The Past in Present Tense

Outside in the porch swing with my first cup of tea. The morning is cool, as it should be in the month of June, and the swing rocks slowly. It seems a day of infinite possibilities—a day when a boy on a motorcycle might kiss a girl on a horse. A long, glorious summer day that will give way to a short summer night, a night of stars and kisses, whispered promises and scraps of poems.

For me, this is a month loaded with events and memories. Events that, even as they are celebrated, are missing some of their zest. My birthday, the first of our sons to graduate college. Father’s Day, a bittersweet day--three beautiful young men a testament to our love’s immortality. Shane’s birthday at the end of this month, a day that has been traditionally celebrated with a huge German chocolate cake—his favorite.

Summer 1978

Memories are, in turn, both blessing and curse.  I remember everything. The anniversary of the first time Shane kissed me--so many years ago I hesitate to number them. I remember a starry summer sky framed by towering fir, looking like a tie-dyed t-shirt, he claims and makes me laugh. The smell of forest duff, of tangy pitch, of sun-warmed skin.

I remember the day we moved into the new home we had built only to find out the very next day at the obstetrician appointment that we were expecting twins and our spacious new abode was now a bedroom short.

June is a month overflowing with memories, a month stuffed with events that Shane will not be here to share. Somehow it will be my job to go forward into all the possibilities of the future while my heart seems to have taken up residence in the past.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Abby Cat cares not one whit that gardens are a
cat-free zone. She claims that she is a barn cat
and therefor has a divine right to straw.

WARNING: Straw bale gardening is highly addictive and should be approached with all due caution.

There is very little back breaking labor involved in Straw Bale Gardening (SBG). Straw bale gardening is perfect for those among us who want to take time to stop and smell the zucchini without having to have to stoop to tilling the soil. After the bales are in place there is no heavy lifting involved. In fact, the first 12 days of SBG are very relaxing, all you do is stand there with a garden hose, sprinkling the straw. Of course, if you have ever spent your summers bucking tons of hay bales into the barn ahead of the coming rain (and I have) intentionally wetting the straw does seem counter intuitive. Trust me though, what may be detrimental to hay bales is beneficial to SBG. The straw bales give off the lovely aroma of summer as you condition them with water and it is easy to get lost in the daydreams of summers past.

In between bouts with the garden hose you add fertilizer to the bale to speed the decomposition process. Any old nitrogen rich lawn fertilizer will do, just make sure to use the kind that is not a weed killer as well---you do NOT want to use a weed ‘n feed variety of lawn fertilizer.

After 12 days of this your straw bales will be ready for planting. Adding a soaker hose across the tops of the bales will make future watering of your garden a lot easier to do from the comfort of your hammock. If you are planting only bedding plants that are already up and growing all you need do is dig a hole in the bale and tuck your tomato plant right into the bale—no additional soil needed, the bale is your “soil.” If planting seeds you will need to add a layer of potting mix to the tops of the bales to help the seeds get a good grip on the bales. Adding a balanced fertilizer (10-10-10) is beneficial.

Now all you need to do is hang out in your hammock and wait for the harvest. Or so I’ve been told. I’ll let you know how it goes...

Slugging It OUT

It has come to my attention that some of you out there in Garden Land are looking for an easy way out of your slug problem---yes, I’m looking at you, Judy. Slugs are icky and sticky; who wants to touch them? I get it, believe me, but to rid your garden of slugs you are going to have to get up close and personal with them. Last time I recommended mixing up a jug of salty water and dropping the little slimy buggers in it. Do NOT pour the salty water on the slugs. While it will probably work in the short term you run the risk of contaminating your soil with salt and this is a Very Bad Thing.

Back in the day salting the fields was a way to punish your enemy. Some historians claim that the Romans plowed over the city of Carthage and sowed salt after conquering it as both punishment and warning to others. Too much salt makes the soil inhospitable to plant life, not just to slugs.

I suppose you could apply salt directly to the slugs--a sprinkle here, a sprinkle there. While that approach does have certain dark attractions—I imagine them crying out “I’m melting!” as it happens—in the long term this method will leave rotting little slug bodies all over your garden and attract flies.

Putting the slugs directly into the jug of salty water solves the problem of carnage and leaves the neighbors with less to gossip about. I’m not saying that I ever wandered around my garden early in the morning, clad in my bathrobe and carrying a salt shaker whilst muttering to myself . . ., but if I HAD---well, you can see why people might worry.

It’s best to put on your big girl gloves and go out and pick the slugs up.

A slimy slippery slug awaiting a saline soaking.