Wednesday Garden Field Note: Weed. Water. Rest. Repeat.

The clouds provide shelter from the sun today.

A stiff swirling breeze keeps the humidity from settling too heavily and discourages the mosquitoes and biting yellow flies enough that I can work in peace.

Coneflowers finished blooming are cut back. Bee balm is tidied. They both seem to have started making new shoots and blooms so hopefully that is where their energy will go. Good grief there are a lot of them. They’ve multiplied without being asked. AWisteria is reminded where it belongs. Not everywhere….

Tomatoes, sigh, heavy with green growth, are thinned in hopes they'll put their remaining energy into fruit instead of more vines.

The large ones were not much of a success…but the cherries where prosperous. The pepper plants? poke. Poke. Are you going to do anything?

I glance at the basil. Some tall and bush. The seedlings. Poke. Poke. Are you going to do anything before fall? You seem to keep from growing. But I’ve heard you may surprise me soon. You are tropical after all. I learned that this year. I should have known you were waiting for August heat.

The pile of cuttings can wait. Tall now. Amassed. It will shrink. It will begin becoming something else. Not every task has to be finished today. Wish i had a chipper shredder to feed you through… hmm.. one day?

Summer gardens aren't neat. They're sprawling, determined, and a little unruly. Mine is no different. The weeds return. The vines wander. Blossoms fade. Some vegetables flourish while others simply survive. And I’m prickly with sweat and (scratch scratch) skin irritation. Prickly bumps all up my arms. They go away in an hour.

The work isn't to conquer the garden.

It's to tend it. Imperfectly. Set the next chapter.

Right now. I rest, water.

Weed and repeat Wednesday.