The Backyard War Zone

I have to say that the results of digging up 10x12' of sod and then bringing in some rich, loamy soil to sit on top of our clay produced some astounding results.  We grew corn, egg plant, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, lemon balm (no food value but hey, it smelled real good), pumpkin (the imperialist vegetable that takes over the entire garden!), watermelon, radishes, and a few other plants. I was, and still am, amazed at how much this garden will produce.

Radishes:  Don't those little bunches of radishes at the grocery store look so fresh and appetizing with their recent dose of mist from the sprayer?  In fact everything looks super good-- you want to buy them all. Well, how about buying 20 of these bunches?  How fast would you eat 20 bunches of radishes?  This little garden of ours grew about 20 bunches. That's really cool to the gardener with it's attendant sense of having produced a lot of food but no one eats them.  And, to make their eating more challenging, they are very hot.  The "spice" in radishes is diferent than that found in hot peppers.  In peppers it is called capisum. In radishes it is a compound called isothiocyanate. I think that the amount of isothiocyanate is due to the length of time the plant has been growing-- too slow or too long (so they say) . Anyway, this iso stuff is the same compound found in Wasabi, mustard and horseradish.

I didn't plant radishes in the 2010 garden at Dexter Woods.

Well, perhaps more on the vegetables later (like the imperial ground hog called pumpkin).  I'll finish with what the title of this post is-- The Backyard War Zone.  Forty-seven different insects, lots of deer, lots of rabbits, and an occasional bird and racoon resulted in this gardner conducting chemical warfare. Additionally, a plethora of invasive weeds always needing to be dealt with. 

In defending against animals, I'm beholding to the fact that in our subdivision, we cannot build fences except around swimming pools. "No fence shall be erected or placed on any lot except as necessary to safeguard a swimming pool which the Trustee has approved for that lot. (AMENDMENT NO. 5, JULY 8, 1992)"  With a numerous foe attacking the garden, what are my choices?  I opted for chemical warfare.  I must say to the environmentallly conscious reader, that I love this earth and see there is a great duty and benefit in being careful with our environment.  I've also learned that there are several chemicals and concoctions available on the market that will do the job of a backyard defender of the garden without producing harmful side effects.  Yep, chemical fences that keep the deer and rabbits at bay.  Yes, chemical spray to partially eliminate harmful surface insects and chemicals for weeds.  With the weeds, a constant dose of the hoe and the hand are warranted as well.

One of the insects that caught my attention early was the one that seemed to entirely infest the imperialist pumpkins--

 

Though this isn't a picture from my garden, this is what I saw.  They completely covered the pumpkins. A few shots of something from the local Lowes completely eliminated them.  As long as I am diligent, I am master and commander in the backyard battlefield of the garden.

No, the owl wasn't effective. I think they are mainly used for scaring pigeons away from office building and bridges.  I don't have an office building, bridge, or a pigeon in my backyard.  So why did I ceremoniously bring the owl back to the garden again this year?  I dunno-- maybe just a tradition now. 

Growing a Boy, Growing the Children

...  there was another lesson that rapidly descended upon me I was completely unprepared for...


I was growing a boy in the garden.  Making straight lines, bent over planting seeds of corn and pumpkin.  Raking up hills for the zucchini and yellow squash starters.  Watering and weeding and protecting from pests.  These activities and others quickly led to conversations about life.  We talked about soil being life (I think the boy made this observation) and weeds being those ugly things that can choke us from spiritual things if we don't consistently monitor them and strive to keep our lives (soil) free from them.  Through the sweat stemming from the hot Missouri sun and humidity, we just talked about life.  I marveled that this simple experience was providing some ever-so-precious time with my son (and, those daughters who were inclined to join me from time to time) in a seemingly mundane activity.  We were growing closer, growing in understanding, growing our lives together. 

On the 30th day of August of 2004, on what I recorded as a "beautful, cool summer day" in my journal, I noted the following, "Upon commenting in Sunday school yesterday about teaching our children (following President Kimball’s counsel to plant a garden), I wrote down the words that had come to me. Jeanette revised it slightly to read:  “The seeds planted in the garden of his (Sumner’s) soul are greater than the seeds planted in the ground. And the harvest is eternal for the fruit will nourish him forever.”

And, what are the seeds?  Seeds of family, memory, life lessons, and spiritual things; seeds of a father who loves him and of a home at Dexter Woods.

Just a Garden?

One of the first lessons coming from the ground was the sensation of being close to something again.  I felt connected in some way as I spread the soil around the garden, tilled it, raked out the clods, and evened it out.  The smell of the earth that you read about so often described in various outdoor episodes seems lost in print but truly comes alive in the garden.  It is as though our smell and sense of feel was created just for this-- and that it is something very familiar to us.  Take a deep breath of that earth!  That's a scent as good as Jeanette's baked bread, or the smell of her perfume close in, or fresh lumber, or the smell of a baby's room.   I suppose, if' it's not already there, that the smell of freshly tilled dirt in the garden is one of those 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. (http://www.thingstobehappyabout.com/). That's a family favorite book by Barbara Ann Kipfer; a book that gets pulled out on a Sunday afternoon while we snack around the kitchen table.  Yep, freshly tilled dirt is already added to this boy's version of 14,000 Things.

And, no wonder the ancient Egyptians were known to design personal perfumes to elicit various emotions and inspire thoughts. Apparently, Egyptians believed that the sense of smell and the ability to detect odors was the most important of the sensory abilities. It doesn't take much personal reflection to remember how we feel when we smell our own personal list of the greatest of smells -- relaxed and happy, satisfied and less anxious.  Pick your favorite smell.  Think of it.  Does that bring a smile to your face or heart?  No wonder it is a blessing from Heaven to have the ability to smell; to perceive something by an odor or scent.  In fact, one little plant that I added to the 2010 Dexter Garden is lavender.  Now that's an odor that seems to pervade both nose and soul!

Well, as precious as these things are, there was another lesson that rapidly descended upon me that I was completely unprepared for...

The Start of the Dexter Garden

Several years ago, Jeanette persuaded me to plant a garden. This was a big deal. Perhaps ten years previous to the successful tearing up (that's like ripping up, shredding; not like crying-- but I did that too-- for a while) of an absolutely gorgeous Missouri backyard lawn, we lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Nine inches of rain a year. Rocks for grass. When we moved to wonderful Chesterfield, I had two requirements for our soon to be new home (Well, there were a lot more but these are pertinent to this post)-- a big lawn and a sprinkler system. Both came with Dexter Woods.

Anyway, we decided to plant a garden in 2004 (I just checked my journal) and set about removing the turf in about a 10x12' or 15' area. It was painful to trade turf for dirt but, alas, I had acquiesced. That particular point of deference to my companion was a marvelous turning point for me personally. (More on that later.) We had some soil trucked in and soon began the planting of our new Dexter Garden.