The Art of 'Thinning'

Looking at the pictures I took after 'The Rain',
I stopped to consider this one...













...then this one...














a pretty good example of the results of 'thinning'....and a close-up...

Will has always been on top of this when it comes to his vegetables...I never paid much attention, really. Occassionally, he will start to nudge me about thinning my flowers...'you really need to thin those zinninas'. Last year he even got down there with me to thin one of the incredibly long fencelines of flowers. It was hot and low-to-the-ground work. You have to kneel or squat. You can sit if you want, but you can't reach the back of the bed that way, and of course there are ants and redbugs and whatnot.

But that's not really my problem when it comes to thinning, and this is one of the things that makes Will more of a grownup than I am when it comes to gardening.

You see, I just feel so sorry for the ones I have to pull up. How to choose? Gee, I mean, I planted all these seeds and all these little guys came up and who am I to decide which to destroy?
You have to admit that's a little rediculous. I don't know how many of you do this, but every time I'm in the garden and I accidentally break of a branch or a bud or hoe up a plant when going after a weed, I always whisper "I'm so sorry!", in all sincerity apologizing to the plant I have just injured! And I'm so careful. I even have trouble, when re-potting plants from a flat to peat pots, throwing out the one or two in the flat that are scrawny or sad-looking. This is certainly not rational or productive or even practical!
So, I never DO thin my flowers...and I usually get this...But if you get a big storm, or just a lot of wind..

first you have this



















then you have this



















I'm betting that they'll stand back up in a day or two. But if I had been willing to sacrifice to the thinning gods, these cosmos would have been individually bigger and stronger in the first place!

Will's philosophy is pretty specific, I know this because we've had this discussion... we've talked about it....he says he just gets down in there and thinks...
"You live, You die, You live, You Die..."
I swear he told me this, and I'll bet that he does whisper this under his breath when he's thinning. We all have things we say quietly when we garden.