Ten-Finger Exercises

Working in the chaos

We got our garden plot cleaned out and tilled weeks ago; and ever since then, except the days it reached 100 degrees, it rained. You can see I'm not a true farmer. Not only were there plenty of spaces in time to rush out and work there without fear of rain or heatstroke, I think a true farmer would disregard everything but lightning strikes.

Regardless of the reasons, I have neglected it. And in the meantime it has amply planted itself with leftover seeds from last year. Zucchini that overgrew its bounds last summer and choked out all the peppers has offspring over two-thirds of the garden. A few small tomato plants struggle up in odd places, and a dozen ears of corn sprout out of line from last year's crop. Then there are sunflowers all over the place. They are the giant grey stripe variety that we had a dozen of last year and found that the birds didn't like the seeds.

So this morning I took my trusty hula hoe and went to work. I pulled out the sunflowers, leaving a small border at the back of the plot for looks. I distroyed all the grass that looks like new corn coming up and pulled a lot of zucchini too. I have to go into town in an hour, so I'll finish the work another time, but it will have to be soon.