Last week we were fighting Covid at my house, this week it is an overgrown flowerbed. Have you ever noticed how something catches your attention when you least expect it? Like red spiders. My marigolds had become infested with them. That said, the rest of the plants were faring well as the marigolds kept the red spiders at bay. So we pulled out the marigolds and trashed them. Next year the city dump may be a blaze of gold with wild marigolds blooming everywhere. It could improve the looks of the place. I like to do my part.

I have marigolds, moss rose, and petunias that come back yearly in various places. One marigold flower holds enough seeds to grow a field of them. The seeds end up in the soil and then arrive with the spring rains. I move them to empty pots I keep in the flower bed for just such purposes. I haven’t been to the green house in years for bedding plants.

But it’s fall and time to clean out the flower beds once more for the winter months. The older I get the more I realize how slow I am at this project. What used to take an afternoon, now takes several days.

Next on the agenda is the pulling of the basil. It has become an annual event. I still have pesto in the freezer from last year. I don’t know why I grow basil, other than it smells fantastic and it comes back yearly. But it is overflowing its bed and falling out onto the sidewalk making it hard to get through the side yard where it grows. It is chest high in places and time for it to go. It is supposed to rain next week, so when the soil is moist, I’ll attempt that project. I’ll once again throw them and their seeds into the garbage can to be hauled off by the trash collectors. Who knows, maybe the city dump will not only be golden, it will smell better with basil growing next to the marigolds. I do my part for the environment.

What are you reading/writing/growing this week?