It's Monday afternoon. Well after noon. Let's get something straight - I'm not procrastinating. I spent the weekend at the cottage and need a little warmup before launching back into serious writing work... this is just the stretching before the marathon of the week. It's the vocal warmups before the concert. Je me dis.
Besides, I am waiting for my sun tea to steep. Sun tea is an alchemical marvel: I don't understand why it works. It's somewhat related to gardening - because it sits in the sun, and it makes use of the copious mint patch gaily laying seige on the whole extents of your herb patch at this time of year.
If you've never tried it, try it. Put some tea bags (any kind) in a clear glass vessel (plastic just won't cut it, I have been told). Muddle in some mint leaves or whatever. Put something lid-like on top to keep the flies out. Sit in sun - outside, or in a sunny window. After some time (maybe an hour?) when it looks like it has become tea, add honey and ice and maybe lemon and voila! Drink it, while cackling: nice try Nestea, you drool.
Here are some hibiscus bags dropping delicious pink swirls into the water.
A brief foray into the cute:
My first wee zucchini tackling the weeds, making its way into the world. How adorable. I can't wait to grill you.
ON THE BADASS AND THE BEAUTIFUL
Duncan was recently commenting that his garden had maybe too much pretty and not enough badass, so I thought I'd write some more badass tips.
I think badass is best thought of as a state of mind. Sometimes it's your mind, sometimes it's the plants' mind. And like one's own mind, the badass parts are often simply hidden behind a harmless-looking, don't-ask-me-i'm-just-doin-my-job, vulnerable, crunchy visage. So I have listed a few important badass themes, or archetypes if you will, that I have found represented in my own postage stamp.
SABOTAGE
Take this lettuce for example. Lettuce is basically the milk-sopping pantywaist of the plant world, right? Not a chance - as the Whole Foods Companion* reveals, it was traditionally known as the Eunuch's Herb, because the resinous white goo in mature stems suppresses sexual desire. Not such a retreating plant after all. Lovers of the world beware, and don't overdo the salad.
DEBAUCHERY AND THIEVERY
I think this broken gnome statuette is pretty badass. It looks like it's had a little too much dandelion wine, which is why it's hiding from the sun behind some virginia creeper. Oh, and it was stolen it from an old lady's lawn.
I have an old tree-stump in my garden which supports many types of fungus and critters. Not that I really like critters, but I hear I'm supposed to. I do think it's kinda cool when critters take down other critters, as in the time when I saw an earwig try to make it across ant territory... man, did he get it. In any case, there was some mad ant action in the stump last week. Strangely, it has stopped as mysteriously and suddenly as it began. In the meantime, they made one hella pile of sawdust for having such wee mouths.
These mullen plants emerged all on their own so I decided to let them do their thing. I think they're kinda pretty. Oh, I mean, badass. Watch the blog for tickets to the end-of season mullen swordfight.
Here, I am subverting the tyranny of the capitalist seed distribution system by making my own spinach seed. The trick is to be lazy, and let your spinach patch get completely overgrown.
Well, that's all the badass I've got for now.
A brief, earnest remark: I recently went to the beautiful, woodsy wedding of some eco-conscious friends who don't like piles of stuff. Awesome. They asked for donations to Seeds for Survival - a project to "promote long-term food security for marginal farming communities in developing countries.... using time-tested farmer knowledge and practices" .. that is, to support biodiversity + local crops + sustainable farming practice. It made my inner gardener happy. And I didn't have to go the Bay at all.
Sun tea time!
*Product endorsement - The Whole Foods Companion by Dianne Onstad. This book is amazing. If this wasn't a completely genuine endorsement, and I was at all profiting from endorsing it, I would probably be able to own a copy, instead of just coveting it. Did you know papaya seeds are edible and taste like really peppery capers? I didn't either. But it's seriously true.
Laura - great! I feel much better about the badassness of my garden now - I'm seeing all kinds of baddass shiz in it that I didn't even know was there before: like my 'dark horse'plant, as mysterious as that badass kid who shows up in highschool movies wearing a leather jacket and no-one knows about his murky past, or the kind of vicious duking it out that's going on between my rocket (itself a pretty badass name) and nasturtiums - it's kind of like the sharks and the jets. . .
ReplyDeleteAlso - did you know that you can smoke mullen?