Gardening?

This summer Justin grew tomatoes. The plant was healthy and flowered, but it took all summer to grow three of them because nights are too cool for the plants to produce well.

Here is a photo of the largest of the three. All were beautiful, bright red fruits with no blemishes. The flavor was wonderful so we cut them into small pieces, added a little vinaigrette and ate them slowly.

We filled clay pots with dirt from our flowerbed and added flowers, herbs, and vegetables to sit on the deck. We heard from our neighbors that the deer and elk eat most of what you plant so we began filling the deck first. Then one day we had a squirrel eat several large holes in the new umbrella Mr. Jim gave us to shade our table on the deck. We wondered if the deck would be safe, but our experiment was in motion so we continued to plant.

Besides tomatoes Grant had luck with strawberries. They too were miniatures with a lot of taste. The only crop we didn’t have luck with was bell peppers. The plant blossomed and a beautiful pepper began, but somewhere along the way it decided to give up and stop growing. Parsley, chives and oregano grew with gusto—plenty for our salads, pizza, and to freeze. Next summer we’ll put our small garden in a little red wagon and pull them in at night. Or perhaps we’ll cover our flowerbed so the plants won’t be eaten and it will be warm at night. Or maybe a greenhouse. Probably the grocery store.

Grocery stores all sell flowers and they are really cheap. The weather is dry and the sun hot, so the stores don’t want to keep watering them a couple of times a day for long. After a couple of weeks, the sale signs appear. Reading on the Internet, talking to neighbors and friends we decide to plant a few bargains- rosemary, red salvia and chrysanthemums. Since all have a bitter taste the consensus is they are pretty safe.

One morning I looked out the kitchen window to see the back end of an elk standing in the flowerbed. She didn’t eat anything, but she was definitely curious. A couple of times a week I’d find several plants pulled out of the ground. Continuing this dance throughout the summer- she’d pulled them out of the ground and I’d plant them back.

The hummingbirds liked the red salvia. Tiny darting iridescent green bodies would travel from one to another. I added a hummingbird feeder and our house was officially added as one of their summer stops. If I forgot to add syrup to the feeder one particular hummingbird would hunt me down. Sitting on the deck reading a shadow would appear over my shoulder. Then the little green bird would fly in front of me, dipping a couple of times before taking off to the feeder. How strange that something so tiny could be so persistent.

Something else liked the salvia, but we never saw what it was. One or two blossoms a day would vanish in a line.

This winter I’ll read about plants for the foothills. Part of our yard is high desert. There are rocks and cactus (not pointy), wildflowers, lots of grasses, lichen, and flowering shrubs. Add a heavy sprinkling of lesser chipmunks, Stellar Jays, and nuthatches and you have our view out back. Maybe I won’t grow vegetables.