June 19
I found a place to plant food. It is late in the season, but I already have some plants started in little pots. If I can get this place cleaned up soon, and with the growing season being so long here, I may still be able to get a harvest.
It is a big task. Vines and small trees are growing among and within the raised beds. Wooden trellises, slightly rotted from age and weather, are mixed among the saplings, while greenbrier, English ivy, and bindweed vines are taking complete advantage of them. A metal cattle panel arches between two of the beds, covered with more of the same vines. Under the arch, wild blackberry brambles are trying to take hold.
There is an old, bright green sign, its posts rotted and fallen, that reads, “The Obedience Garden.” Maybe I’ll try to salvage it and hang it on the garden fence by the gate.
The sun was beating down, and the humidity was rising as I worked to clear out the garden space. The saplings are mulberry trees and have popped up everywhere. I couldn’t dig out the roots, so I had to cut them down. I yanked out vines, pulled grass, cleared away junk, and painstakingly unwound vines from the cattle panel trellis, all the while feeling as if I were melting under the unrelenting sun and cloying humidity.
I didn’t quite finish, the excessive weather drove me to the cool interior of the house for water and a break, but I put a dent in the work that needs to be done in the raised beds area. Soon I will be able to plant my starters and hope they can survive the blistering heat long enough to grow some food.
Runes & Rust 