Gardenator

[gothwalk]

Originally published at Now Is A Long Time Too. You can comment here or there.

I went pretty much straight into the garden today when I got home, uprooted most of the old rocket and planted more, and also planted some dill and parsley - in containers this time, so I can keep a closer eye on them. I aso separated out several supermarket-bought basil plants, and put them in pots of their own - I’ve been carefully watering them for some time, rather than just eating them, as is my normal procedure with basil. I watered everything, and muttered impatiently at the strawberry plants, which have lots of green berries. Some of them are getting to decent sizes, but none are getting red, except for one on the Alpines, which got to the fully ripe stage earlier in the week. The strawberry was very good, and so was the gardening. I think I might be starting to get this gardening thing.

I’m letting some of the rocket run to seed, to see if I can actually get seeds back from it. This, I gather, is how plants work, but having stopped and thought about it for a while, I have had to admit that I have never seen it work with anything smaller than a chestnut tree. And, of course, I’m not yet old enough to have grown a new tree from a nut grown on one I planted before. Rocket, being as it goes from seed to flower in about six weeks, is a considerably easier proposition, at least in the time scale.

I started to reread Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance today, for the first time in about three years. Given that I read my old copy once and sometimes twice a year until it fell to pieces, it’s about time I picked it up again. It’s already having that effect of making me think. I understand that this is an effect that some people get from Gödel, Escher, Bach, but I’m not geek enough for that - Zen is about people, not numbers. This is connected in some way with the gardening, although I’m not sure I can explain it.

Zen follows on the heels of Ash: A Secret History and The System of the World, both of which will be reviewed on dukestreet.org when I get my head around them. A quick summary will go: both were excellent, if heavy on the wrists while waiting for buses.

Plans for the weekend, apart from the Starbound Economics Forum (is anyone actually coming?) involve more gardening, in preparation for the barbecue (more lawn trimming, patio weeding, and some general cleaning up) and an amount of housekeeping.