August already?

Jack Deatherage

(8/2023) The editor informed me I'm to be interviewed. This should be interesting. Last time I was interviewed was... twenty-five or so years ago when the offspring came home from school with a list of questions his teacher wanted him to ask his parents. I'm not sure what the objective of the lesson was but it evidently didn't work out the way he or his teacher thought it would.

In spite of him catching flak from his teacher- she thought he'd made up my answers -I thought he got a valuable lesson: Most people can't handle the truth.

While I don't recall the questions exactly, I do recall an answer that probably caused the most disruption.

Offspring: Dad. What were your goals when you got out of school?

Me: To get as drunk as possible, as often as possible.

Offspring: MOM! Is Dad telling me the truth?

DW: Yes.

Offspring: Why did you marry him?

Me: Are we done with the interview?

I suspect it was that interview that caused the offspring to stop doing homework all together and caused him to quit formal schooling after the 6th grade. I hope whoever the editor sends to interview me fares better than the offspring did. Still, I am curious as to how formal interviews are conducted. I'm sure I'll learn something useful. In the meanwhile I've almost important things to ponder and set in motion- the Cedar Ave Community Garden being primary.

Having rushed the building of the new garden so we'd have something going on that might attract busy people's attention, we didn't plan the garden as well as we might have. The occasional thunder storms we had in July played havoc with the heirloom dent corn, bringing to mind the old timers "hilling" their corn. The dent corn's wide-leaved, towering stalks act as sails more so than their modern descendants' puny forms.

Next year we'll hill the corn, if we plant any. Someone might show up wanting to plant sweet corn and I'll leave off the growing of heirloom varieties so they don't cross pollinate the sweet stuff and turn it starchy. Zea mays (corn) is one of those plants that show cross-pollination the year it's crossed- a yellow sweet corn crossed with a red corn will have red kernels mixed in with the yellow ones in the year it's grown. Sweet corn crossed with a similarly colored dent or flint corn might look as it should, but wouldn't taste sweet. On the other hand, an acorn squash that crosses with a zucchini or mini gourd won't show signs of the cross until the following year when seeds saved from the acorn squash are planted.

The 'Titan' sunflowers were supposed to be a serious eye catching foil for the upfront flowerbed. A task they have partially accomplished as they reach eight or ten feet of their potential twelve to fourteen foot mature height. However, they haven't bloomed while the zinnias, marigolds, bachelor buttons, snapdragons and the much smaller, multi-headed sunflowers have been flowering for weeks and in the case of the little sunflowers, are beginning to fade. Worse, from the perspective of drawing attention to the garden, the giant sunflowers have blocked the view of the raised beds the library's children's groups planted.

About the only thing we seem to have gotten right, and that was mostly a matter of luck, is the garden's orientation. Everything we've planted seems to be getting enough sun to reach maturity. At least when we didn't overcrowd a planting- the Three Sisters are an example of what not to do there. The corn stalks are so close together they shade the squash growing in their midst. Having never planted such a grouping before we may yet get something out of the squash. Especially if storms keep blowing the stalks down!

The storms have caused us to rethink the orientation of the taller sunflowers and corn cultivars. Moving both deeper into the lot- closer to the tree/scrub lined ditch -should cause a reduction in wind damage next year. Should, because nature doesn't much care how we plan. At least keeping the taller plants to the back and side of the garden will open the rest of the garden to public view from the sidewalk, though having people step off the walk and into the garden is also a goal.

If the garden was better organized and funded, we'd have markers identifying each plant and I'd sound somewhat less like an idiot when talking to the garden's visitors. At least with markers I wouldn't have to stumble over names like Helianthus annuus, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum tuberosum, Pisum sativum, Phaseolus vulgaris and Phaseolus coccineus. The visitors could puzzle the pronunciations out they's ownselves. Beyond remembering what varieties and cultivars we've planted when a rare visitor asks about them, I also need to compile a list of sources.

I managed to hang around the July 21st farmers market a bit longer than normal and was able to engage the several shoppers who wandered over to the community garden. Two of those garden visitors spoke with vaguely familiar accents that I wasn't surprised to learn were West Indies Islander. The older of the two recognized the burr gherkins some of the library kidlets had planted. She told me she was growing them in her garden.

I allowed she was the first person I'd met who knew what they were. She said they rubbed the burrs off before eating the cucumbers. I said I hadn't done that and had had my mouth slightly perforated when I ate them last year. She gave me that look that defines the column title I write under.

Having established my bona fides, I was surprised when the younger of the two asked where I'd gotten the plants we are growing. She thought I shopped the big box stores, which seems to be a thing for many gardeners this year. I surprised her when I said, "Everything is grown from seeds I purchased from online catalogs." Of course, I couldn't tell her the specific names of the plants let alone what seed catalog I'd ordered them from. The DW has the garden map, such as it is, and I have empty seed packets scattered about the house. I said I might be able to cobble together the names of a large portion of what plants we have growing and where we got the seeds from.

Looks like I'll be hanging out at the farmers market with the DW's (hopefully updated) garden map and my seed catalog list for the rest of the summer. As much as I'd rather be napping in the AC under some spy novel, I have to admit the community garden is beginning to do what I hoped it would- draw people from the market and get them to return to the market so they can see what changes are taking place in the garden. I think that's called synergy?

Interested in the garden? I can be reached via the post office:

Deatherage

PO Box 417

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

Ph: 301-447-2151 (if the answering machine picks up, please leave a contact number - speak slowly and clearly.)

Email: jackdeathjr@juno.com

Or check out the Facebook group- "Emmitsburg Youth/Community Garden"