mother nature's son.....?
I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago. Something was coming up and I couldn't remember the exact date.
'It's the Monday of the week in which the summer solstice falls' I said.
'What?' he said. 'You do complicate things'.
That told me a lot about our respective lives.
As a gardener, the lengthening or shortening days, the turning of the seasons, the weather, are all really important.
As an asparagus grower, for instance, I know that I stop cutting on the solstice (June 21st) and allow the ferns to grow to maturity and build the strength of the plant for the following year. One of the landmarks in the natural year.
That disconnection with the real world that is a reason why there is no linkage in our minds between our actions and climate change. Why should there be. Irrespective of where we are in the calendar, all of the food collected this week and shown in the photograph is available in the supermarkets throughout the year.
7 comments:
Happy Solstice to you too!!!! Nothing beats a home grown veggie or fruit!!!!
That's interesting that you stop cutting your asparagus. Do you think the same rule applies to rhubarb as well? BTW would you like to contribute to Matron's TRUGBLOG? You have a great selection of veggies there!
Thanks Cindee!
This solstice was a really wet one. But, belatedly, we got our final beans in.
We have woken to unseasonal gales this morning.
Matron - yes, I guess the same principle would apply. You do want to give the plant the chance to build itself up for the following year.
Trugblog - I saw your great idea and was concerned that posh trug blog may not accept snaps of old plastic boxes!
Hi Rob and Matron - my Dad is the only person I knew who managed to kill rhubarb - he just cut it all the time there were sticks to cut. I stop towards the end of July. I'm usually fed up of the stuff by then anyway!
I love the idea of marking seasonal change with the summer solstice.
The summer weather is so hot here in the SE US, we really don't think about the shortening days and their effect of day-length sensitive crops like brassicas, which do tremendously well here in the fall.
I had a program this morning with kids from a local day camp where I asked them, 'who had plants for breakfast?' and one of them said 'yuck' and this was after we had visited our raised bed vegetable garden and talked about tomatoes, harvested onions and potatoes, etc. Hmmm.
You're so right about the connection we make with every mouthful we harvest from our gardens.
And there's always someone (at any age) to connect with the natural world and where our food comes from.
Cheers,
Lisa
Lisa - no solstice for you, but no hummingbirds for me! I guess you mark seasonal change by the arrival and departure of these little beauties.
You know I'm jealous!!
Rob
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