Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi, our contributors in the comments section, and me, as we talk about our ability ... or inability ... to bring things to verdant life.
You are welcome to post your poem in the comments or on your own blog; if you do the latter, please also leave a comment so we can track you down and applaud your efforts.
Use the topic, or choose another - it's all good. The idea is to work our brains and hopefully have some fun in the process.
We're still open to reader suggestions for future topics; feel free to mention them in the comments.
Also, although I haven't stated it for quite awhile, I welcome poems by another author if you don't want to write an original. (Of course, please credit the author.) I've done this myself on occasion. I'd love to read the poetry that means something to you, so by all means contribute in this way if the spirit moves you.
*****
It's been a cold spring here and many gardens have not yet been planted. It doesn't make sense to plant when there is still frost some nights. So I've had to reach waaaaaay back into the dusty files of my memory bank, all the way to last summer, in order to talk about my gardening delights and disasters.
Our garden last year was the result of brainstorming a use for a catering salad bar that was put on our deck for lack of better storage years ago. The original idea was to sell it but time went by and it became weathered and unusable for its original purpose. Rather than sending it to the landfill, which would cause me a huge guilt trip, I decided to take advantage of its size and use it as part of a deck garden designed to thwart the deer who roam through our yard on a regular schedule.
It's not that I don't like the deer; it's just that I like fresh peas better.
Do you know the children's rhyme/song that goes:
Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick.
So she phoned for the doctor to be quick, quick, quick.
The doctor came with his bag and his hat
And he knocked at the door with a rat-a-tat-tat.
He looked at the dolly and he shook his head
And he said “Miss Polly, put her straight to bed!”
He wrote on a paper for a pill, pill, pill
“I’ll be back in the morning yes I will, will, will.”
Well, the first line of my poem took that format as it popped into my head, and despite my ninja-like efforts, it would not go away and leave me alone.
So I made the most of it, with apologies to Miss Polly.
*****
Miss Jenny Had A Garden ...
Last year we made a garden on our deck, deck, deck
It was late when we began but what the heck, heck heck
We did it on the deck because the deer, deer, deer
Will gobble up the greenery if they're near, near, near
We planted peas, tomatoes and a cuke, cuke, cuke
And potted up a transplant of a zuke, zuke, zuke
The peas and the tomatoes did so well, well, well
But Cuke and Zuke both died - oh what the he ... ck, heck, heck
It was just a small experiment in the sun, sun, sun
And we're doing it again this year for fun, fun, fun
We hope that we increase our garden wares, wares, wares
And that the deer don't learn to climb the stairs, stairs, stairs
---
*cuke = cucumber, and zuke = zucchini/courgette
*****
Our deck garden last year:
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Peas on each end, lettuce in the middle. Later I pulled out the lettuce and planted more peas. |
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Cherry tomatoes just starting |
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Poor sad zucchini - every single one ended up like this |
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Baby deer: "Hey, ma - let's climb up this funny looking hill!" Miss Jenny: "NOOOOOO!!!" |
*****
Well, that was fun!
Next week we will tackle THE PANDEMIC.
This topic was suggested by the lovely baili at Baili And I.
Yes, I think it's time for this topic. After all, we have all been living under its shadow for months now. Come back next Monday to see how we did :)
In the meantime, eat your veggies and tell me what your most delightful and/or disastrous gardening adventures have been. Can you beat my shrivelled zucchini story?
Smiling broadly. This is such a fun poem. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that the zuchini turned up its toes. It my experience they more often behave like MotherOwls.
I would prefer a home grown pea to a zucchini any day.
My zucchini plant had some white mottled colouration on the leaves, which then died - I'm hoping to avoid the same problem this year by watering less and at a different time of day. Poor things didn't stand a chance!
DeleteI actually like zucchini - but only when very small - so I was disappointed not to get any. But the peas made up for it :)
I hear you on only liking little zuchinni. I reject the big ones and when we have grown them have been surprised at just how fast they reach humungous proportions.
DeleteWhen my father grew zucchini we never knew you could eat them at the small stage - every one was the size of a small car! Small and large are like two different vegetables.
DeleteI do like your poem. As for growing my own, I was born and raised in Humboldt county, so I'm no stranger to that.
ReplyDeleteIt started early with peas, radishes, and carrots when my parents told me to stop eating all of them from their garden before they were ready, and I found a little place between two horse stalls where I could plant some seeds.
Not enough light for the peas, but the radishes were booming.
As I remember, we grew the squashes and potatoes in little mounds in rows in the garden, and it must have worked well, because we always had way more yellow squash and zucchinis than we could use. I didn't really care for them much back then, but I would eat a whole pile of them right now if I could get them.
Unfortunately, according to Zsuzs, this place doesn't get enough light to grow much of anything because of the trees, so we don't have a garden here.
But I have indeed grown my own in the way that Humboldt county is famous for, and what I remember most about it was carrying water uphill in buckets, and having the whole crop get eaten by the deer.
My boss at the auto body shop saw all of the growing going on in the hills of southern Humboldt and bought the old, disused Hayfork firetruck, blew a new coat of paint on it and made it the ceremonial vehicle for his ECV chapter, then after the ceremonies, he would rent the still working pumping apparatus out for $100/hr to pump water up the hill.
Those hills, or more properly, the flood plain of the Eel river is also famous for growing produce, and I have never tasted better corn or tomatoes than the ones they grow in Pepperwood and Shively.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Wow - so much to unpack here ... I had to look up ECV and that is a pretty funny fraternal organization :D And I'm reading somewhat between the lines to understand that the deer destroyed a good time. I wonder if your garden affected them the same way it would if they smoked it??
DeleteIt's too bad you can't have a garden where you are. One of the few drawbacks, I imagine.
I love that SOME people can grow corn! :(
DeleteMy most delightful gardening adventures also became somewhat of a disaster, in two separate places we lived. First place, we moved in a ripped out the thriving passionfruit vine and replaced it with two dozen tomato plants, because in the past I'd planted plenty and had most of them just up and die. So two dozen, which grew like a well-fed baby, and produced what seemed like thousands of tomatoes which all ripened at once the week I was in hospital and nobody thought to pick any of them...not even the neighbours.
ReplyDeleteSecond garden, we moved in to a place that had previously had veggie patches, many fruit trees, still there, a couple of grape vines, still there and an old chicken coop with a fig tree in the middle of it. I planted veggies. Many veggies which all grew like a well-fed baby, including the one zucchini plant which produced so many we were taking buckets and baskets full of them to work to give away. The disaster there? My carrots were coming along beautifully until hubby decided to dig all of them up as baby carrots and take them to his workplace to give away! I'd been looking forward to freezing most of them.
It sounds like you are an excellent gardener, River. I expect your husband was not very popular after giving away all your carrots!
DeleteHehe poor zucchinis I feel with you, and chuckled, because I've had this too! What a genius idea to plant on your deck. My place it's dowws and magpies and backbirds eating my plants, so ... Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI hope my zucchini do better this year!
Deletedear Jenny first of all thank you so much for considering topic given by me ,i was not expecting it but still i wanted honestly that lets see what our blogger friends say when they have to speak about it particularly
ReplyDeleteoh thank you sooo much for sharing such beautiful image of your back yard ,how serene and romantic place to read and have tea with loved one :)))
and yes to witness the nature to it's fullest
your home sounds ideal to me :)
if i was there i would have used this deck for same purpose
plantation looked great within ,i love love peas and mom used to grow lots of them
i did either when we came here but than heat made us change our mind and we choose to plant seasonal plants only
i loved deer wandering in your yard ,yes it is hard to not love them :) but peas are peas :)
best of luck for gardening this year my precious friend
stay amazing as you are :) hugs!
I love our back yard in the summer because it is quite private and so green! We have to watch for deer though - they won't attack but if you startle them by accident they can run you down in their haste to get away.
Delete'Peas are peas' is absolutely correct :)
Hugs, baili. I hope you are continuing to feel stronger every day.
Your last line made me laugh. While deer are a problem here for the environment, they don't seem to be near towns.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if, over generations, your deer will become used to people and move into town? Or if our problem is that town moved outward and took away the deer habitat. Whatever the reason, they're here and I don't think they're going to move on now :) I'm glad you got a chuckle today :)
DeleteGreat poem, Jenny. Other gardeners know your pain. I don’t mind deer in my yard during the winter except when they rub their antlers on my trees and damage them, but seeing them in the summer having a smorgasbord in my gardens is so upsetting. They haven’t ever touched my veggie garden (knock wood) but have satisfied themselves on my flowers.
ReplyDeleteGood luck this year and I hope the warmth come soon to your neck of the woods.
I'm surprised the deer will eat your flowers but not your veggies! That is puzzling but I hope they continue to keep away from at least one part of your garden. I can imagine how frustrating it is to see them devour your flowers. I was reading the Farmer's Almanac online recently and realized their list of plants deer don't like were pretty much all the ones we have - iris, forget-me-nots, mint, boxwood, etc. They apparently don't like "stinky" plants. Your flowers must smell heavenly to them ... unfortunately :)
DeleteThey eat the flowers by the woods, and the veggie garden is on the other side of the house and so far, I have been very lucky.
DeleteGardening is fun, fun,fun and your poem was awesome, awesome, awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Red! I think that's a little poem there!
DeleteAnother good one, Jenny. I like your use of Cukes and Zukes. We live near a local beauty spot where deer are occasionally seen and they do descend down the hill to forage in neighbouring gardens. Fortunately not ours - yet!
ReplyDeleteHere is my effort:
We want more sun, or we want more rain,
All we ever seem to do is complain.
There’s too much cloud, there’s not enough light,
Whatever we plant the weather’s not right.
We sow too early, we sow too late,
All we can do is to leave it to fate.
Some seedlings grow sturdy, some grow strong,
All look healthy ‘til the slugs come along.
The ground is too wet, the ground is too dry -
We’ve just been invaded by carrot fly!
With this English weather, will we ever
Get a crop worthy of all our endeavour?
The sun has come out, the rain has diminished,
Hurrah! At last our planting is finished.
We hoe and we weed, we water and feed,
There are burgeoning crops where once there was seed.
Our potato store’s full, we’re knee-deep in beans,
Our peas keep producing to feed us our greens,
We have strawberries galore with succulent flavours,
We’re suddenly popular with our neighbours.
At the end of the season our harvest we measure
And are thankful for all the delights we treasure.
And we recognise one thing’s become quite clear -
We’ll be doing it all again next year.
How true! There's something about gardening that's so appealing even with all the potential problems that can arise.
DeleteI especially love these lines: "We have strawberries galore with succulent flavours,/We’re suddenly popular with our neighbours." Yes, quite unlike the poor old zucchini - hah!
This was a topic that seems to resonate with everyone, Heather - great suggestion!
This is awesome, SBM!
DeleteMy favourite (hopeful) lines:
"We hoe and we weed, we water and feed,
There are burgeoning crops where once there was seed."
Here's to a year when everything works!!!
Thanks, Jenny. We grow two courgettes (sorry, zukes) on the top of compost bins and they romp away, always enough to give away. If I can get yellow zukes and peppers and sweet corn at the same time I make 'yellow soup' - a good way to use up the surplus veg.
DeleteI planted some things in the garden but lost them. I am waiting now for some warm weather to have another go at it. It has been cold and windy.
ReplyDeleteIt's not been good for gardeners this year in these parts, has it? :) This week is forecast to be warm again - I hope you get better results.
DeleteAdorable, ble, ble!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Thanks, Diane :)
DeleteI wish you far more success this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joanne - I think experience will help.
DeleteI'll never get that song out of my head now!
ReplyDeleteThe upcycled planter is a great idea but your talk of a shrivelled zucchini had my mind somewhere not very vegetablish!
LOL! Sorry about the earworm :)
DeleteNaughty girl! It was very, very tiny - about an inch long!
did you ever determine why the cukes and zukes died?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they were getting enough sun. The zucchini leaves developed white patchy areas and then turned yellow, so the fruit couldn't get enough nutrients, I think. From what I read online, the plants were probably too damp - I tend to water around suppertime, which is too late in the day for them. And I may have watered them too much, adding to the moisture problem. I will remedy both those things this year and see how it goes!
DeleteCukes and zukes definitely DO need lots of direct sun. (Seeing your comment above.) But so do tomatoes, and since they did fine, maybe that wasn't the problem. Strange! Anyway, good luck with this year's crop!
ReplyDeleteThere's limited room on the deck in full sun - a lot of it is shaded nearly all day by the house. Maybe the tomatoes were getting more sun that way. Thanks for the good luck; I have a feeling I'll need it, starting this late in the season :)
DeleteMy black thumb has killed silk houseplants. Anyway, loved the poem, and i hope you get a gardenful of everything this year.
ReplyDeleteNow, that's talent, Mimi - haha
DeleteThanks, I need all the help I can get :)
Your greenery looks pretty good Miss Polly...except for the dwarf zuch that is.
ReplyDeleteAnd dead, you forgot dead :)
DeleteYou made me laugh out loud! Now Miss Polly is stuck in my head.
ReplyDeleteYour poor little zucchini - it looks as though it didn't get properly pollinated. Reminds me of trying to grow cucumbers in Calgary. Alpine climates are not kind to cukes - we got one tiny stunted plant with one tiny stunted cucumber, and then the frost hit.
Wishing you good weather and happy gardening... and ground-bound deer. :-)
I was concerned about pollination because the bees rarely make it up that high off the ground here, so I read up on how to hand-pollinate and gave it a try. Maybe it was too late by then. And those white patches on the leaves ... yeah, I don't think they helped either :)
Delete"Happy" gardening is within my reach, even if successful gardening is not; thanks for that! And I think we're pretty safe from the deer. I think. lol
Your poem was great, jenny_o. Good luck with the garden this year. I hope everything gets to grow, grow, grow.
ReplyDeleteI'll let y'all know, know know :D
DeleteThanks, Mr. S.
Looking forward to it.
DeleteI love your poem, Jenny. I had not heard of Miss Polly but I remember jumping rope to Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack, All dressed in black black black black...
ReplyDeleteThis year my granddaughter and I put some seeds in pots in our backyard. We tried cukes, zukes, onions, garlic and potatoes. I noticed a squash bud popping up but the only thing that is actually growing is the garlic. BigB got me one of those wooden box planters and it just arrived a couple of days ago. We'll try some tomatoes in there and maybe some basil and other herbs. I tried some spring peas a few years back but something ate them. Not sure if it was deer, more likely raccoons. I love fresh peas and they are hard to find in the grocery store. When I was a kid we had a huge garden and all the fresh peas we could shell to eat. Not sure why those peas didn't get eaten by the deer. Can only assume the deer had more woods to roam in then so they didn't need to go looking in people's garden for their dinner.
I think you're right about the deer - these deer were displaced by urban growth and they just don't have enough room to live. And now that they're comfy in town, and raise their babies in town, the babies are comfy here too. And so it goes.
DeleteFresh peas - yes! That's how all of ours were eaten last year. There weren't a whole lot, but enough for a few every day.
It's wonderful that you are gardening with your granddaughter. That's the best way for her to learn. I don't think I'd tackle gardening without having grown up seeing it done. It's not that hard, but being familiar with it makes a world of difference. Good luck with your plants!
That WAS fun! And I love your backyard. So pretty!
ReplyDeleteI haven't planted vegetables in years. I thought about it this spring but decided to concentrate my efforts more on finishing up parts of the landscaping. Now we're in a heat wave and I'm stuck indoors!
Thank you, Martha - I especially like the accessories in the back yard! (the mom & baby deer)
DeleteWe're in a heat wave, too! I hope you get a chance to do more landscaping once this air mass moves on.