Monday, September 6, 2021

A Regular Woman


 Not a pretty picture but basically what I looked at for a few hours today. I was working in the garden, again trying to get it ready for the fall garden by pulling spent plants and weeds, taking out tomato cages and hauling the detritus to the burn pile. The GeeDee trumpet vines are overtaking the entire garden and I am in despair about that. I've read a few articles on the web about how to take control of them but they really don't offer much hope. One I read advises that vinegar or boiling water may be used to get rid of them but then goes on to say:

Dig Up All Of The Roots 

If you want to kill the plant, you’ll need to remove the roots completely. This may be an impossible task.

I have to say that I think it is an impossible task. The roots are thick and go deep and are connected to all of the other roots. I have never yet successfully dug a root and followed it to another plant which one can do with things like dollar weed and betony. My palms are red and swollen from hitting my trowel, trying to push it deeper into the ground. 

And so even as I clear bigger and bigger swatches of the garden, I can easily visualize the living and thriving network of the vine's roots, pushing its way through the dirt to reemerge with more and more plants. 
Why is it that the invasive things are always the most determined to live? The strongest and most persistent? 
There are many metaphors to be found here. 

I think we could dig the entire garden down deep enough to put in a swimming pool and eventually, the fucking tulip vines would be pushing their way through the cement of the pool, thriving and jiving in the chlorinated waters where we swim, reaching out to catch our ankles, our wrists, drowning us with their enthusiastic life. 

Ah well. 
So let me ask you this- if we do not really NEED a garden, if it is just a happy folly of ours to keep us busy and give us food that we could actually buy at the store, are things like trumpet vines a first world problem? If they overtook a family's garden in, oh, well, a third world country where they depended on what they grew for their very sustenance, that would definitely be a third world problem. 
There is no way around it. Here in Lloyd in the Moon's yard, a garden being overtaken by an invasive plant is a first world problem if for no other reason than that we live in a a first world. 
Tell that to No Man Lord. 
But that's another story, another conundrum, another shame on our society. 

I think it is quite obvious that I don't really have much to talk about today. It has been a regular day in a regular life. I have worked in a regular garden, cursing at regular weeds and delighting in the sight of so many regular earthworms, while regular chickens came and checked in on me regularly, hoping that I might throw them some delicious grubs or beans. 


I am not complaining in the least. 
And now I will go make some regular spaghetti for my darling love. 
There is nothing mundane about him, I assure you. As evidence I present to you the fact that he has put up with me and loved me sweetly since 1983. 

And I am still amazed and in wonderment about that fact. 

Love...Ms. Moon

18 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. He is truly a good man and the longer we're together, the more I appreciate that.

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  2. My mother called it binder weed. I think it was morning glory vines up our way. Those roots were pure evil, an intertwined net of white ropes that just pulled up for miles. I've had my day with the bastids, too.

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    1. There's always going to something that's trying to overtake us, isn't there? I honestly thought the Johnson grass and Florida betony were bad until this stuff started showing up. I'm in despair.

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  3. May your " regular" night be a sweet one...

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  4. Do you get Britbox? It is full of gardening shows , Monty is the best! It is inspiring, I do not have the energy to make such amazing gardens but you might- cause you are regular!

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    1. I would love to watch those shows. I need to approach the subject with Mr. Moon.

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  5. I had to look up trumpet vine as I'd not heard of it. It can grow up to 35 metres high. Wow. It is beautiful but I think GD is the right name of it.

    Good luck, that's all I got sadly.

    I started pruning plants for winter tonight. Cutting back plants with spent flowers and general tidying. I enjoy the end of summer as much as I enjoy spring.

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    1. I bet it does feel really good to get everything in order and ready for the season of rest. For the plants, at least!

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  6. what is in the background of that last picture behind the chickens. yes, just a regular life. I've got some trumpet flower vine but it stays back in the wild space. the johnson grass though totally took over my last food garden. I tell myself every spring and fall that I'm going to start growing food again but alas, so far all just talk.

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    1. Bags of leaves, a hose, and the old composter that we never use. Are any of those what you mean?
      A food garden, as you know, is a commitment and a time sucker. And an energy sucker! It can be worth it. If I was you and was wanting to do it, I'd do the fall garden. So much easier to maintain and the greens are so awesome.

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  7. Well, those vines sound frustrating. Can you burn the vines out or rototill them away? Can you build a raised garden bed for your food that the vines cannot get to? Can you tell that I am not a gardener? Your garden was very productive so obviously you are doing something right!

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    1. Nope. Can't burn them out or till them out. The roots go way, way down. And we've talked about raised beds but we're not ready to go there yet. Maybe eventually.

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  8. They sound a bit like blackberry vines, which are also basically impossible to eradicate. We just keep cutting them back to the ground. It's basically all we can do. We've just let the betony grow in our garden, as part of our permissiveness toward weeds, but I might regret it!

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    1. Yes. Impossible. Let's be realistic. It would take a small nuclear device to get rid of some of these invasives and even that might not do it.
      I wonder if your betony is the same as ours?

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  9. He is equally in wonderment about you, I promise you.

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    Replies
    1. He says he is but of course I don't believe him.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.