garden continued

Right now the cool thing to do is to walk down around the garden after dinner and check out all the new baby vegetables. Look under the mammoth squash plant; there are some cucumbers bursting off the vine! Look at the squash exploding off that stalk! Hey, check out the maters growing under those leaves. The gourd squash sends out tentacles grabbing at the teepee frame. The pumpkins race out gripping hold of whatever they can, and pushing out baby pumpkins at every turn. The basil reaches for the sky undaunted by summer heat. The beans race around the fence as if intentionally striving to reach the other side. The mint doubling its leaves at every cut, the thyme pillaging the side of the wall it hangs over, and the rosemary-strong, sturdy, and filling the air with its sweet perfume.

There is no better reminder of the very pulse of life than the planting of seed and bursting forth of fruit. It is sensual, cerebral, and mysterious all at once.

We should be the generation that returns to local gardening as a part of a return to healthy, vibrant, independent living. We should be the generation that plants something sustainable in every yard we inhabit with the hope that the next home-dwellers will benefit from the fruit. How anti-capitalistic can one be than to plan for the sustenance of those one will never meet or profit from.