Away from the garden
In my dream, one of my yellow zucchinis swells to the size of a pit bull. I stand holding it, trying to figure out if I should bake it, harvest the seeds, grill it, or steam it. I keep telling myself that it isn’t going to taste sweet, like the young zucchinis I picked this summer. But I know I need to eat it anyway. I wake up before I decide what to do.
I’ve been away from the garden for two weeks now. When I left, frost was threatening and I wondered if I had picked my last tidbit for the season. Clearly, in my dreams things have kept growing.
I remember, as a kid, going to my mother’s vegetable garden after being away for a few weeks. Laying in the field were squashes the size of dachshunds. I only learned later that they were best eaten small.
I’m going up to the Catskills this weekend. I’m mostly interested in my rosemary and checking to see if the frost destroyed the final harvest of raspberries. Of course, I’ll be checking on the zucchinis too. I hoping to find something. Since I don’t think that there’s been a killing frost, I just might. But the question is: will be dog-sized?
I still marvel at the ability of small seeds to produce such impressive plants and vegetables. The life of the garden fascinates me. Simply by pulling in water and sorting out the minerals from the soil, somehow the plants deliver food to eat.
My garden wasn’t as successful as I had hoped. Some things did well, but other things failed. I’m going to try to concentrate on improving my soil and protecting what does grow from the ravenous bugs, hungry critters, and water-sapping weeds.
Once again, I am in winter “dream mode,” where everything grows large and my larder fills with the artifacts of summer.
–