Now What?

I'm at a place in the garden where I'm out on a limb like our friend, Phoebis philea. Let's just call her Phoebe for short. Like Phoebe, I've done all i can do this summer and there seems to be no where to go. I've gardened all my life and have been interested in gardening all my life. At the age of seven I was begging for space in my parents yard for a garden to grow tomatoes. Popi, who is an everything in it's place, everything linear and symmetrical man, banished me to the alley full of nothing but oyster shells. I remember his lecture about the benefits of sand and oyster shells vs a plot in the well-tended yard. At the age of seven it was clear to me that he was full of compost. Undaunted, I did the best I could with what i was given and we had a stellar tomato crop that year. I don't remember harvesting or eating tomatoes or any other details regarding the situation. I do remember vividly however, how shocked Popi was. Sweet, sweet tomato revenge!


Gardeners are like that. If any one can make chicken soup from chicken poop (or in our household, horse poop) it's a gardener. I admit though, having spent my formative years in Portland, Oregon has posed a significant challenge for me. After 50 years of stubbornness I finally surrendered to a terrible tropical truth. I can't grow lilacs so I grow crepe myrtle which kind of looks like a lilac. I can't grow cherry trees so I grow Surinam cherries. I can't grow apples so I grow Myers Lemons. I finally surrendered. It was a truly, terrifying moment in my life.

I keep looking over my shoulders for the flying monkeys.

It's now too hot do any gardening so I'm at a standstill. I'm sure there are hardy souls out there digging but not me. In our state the summer months are planning months. For those of you who are non-gardeners there are two types of gardeners. Planners and Plunkers. I'm a plunker. I will move something around 5 times before it pleases my eye. Spending weeks planning is not in my nature but I'm slowly surrendering to that as well.

The exciting news this summer is that I've been approached by a few families who are interested in working with me to turn my little plot into a community effort. Working together, planting together and harvesting together with a group as adamant about forming community ties as I am sounds very exciting! We are getting together over pizza and seed catalogs soon. Hopefully, there are some non-plunkers in our gardening group that we can farm out the planning to! So maybe summer in the tropics isn't so bad after all. I think Phoebe would agree.