That's just the way it is: The garden is so beautiful. Everything is tall and strong. Then things get even taller. Then comes a storm of one sort or another. High winds or much rain or both. It is late in the season. Plants are past their prime. You want everything to stop and stay the same for a while. But that can't be. One day your garden is something fit for a postcard. The next day (after the storm) things are disheveled. One thing falls on top of another. There is mud, so you cannot make things right - not for at least a few days. When 'the smoke clears' you realize that, once again, the garden has won and you have lost. You cannot possibly just 'straighten things out'. You will, in the end, have to mow and plow and start all over. Darn! So - let us admire what there is while we can. Because even things that have fallen over are beautiful in their own way.
Here, we have precariously leaning sunflowers and old squash thrown to the side: a staple of every Southern garden.
Here we have something that has been flattened on purpose: Obviously, someone has been tromping around in the corn, tearing off ears and stomping on fallen plants. That's ok. We are pleased that the corn is 'over'.
Even the flowers must fall over at some point. It's not an emergency with flowers, because there's nothing to harvest - and they are just as beautiful up or down.
As with any garden, things are winding down while other things are just cranking up. Although the sunflowers are on their way out, the okra is just now coming into it's own.
Once you are able to admit that you have, once again, lost control of the garden...you can at least admire the sheer wildness of the situation. The garden wrests control from you, and lives the way it wants to. You don't really want to haul out the tractor...it was so much work, after all. Let's let things be for a week or two. Fall planting is still a long way off. And there are a lot of veggies in there. What I'm trying to say is this: we have moved from wielding a big stick over orderly rows to being thankful that we are allowed to remove edible things from the craziness of the garden. Next up: melons...
Here, we have precariously leaning sunflowers and old squash thrown to the side: a staple of every Southern garden.
Here we have something that has been flattened on purpose: Obviously, someone has been tromping around in the corn, tearing off ears and stomping on fallen plants. That's ok. We are pleased that the corn is 'over'.
Even the flowers must fall over at some point. It's not an emergency with flowers, because there's nothing to harvest - and they are just as beautiful up or down.
As with any garden, things are winding down while other things are just cranking up. Although the sunflowers are on their way out, the okra is just now coming into it's own.
Once you are able to admit that you have, once again, lost control of the garden...you can at least admire the sheer wildness of the situation. The garden wrests control from you, and lives the way it wants to. You don't really want to haul out the tractor...it was so much work, after all. Let's let things be for a week or two. Fall planting is still a long way off. And there are a lot of veggies in there. What I'm trying to say is this: we have moved from wielding a big stick over orderly rows to being thankful that we are allowed to remove edible things from the craziness of the garden. Next up: melons...
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