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Cultivating war

I’ve been busy all day, cultivating my garden and my people, sometimes simultaneously!  I am forever on the lookout for tips to making gardening work with my laissez faire style. And I’ve found some tips, like my ollas and this very cool method of irrigating with wine bottlesBut the truth is, all gardening takes work, there are no shortcuts. A lazy gardener is merely the owner of a collection of dead plants and boxes of dirt.

I’m realizing gardening is a quiet war. Nature resents my neat rows and ordered plantings. Weeds, weather, bugs, and bunnies all threaten my plans. It’s like Ozymandias every day. Or the Course of Empire. We till and plant by the sweat of our brow, and while we sleep, or eat, or wait for the plants to do something, nature sallies forth and strikes a blow.  In my case, her favorite weapon seems to be bunnies.

That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!
That’s the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!

It’s actually a helpful thought: gardening is contending with nature, not working with it.  It is continual effort, a daily war to overcome the natural tendency toward entropy. Garden planning is strategy; planting, feeding, weeding are all battles in the larger war. My secret weapon is worm poop. Every year we fight, and so far, every year Nature wins. But maybe this is my year. Kinda gives Victory Gardens a new meaning, huh?

I know what you're thinking: What the heck is that thing on her head?
I know what you’re thinking: What the heck is that thing on her head?

So I go to war, and hopefully this winter I will be feasting and enjoying the tales of my victory over my enemy. But most likely I’ll be licking my wounds and plotting next year’s battles.

One response to “Cultivating war”

  1. […] my ongoing agricultural war, I’ve made a lot of headway. We solved the water problem, moved the beds to the front to solve […]

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