GARDEN: zeus is five. garden’s alive.
Happy birthday, big guy. You’re getting a pork chop for dinner, then another play date with your buddy, Jet. And pupcakes for everyone!
It’s getting to be quite a jungle out there. The natives are getting established in the hugelkulture mounds, and the amaranth, lambsquarters, and self-sown tomatoes in the backyard raised bed are head-high. I’ve built up some good soil here over the past three years. I still can’t believe I have to walk away from it all in just a few short weeks. I’m eager to make a fresh start in a new place, without all the memories and dreams I had for this one. I’ve been pretty hands-off with the garden here this year- because it and I don’t share a future, it’s hard. And it hurts. But it’s still beautiful, if a little wild… which frankly, is how I prefer it… like me, independently abundant, pretty, sure, but tough and a little rough around the edges, more fierce than fancy.
But it still grew these. And feeds these:
Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day… well, it will if I don’t hack down this burdock before those seedheads harden… but it’s pretty in bloom, if thorny. But so are roses. The bees need them both.
Wild garlic and squash in containers.
And the first tomato!
So I’m putting as much as I can this year in pots and taking my oasis with me. I’m not going far- it’s a two minute walk. Next door I’ll have goats and pigs and a pergola and a waterfall, and I can bring my chickens along and the dog, of course, and, and, and… so many good things, and I’m so grateful this spot came my way. It will be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to working on the future rather than being surrounded by the past. I’ll be closer to the community garden I’ve been helping to build, and still in the community that I’ve grown to love so much in spite of its flaws. It’s rough around the edges too, but there’s a lot more here than most people would see. I get frustrated with it, and mad as hornets at it sometimes, but it’s home. I can’t think of anywhere else in the city I’d want to be, but here, on this street.