Monday, July 12, 1999

0050

Another nice sunny day. I take advantage by washing laundry, then expanding the strawberry patch. I spade between the circles so that the strawberry plants can run and fill in the entire area. I also use cardboard as a mulch along one side to suppress the grass w/o digging.

I pick another mess of peas. I see little green beans forming - that harvest should start in a couple weeks. The feast has begun.

I love analogies and parables. As my garden bears fruit, it seems to be an excellent metaphor for civilization. It has taken hard work, and most of that work has involved acts of repression and even violence: digging up and uprooting living plants, and stopping them from growing back again. Keeping even the cultivated plants in order and in check. Someone unfamiliar with gardening might call me a control freak. Likewise, many voices today call for a liberal and uninhibited approach to life, scorning traditional mores as repressive. But, what is unfettered nature, really? I have only to look where I did not till and hoe. Pretty much choked with weeds, and not bearing much fruit.

Such are my thoughts as I shuck my peas for supper.

No comments: