This spring we organized a grandchild garden experience. What could be more fun than planting and then watching your efforts become beautiful products of nature. Well in today’s world of instant feedback and reward, the kids had little patience for the two weeks required from seed to small plant. There was brief exhilaration as the seedlings appeared and began to grow. Helter, skelter was the mode of seed distribution except for the moss type seed pods that were way over filled with sunflower seeds . A month has passed and you can see the giant sunflower growing in a pot full or flowers and the garden itself has a five foot by eight foot section with hundreds of sunflowers fighting for exposure to the sun. No thinning was allowed.
This all came to mind this week when we attended a cocktail party with a few of our friends. The host is a real gardener, all of his plants are huge and productive. The tomatoes are 6 feet tall and the zucchini is that height with leaves that look like elephant ears. Our zucchini is a foot tall and although proud of our seed grown plants we have only a few golden flowers that will likely yield fruit, the comparison to a real gardner is amazing. I remarked on the beautiful plants and the first question from our host was “do you check the soil moisture each day?”. “No, how would I do that,” I asked – “soil moisture meter, plants need lots of water.” “Periodic fertilizer applications, plants need added nutrients to thrive.” I have ordered my hygrometer and applied fertilizer today. There maybe a secret sauce ingredient, a green thumb effect, but I will report in later on the simple fix.
Not sure why I gravitate to nursery rhymes, but I kept mentally repeating, Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?? You know the response, silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. Although there are several versions, I liked the Tommy Thumb Pretty Song Book, published in 1744. The final line is “so my garden grows.” Historically, the Mary’s may refer to the English royalty, Mary the First, or Bloody Mary, or Mary Queen of Scots. In a darkest evaluation, Bloody Mary, is the subject. How her garden grows refers to her lack of heirs and her willingness to eliminate women seen as obstacles which was “contrary” to her professed Catholic beliefs. Silver bells and cockle shells were instruments of torture, and maids in a row were Ladies in waiting. I love the English sense of satire and humor.
It is hot out there and getting hotter. Climate change is for real, imagine 115 in Salem Oregon this coming week. You have likely heard “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” This expression from India, at the time it was an English colony. The Indians would find shade and rest during midday, the hottest portion of the day. The English of course, based on tradition would go walking. I suggest you stay cool on these hot days and water the garden early in the morning.
Enjoy the week end. Mike