they continued to eat I was mentally kicking myself–afraid that I’d appeared elitist or selfish or cowardly. And I _did_ want to join them.

But the table where they ate–though it was just 3 or 4 yards away from where I stood–was way too far out of my comfort zone.

java, java, java

I don’t care much for coffee…I have the strong Mormon prohibition against it and, IMO, it’s just bitter nasty stuff. And then there’s the fact that I worked in a coffee shop during my early college years and I just lost interest in the smell after inhaling it for hours a day. Also, I was really shocked recently to learn that the only commodity that the US imports more of than coffee is OIL. Yes, we buy that much coffee. Incroyable!

[Note: The exception to my coffee dislike being coffee-flavored ice cream, which is awesome.]

However, my garden OOZES coffee smell. Just today I amended my soil with worm castings and coffee grounds. The sun was out and the soil was warm. My plot smelled more ripe with expresso than Starbucks. This is the first year that I’ve used coffee as a soil additive. And now I’m wondering if my tomatoes will have a slight java flavor? Hmm….

gardenlust


garden rose
Originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

Picked this rose in my garden this afternoon–from an abandoned bush that I rescued and watered all winter. What a lovely fiery red!!
It was perfect gardening weather today. We wore shorts and pulled weeds. The earth was perfectly soft from the recent rains, so it was easy work. Now that I got a little dirt under my nails I am eager to get back in and finish the huge job of weeding (we had unbelievable growth from the recent rains!)…

eulogy

Will y’all join with me in mourning the loss of my favorite sweatshirt?

I first acquired this item while an undergrad at UCI (way back in the 80s). I spent a few of my hard-earned Zot-N-Go dollars on this heathered gray sewatshirt w/the UCI logo written in navy blue across the front. I wore it while I was pregnant w/ both kids, while riding on the ferry at Balboa, and toted it on trips to Colorado, Bakerfield, and Portland. It was a favorite accessory during the chilly fall & spring in Utah. When I was curled up reading a book, this sweatshirt was often the only thing that made me feel really comfortable. Every member of my family has borrowed it at one time or another and loved it about as much as I do.

But two weeks ago I accidentally left it in my garden and by the next morning it had disappeared. I put out a desperate notice to all my fellow gardeners to PLEASE return my favorite sweatshirt. But to no avail. I’m now starting to reconcile myself to my loss. But it’s not easy. I miss it. I suppose I always will…

bees in the lavender


photo by E
Originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

E and her skill w/the camera never cease to amaze me. Just loaded some of her latest garden pix up to flickr. Click on this photo to see them all. 🙂

(Those of you who live in the north, eat your heart out–this was last weekend in the Secret Garden on a super-lovely Sunday afternoon!!)

garden variety porn

This last week the mailbox was quite full of glossy mags w/enticing full-color pictures–it’s that time of year that all of the garden catalogs are sent out.

I have mine piled in a basket in the bathroom. Pictures of juicy melons, heirloom variety tomatoes, and bright flowers tempt me each time I sit on the throne….

A few years ago during garden catalog season I got together with some friends to peruse the mags. We were all comparing notes on different seed varities and were pooling our garden funds so we could each get a greater variety of seeds for less $$. My friend Yvette pointed to some of the glossy pages and said:

“You know what this is, it’s porn for gardeners.”

And she is so right. Those pics are airbrushed and doctored and every flaw is removed to be more enticing to those of us sitting through a bleak January, dreaming about being barefoot in the summer, running our hands through the warm soil, letting blackberry juice dribble down our chins and nibbling crisp raw corn straight off of the stalk. And then thinking about the tomatoes–the sun-warmed fruits that you can pick straight off the vine, brush off on your shirt and stuff the whole thing into your mouth…

Yah….admit it. You were fantasizing there for a moment, too.
🙂

garden

Spent a few hours in my garden yesterday. I hadn’t been out there for three months(!).

Fortunately most of the plants fared well during my absence. I enjoyed the scent of lavender as I soaked the roots of my bushes, ran my hands over the rosemary, and admired the bougainvillea and many other plants that continued to thrive.

I picked a huge batch of ‘rainbow lights’ swiss chard that I later cooked as a side dish with our dinner (yum!).