Each morning, usually about two hours in, my writing slows to the point where I feel the need to step away from the writing table. In the summer, I usually walk into my backyard to check out the gardens. I do not go there to water or pull weeds. I just go there to look. At this time of year, things can change in a day.
The most dramatic change is always with the squash and cucumber plants. Manyu likes kabocha squash, so I’m trying to grow that particular variety this year. With the cucumbers, I don’t remember what I bought. The seed carousel at the garden center had a half dozen varieties of cucumber that all looked the same to me, so I just grabbed one. I planted both the squash and the cucumbers along the back fence of my vegetable garden so their vines would have something to cling to. Once these plants encounter a vertical surface, their tendrils sometimes grow three or four inches in a day. I may have made a mistake in planting the squash along the fence, as the tendrils might not be strong enough to hold up the vines once they start producing fruit. From past experience, I know that the cucumbers will be fine.
Besides the squash and cucumbers, I also check out what I think are purple coneflowers.Two summers ago I planted coneflower seeds alongside the small strawberry patch in my vegetable garden. Something sprouted where I had scattered the seeds, and the leaves looked like coneflowers to me. Manyu thought that they were something else, some kind of weed, and she wanted me to pull them out. I convinced her to give the plants a chance.
That first year the plants grew to be about a foot tall, but produced no flowers. Last summer I dug up most of the plants and moved them from the vegetable garden to three different spots in my flower beds.* That year the plants grew to about two feet tall, but still no flowers. Again Manyu asked me to pull them out, but I let them be. This summer the plants came back strong, and they all developed large green buds at the very tips of their stems. None of the buds have opened yet, even though other coneflowers in my neighborhood are already in full bloom. Every morning I look at the buds, hoping they’ve opened enough to prove Manyu wrong. So far nothing.
About a quarter of my vegetable garden is in cilantro, green onion, and chives. All are doing very well (the chives and onions are out of control), but because of Manyu’s current dietary restrictions we don’t use any of them to season our food. All gardeners give away some of their produce to friends. So far this year, we’ve given away everything.
* The coneflowers are a part of a grander plan to gradually replace most of my exotics with native species.
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