greyness, gardening, and Guinea
Jun. 12th, 2006 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
falcongrrlI can't seem to wake up today for no good reason. I feel restless, bored. The sky's grey enough that it's impossible to tell the time of day, and I'm just staring out into the overgrown green of the backyard's grass and garden.
This year's garden is odd. The plants are either dying or flourishing. The basil and tomato plants are doing well, although one of the tomato plants is absolutely bursting with countless tiny tomatoes. I don't know if that's exactly what it's supposed to be doing--I'd think a few large tomatoes would be better than tons of baby ones--and I'm pretty sure we bought the regular kind of tomato plants.
I'm a terrible gardener. I think I look at it more as an opportunity for observation than as a chance to create a certain outcome. I wonder if that's also some sort of analogy for how I approach life--watching, rather than attempting to influence events, the majority of the time.
Anyway, the cucumbers first had white stuff on the leaves, then the leaves turned yellow, and now they're turning brown and the plants are falling over entirely. Probably not a good sign. The beans pretty much withered up and died not that long after they were planted, although they got as much water as all the other plants. But the watermelon is creeping steadily along, although it and this groundcovery sort of plant with blue flowers are growing together in some strange tangle of floralfruity goodness. They have space, but they're growing toward rather than away from each other. Transaffectionate plants.
The basil is doing the best of the lot, with bright green bushy leaves and thin flowery stalks and wonderful freshsweet scent. We should harvest it at some point--we'd have enough to make enough pesto to last us the rest of our natural lives--but I don't know if we will. Anyone have any good (and simple) basil recipes to share?
The squirrels are probably enjoying the garden more than we are, and I wonder if their digging and/or snacking is part of what killed the bean and cucumber plants. The squirrels and the guinea pig all roam the yard freely, most of the time getting along except for occasional territory disputes, where the squirrels chirp at him and the guinea retreats to the screened porch. I can't tell if the squirrels are pissed off by the intrusion or perplexed by this chubby little thing wandering around, but Guinea himself seems entirely put out by the squirrels, as if he'd just as soon they'd go hang out in someone else's yard.
Yes, we have a free range guinea pig.
Ellie kept dismantling his cage to get at him, and retrieving him and putting the cage back together numerous times each day proved a bit difficult, so we finally gave up. He now has a little habitat with food, water, and hay, but he also has access to the entire screened porch and the backyard. I worry a bit about predators, but the little thing is lightning fast, which I can attest to, having tried and failed to catch him many, many times. He seems happy, and pretty territorial, as he's shown no indications of wanting to leave. He doesn't want to interact with us all that much either, though. He's about as domesticated as the squirrels are, which is to say, not much.
I should stop writing this and get up and do something today. The glass door I'm peering through has some streaks that look suspiciously like ice cream upon it, so perhaps that would be a good place to start.
This year's garden is odd. The plants are either dying or flourishing. The basil and tomato plants are doing well, although one of the tomato plants is absolutely bursting with countless tiny tomatoes. I don't know if that's exactly what it's supposed to be doing--I'd think a few large tomatoes would be better than tons of baby ones--and I'm pretty sure we bought the regular kind of tomato plants.
I'm a terrible gardener. I think I look at it more as an opportunity for observation than as a chance to create a certain outcome. I wonder if that's also some sort of analogy for how I approach life--watching, rather than attempting to influence events, the majority of the time.
Anyway, the cucumbers first had white stuff on the leaves, then the leaves turned yellow, and now they're turning brown and the plants are falling over entirely. Probably not a good sign. The beans pretty much withered up and died not that long after they were planted, although they got as much water as all the other plants. But the watermelon is creeping steadily along, although it and this groundcovery sort of plant with blue flowers are growing together in some strange tangle of floralfruity goodness. They have space, but they're growing toward rather than away from each other. Transaffectionate plants.
The basil is doing the best of the lot, with bright green bushy leaves and thin flowery stalks and wonderful freshsweet scent. We should harvest it at some point--we'd have enough to make enough pesto to last us the rest of our natural lives--but I don't know if we will. Anyone have any good (and simple) basil recipes to share?
The squirrels are probably enjoying the garden more than we are, and I wonder if their digging and/or snacking is part of what killed the bean and cucumber plants. The squirrels and the guinea pig all roam the yard freely, most of the time getting along except for occasional territory disputes, where the squirrels chirp at him and the guinea retreats to the screened porch. I can't tell if the squirrels are pissed off by the intrusion or perplexed by this chubby little thing wandering around, but Guinea himself seems entirely put out by the squirrels, as if he'd just as soon they'd go hang out in someone else's yard.
Yes, we have a free range guinea pig.
Ellie kept dismantling his cage to get at him, and retrieving him and putting the cage back together numerous times each day proved a bit difficult, so we finally gave up. He now has a little habitat with food, water, and hay, but he also has access to the entire screened porch and the backyard. I worry a bit about predators, but the little thing is lightning fast, which I can attest to, having tried and failed to catch him many, many times. He seems happy, and pretty territorial, as he's shown no indications of wanting to leave. He doesn't want to interact with us all that much either, though. He's about as domesticated as the squirrels are, which is to say, not much.
I should stop writing this and get up and do something today. The glass door I'm peering through has some streaks that look suspiciously like ice cream upon it, so perhaps that would be a good place to start.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-12 06:01 pm (UTC)I can understand why you would be worried though. But happy he has a good survival instinct.