notes on a garden

Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. -Romans 1:20

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I planted raspberry canes 2 years ago. I have done almost nothing to tend them, apart from weeding them a few times a year. They are taller than me and spreading as far as I'll let them, with big green berries already promising a bumper crop this year.

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The last couple of years I've had good results with simple green leaf lettuce. Wanting to spice it up a little this year, I bought seeds for a gourmet lettuce mix. I tilled the soil, planted, watered, and waited. They sprouted and grew and looked delicious, a beautiful variety of leaf shapes and colors... But the lettuce tasted horrible, harsh and bitter and mostly inedible.

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About 2 weeks ago I planted 8 rows of corn in a large square patch of the garden. If I stand at the edge of the patch and look down I can't see anything sprouting. It just looks like a square of dirt with a few weeds here and there. But if I squat down and train my eyes slowly around a small section of ground I can see 1/2"-1" spears of bright green seedlings poking out of the soil.



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The arugula starts I planted in early April looked beautiful for several weeks, but I never got around to harvesting them much. My other lettuces weren't ready yet, and an all-arugula salad is pretty intense, so I just let them grow. They went to seed this week. Most lettuce varieties will usually produce throughout the spring and into summer, but apparently that's only when they are harvested regularly.

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The prune and apple trees have lost their blossoms. If I stand still and focus my eyes on the branches of the prune tree, I can begin to make out tic-tac sized prunes exactly the same color as the tree's leaves. The apple tree, however, is in the barren stage between flowers and fruit: the blooms are gone and there are not yet any visible signs that apples are coming.