I've Started Removing The Garden Artwork

Bob Bauer

October 28, 2018 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 2 minutes

October 28, 2018

I've started removing the garden artwork that has accumulated through the years. It's begun to feel like clutter. There is a round softness to the natural curves of plants and their shadows that is interrupted by the straight lines and foreign material of man made products. For me now, simpler is better. When you're younger, and raising kids, the garden is for the whole family and your friends to enjoy..

Making it an adventure of discovery and beauty is in line with your heart. I've always grown strawberries for the children to search for and find. I don't eat them. Now that I find myself disengaging from social life the garden is changing to reflect my preference for solitude..

October 29, 2018

It must have taken 400 gallons of water to clean all the tiny aphid out of the broccoli florets yesterday. Swishing them around in a bowl of water repeatedly did not remove them. I had to spray water up into each one of them by hand to remove them. They were so tiny and dispersed throughout the small crown that I couldn't even see them..

That might be part of the reason I've had a problem with their taste in the past. I couldn't see the hidden aphid so I ate them. The hard freezes on the way will burn the florets when it kills the aphid so I'm probably done with broccoli for this year..

October 30, 2018

I read a headline on the news yesterday that said eating organic food decreases the risk of cancer. I didn't even read the article because it feels like old news. Forty years ago gardeners were connecting the dots between the increased rates of cancer and the proliferation of new chemicals in our environment. They would smell the insecticides and herbicides they were using and realize that they didn't even want to touch them much less eat them. Especially for their children, who had a long life ahead of them..

The manufacturers insisted the chemicals would become inert in a short amount of time, but the combination of some of the chemicals with other natural components could lead to hazardous materials that we didn't even know to check for. Alcohol, for example, is a naturally occurring chemical that can alter the production of genes in order to facilitate addiction. How much more dastardly could man made concoctions be?..

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