Again with the Backyard Zen
Increasingly, I find myself not blogging or spending a lot of time online during the weekends. Part of this is accountable to the fact that it’s warm out and there are Things That Need To Be Done, but the other side of that is that after a week of writing at work and subjecting myself to the 24/7 hysteria known as “American Politics”, by the time the weekend is here I simply don’t give a shit anymore.
Instead of driving myself nuts on the Internets, I’m finding that the more work I do in the garden, the happier I am. I don’t even interact that much with my neighborhood anymore either, other than weekend street cleanups like the one I participated in at 8:30 this past Saturday morning.
Outside of that, it was all garden/all the time. Since the last time I wrote about the garden,we’ve established 3 more beds, bordered with some roofing slate I got from a guy fixing an old house four blocks away (I’ll try to post pictures later). One of these beds is home to my hops, which are coming along nicely. My Nugget hops has a really strong bine growing, which I trained to some line this morning; a couple of other shoots from the same rhizome don’t seem to be doing as well, and I’m concerned that something has eaten the heads, effectively killing the sprout. On the other side of the bed, the Cascade hops took a little longer to get started, but they have finally popped out of the soil and are growing rapidly. Last night, dropping by my friend Andrew’s place, I got a look at his neighbor’s hops. My God, those things are enormous, with leaves about the size of sauces and bines the thickness of household extension cords, stretching up about 20 feet to the second story window! Andrew’s neighbor’s hops are much further developed than mine (but they’re also clearly a few years older, when the bines grow much more rapidly).
We also got the cucumbers planted a week or so ago, but so far no sprouts. The baby beet greens and the turnips made an appearance this weekend, and I suspect in another week or two it’ll be time to thin them out. Our tomato seedlings have been planted, and the ones we started from seed have been transplanted to larger pots: they’ll go in the raised beds in another few weeks. We’ve planted marigolds and daisies to attract beneficials and parasitic wasps that eat aphids and other pests. The broccoli’s coming in strong as well, and the strawberry plant seems to be settling in happily.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been cutting back the honeysuckle that’s taken over my fence. I want to leave some of the bush, since it attracts bees and provides shelter for birds, both of which are welcome in the garden, but after discovering the remnants of a rosebush underneath the mass, I pulled away the majority of the honeysuckle and trained the rose to the fence instead. My efforts have been rewarded with new rose growth and the beginnings of flowerbuds!
After writing the paragraphs above, I took a quick look around the blogosphere and found nothing but disappointment. Example: the Supreme Court has upheld voter-id laws pushed by the GOP to disenfranchise key Democratic constituencies like blacks, the elderly, and urban voters (never mind that “The record contains no evidence of polling place impersonation fraud in Indiana: the State conceded that it was unaware of any incidents of attempted or successful impersonation fraud in Indiana; that no one in Indiana history has been indicted for impersonation fraud; and that no evidence of impersonation fraud was presented to the Indiana legislature during the debate over the photo ID law.”). Is it any wonder people are disenchanted and disillusioned with what this country has become, and believe that everyone in Washington DC is a self-interested liar with a self-interested agenda?
Meanwhile, I have $3.00 to my name while I wait for my pretend stimulus (which will be treated as taxable income next year) to arrive in the mail so I can pay some debts and support the black market economy. Of course, the stimulus is the equivalent of the abusive husband giving his wife a present or some money after the most recent beating. “I’m sorry babe, I didn’t mean it. It’s juts my temper you see, and… well here, go buy yourself something nice, and get some makeup to cover up that black eye.”
Is it any wonder I find myself caring less and less, spending more time with my broccoli and turnips?
2 Responses to “Again with the Backyard Zen”
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April 28th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’m a farmboy. When I look at a garden, I see work.
Give me the innertubes any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I’m so with you. The garden is my favorite place to be anymore. And we planted rhubarb this weekend! I can hardly wait until next year when I can harvest some. Though more and more I think of how great it will be to continue to afford to eat (and eat well) no matter how bad things get.