Garden - Xcentric Diffractions

Xcentric Diffractions

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Garden

A collection of 15 posts

The Great Squash-Up

The Great Squash-Up

“One of these things is not like the others” OK, that’s a trick header. Sort of like over-thinking an SAT logic question on the exam. It is supposed to read, “One of these squash is not like the others.” The coffee mug is just there for context. And caffeine.

Emergency Landing

Emergency Landing

The discovery was not altogether unexpected. I have often entered the summer squash forest, sometimes seemingly lost for weeks at a time. It is cooler there, under the shade of the towering scalloped canopy, and moist. The ground is soft and covered in leaf litter, empty tubular stems broken and

The Night Watchmen

The Night Watchmen

The woods here are relatively young. Young in tree time, in any case. Their ancestors were felled long ago, cleared to make way for pasture. The rusty relics of barbed-wire fencing still wind through the forest floor marking old property boundaries, paddocks, and hay fields. Once strung to contain livestock,

No Poppy Asked for This

No Poppy Asked for This

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. -- John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields" There are

Winter Carrots

Last fall I wrote about the “Carrot Cabana” I set up to protect our little carrot seedlings from the scalding summer sun, which stalks the skies here in August. Well, it was worth it. This mid-winter, with snow on the ground (itself a rare thing in these times), I can

Thanksgiving Thanks

Thanksgiving Thanks

The American Thanksgiving myth of my youth focused on “The Harvest”. Like the blessing of a large harvest of potatoes from the garden. Enough to live through the winter. Enough to give away. But the harvest allegory encompassed the wider sphere of blessings. I knew it then and I certainly

Frost Times

SLAM THE TOWN 2024 A National Poetry Month – Virtual Interactivity of POEMS FROM HOME to ALL OVER Frost Times Three nights in a row. Crystal clear below freezing. My old tomato vines, still brave with a blossom or two, on Halloween night felt their cells burst, contents lacerated and crushed

The Carrot Cabana

The Carrot Cabana

Each year for several now, I have sown a fall/winter succession of carrots. They grow well in the cooler days of Fall here. And in late December, during the darkest days of the year, it is an emotional and gastronomic delight to dig up iridescent orange carrots out of

As High As an Elephant's Eye

As High As an Elephant's Eye

They call the wind Mariah. I put off growing sweet corn my whole life. It’s too fussy. It takes up too much room. The price of confetti on the Chicago commodities market is too high. You know. The usual. Three years ago I accidentally wandered into the Sweet Corn

Talking to Toads

Talking to Toads

I confess. It’s true. I talk to the toads. Not that I go looking for conversation. But often, as I scuffle hoe the garden, a modest size clump of soil will suddenly take up animation and leap off to one side. “Well, hello there! I see you now.” “It’

A Garden with Weeds

A Garden with Weeds

Five-thirty PM. A wasted day. There was so much to be done and I had done none of it. Hunched over a keyboard. Working on an essay I wanted to finish yesterday. It’s not like I don’t know what to say. Snippets of words, run-on sentences, and half-outlines

Spring Equinox

Another celestial milestone passed. And another seasonal milestone passed too: I finished putting my seed potatoes in the ground today. The old farmer’s tale, at least around here, is to get your potatoes planted before St. Patrick’s Day. I missed that by a wee bit. In recompense, I’

Calendars

Don't let anyone fool you. February is the longest month. This morning I caught garlic shoots peeking through the straw calculating the cold. Such optimism!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The time when seed catalogs show up in the mail!! Yay!! I can trace this heritage back to grammar school days in Rochester when the Harris Seeds catalog would arrive. I’m pleased to say that Harris Seeds (“since 1879”) is still going strong, although my own seed alliances have

When a Tree Falls

When a Tree Falls

Tending the kale in my winter garden, an old tree fell in the woods, finally downed by the December winds. I can report that it made a sound because I heard it.