In a very short span of time I went from being "Mom" in a busy household of six, to living alone. My daughter gave me her very special "dog-like" cat for company. To fill up time I started my jewelry business, joined non profit boards, village government, and started a garden.
It's a vegetable garden, but my first priority is that it provides aesthetic pleasure. Therefore there are sunflowers, red runner beans, hollyhocks, and lots of paths. The crops are carefully chosen for my table: garlic, chard, fingerling potatoes, salad greens, tomatoes, asparagus and always--a Three Sisters garden comprising corn, beans and pumpkins. The corn is never a winner, but it does hold up the red runner beans, and, after all, it's all about The Beauty.
I rotate my crops from raised bed to raised bed, but even so, the potato beetles and the Japanese beetles always find the potatoes and beans. And for some reason, the cabbage worms are so bad on my property that I can't keep up with them even when I come out every morning to pick off worms of only eight plants!
This summer, my daughter bought an adorable golden doodle puppy, and had to leave for her job overseas before he was old enough to travel. So I have him. His name is Patrick. He's a darling full time job. We walk on the beach two times a day, go to puppy classes, find puppy play dates, and he still has energy to spare. His favorite thing to do is terrorize the middle aged cat, who amazingly does not put out her claws but does hiss and bat his face like a champion boxer.
Yesterday, exhausted by the animal action in my house, I walked over to the garden to see how things were doing. I had picked off the Japanese beetles, and cabbage worms early in the morning. But for the first time, I saw asparagus beetles climbing up the leftover ferns. But it wasn't until I looked over at my defoliated tomato plants to stare in the face of a huge, grotesque tomato horn worm that I felt totally inundated by creatures.
Holy Moly. I am in the middle of my own zoo! I'm certainly not alone.
It's a vegetable garden, but my first priority is that it provides aesthetic pleasure. Therefore there are sunflowers, red runner beans, hollyhocks, and lots of paths. The crops are carefully chosen for my table: garlic, chard, fingerling potatoes, salad greens, tomatoes, asparagus and always--a Three Sisters garden comprising corn, beans and pumpkins. The corn is never a winner, but it does hold up the red runner beans, and, after all, it's all about The Beauty.
I rotate my crops from raised bed to raised bed, but even so, the potato beetles and the Japanese beetles always find the potatoes and beans. And for some reason, the cabbage worms are so bad on my property that I can't keep up with them even when I come out every morning to pick off worms of only eight plants!
This summer, my daughter bought an adorable golden doodle puppy, and had to leave for her job overseas before he was old enough to travel. So I have him. His name is Patrick. He's a darling full time job. We walk on the beach two times a day, go to puppy classes, find puppy play dates, and he still has energy to spare. His favorite thing to do is terrorize the middle aged cat, who amazingly does not put out her claws but does hiss and bat his face like a champion boxer.
Holy Moly. I am in the middle of my own zoo! I'm certainly not alone.
