Des Vertus Savoy Cabbage
Poppy
I am on vacation and missing my garden desperately. Is it growing slow and steady or fast and furious? (Information has trickled in that cool weather would favor slow and steady.) Are the weeds and cucumber beetles overtaking my cukes and small delicate melons? Or are their tendril like arms stretching and overcoming their aggressors? Are there any blushing tomatoes hiding under green umbrellas waiting to be found and plucked? I do not know. I can only imagine the neat weeded rows as I left them. The peas gone unpicked. The tight whitish green raspberries sprinkled over thorny bushes.
Ten days ago we weeded and fed, staked up and nestled in the garden in preparation for our absence. The vegetable garden was more orderly than I had ever seen it. We pulled out of the driveway with a sideways glance at this tidiness and the flower garden at its height. My delphiniums, roses, coreopsis and daises blooming for fear there is no tomorrow. The grass was neatly trimmed and edged, scattered toys were put away and lawn furniture was in its place. My outdoor world was the perfection I imagine during the chaos that pervades our days.
And for what did we labor the last days before departure knowing we wouldn’t be there to enjoy it? While I sit by the lake, my feet on the warm boards of the dock, a cool breeze ruffling by, I have the image of my garden growing vigorously at the height of summer, with the advantage on its side, in a place of complete order. What will I return to? Two days time will tell.
Note: I have returned. If ever you think your garden is not growing, go away for two weeks. Crimson poppies have taken over the flower beds. My onions are a foot closer to heaven and there is lots of food- potatoes, shallots, broccoli, carrots, beans and raspberries.
