Organic Connections

By the calendar, summer is nearing its end. But my garden doesn't know that yet. Capsicum/peppers (cubanos), yellow squash, and tomatoes are still ripening. Nasturtiums, chrysanthemums and roses splash bright blooms amongst the delicate white alyssum. While some of my sunflowers are now bowed down by their weight of seeds, others continue blooming merrily.

The blooming season here begins in late March or early April (crocuses and daffodils) and lasts into November (mums and pansies). For veggies, it's peas (May/June) to pumpkins (October/November), though I didn't grow either of those this year.

Usually the tomatoes flourish along my driveway, but they weren't quite so abundant this year, even though I followed the usually successful practice of planting basil with the tomatoes (the two plants feed each other's roots and basil keeps pests off the tomatoes). However, I've been delighted with my cubano pepper experiment. Somewhere I read the suggestion to plant pepper plants in front of rocks because the heat reflects off the rocks onto the pepper plants and peppers love heat. So I placed a few pepper plants in front of the few big rocks that decorate my flower bed --it was a roaring success!

I learned my love of gardening from my father who, in the midst of his very full pastoring schedule, managed to grow a huge garden every summer (still growing a sizable patch even now). I helped with the cultivating, planting, stringing of lines and weeding. It was never a chore--always a joy--an organic connection that bound our family together. Already I can see the same organic connection taking root in my own children. Pure joy!