AND NOT THE KIND SINATRA WAS TALKIN’ ABOUT
BY VENUS BIRD
Okay, summer is technically a week and a half away. But come on! This wind is more worthy of March than June.
I was so anxiously looking forward to my debut that follows my husband’s introduction to this part of The Natomas Buzz (he is admittedly the better writer) being about that which makes me the happiest in our summer garden. The sunflower.
This little beauty was barely the height of the planter bed about three weeks ago. It is a stray seed from the many that were planted in the bed last year after our onion and garlic harvest. Sunflowers, like mint and dill, are basically weeds that cannot be destroyed.
Or so I thought, until I awoke to inspect the damage the wind had wrought. It looked like we’d fared okay … until I saw my poor sunflower, on the ground. That which makes me and everyone who looks at it, so happy, was so sad, and dying. And nothing I could do.
The sad thing about wind, it keeps us from doing many things in the garden, like clearing the beds and then recharging them. We can, and did, clear the garlic bed. We would have liked to recharge it with new dirt and manure and plant more seeds for Chinese okra and summer greens.
No such luck, the wind would just blow it all away. In North Natomas, we just don’t have the mature trees to serve as wind breaks. This community just hasn’t been here long enough where you have the trees along the fence lines to buffer those winds.
We’ll get there, and hopefully when we do, the sun my tomatoes, cukes, okra, and the list goes on, will still have the sun they need to thrive in the summer Natomas garden.
Bill & Venus Bird have lived and gardened in North Natomas since 2003 – and have killed more tomato plants than they care to admit. Bill fancies himself an expert, but the real green thumb in this partnership is Venus.
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