Layers of Satisfaction

Layers of Satisfaction, originally uploaded by Ghetto Steve.

Carefully. Lay the stakes in the ground. Just so. Just this far apart.... now tie a string to each piece. Perfect! Now take the hoe... its too big. I run the row miles wide of the string layed guide. We rake it and Dad finishes it again. In goes the water. I follow it as it makes its journy down the river bed. The dirt is loose. Freshly rotor tilled. Behind me I run my bare toes through the soft dirt, seasonally fluffed. I care for the little stream as it slowly stretches along the length of the row. Moving a rock here, Pulling it through a high spot later. It reaches the end, fills a bit over and is moved to the next row.

After I have seen to it I return to the first. The fluffy dirt has changed with so much water. Not rough or fluffy, but silky smooth and shiney. Its surface only marred by sticks of yester year and popped mud bubbles. Like the sea foam, only more like frogs. Muddy and swamp like. I hold open my tiny hands for a few precious shakes of the seed bag. Into my palms fall natures magic. One by one I place each carefully, just so apart, like dad showed me. I poke them in deep and get muddy fingers. Dad covers them, tossing a safe blanket of dirt over their heads with the hoe in his hands once again.

I don't much like weeding. Sometimes they make me pull the sprinkler. Sometimes i just play in it and help the water move down rows. Build dams around the tomatoes. Hills around the pumpkins... but what i really like are munching on the peas. And tasting the beans right off the bush, while Dad picks for hours. I eat lots of raspberries, but there are lots of bugs and spiders in them.

To plant and to harvest and the sometimes unpleasant wait in between.

Just a few years ago, when i was in highs school and just starting to get into cooking I demanded a plot for my herb garden. I didn't even know exactly which meant 'comes back' of perennial or annual or biennial... I hadn't tasted most of the herbs I planted. But I bought seeds and started a patch in what i figured the best piece of garden their was. Closest to the house and in the deepest soil, with just a touch of shade from our desert sun. They could have gone elsewhere I realize, but there they stay. Years after a favored chive plant, which attracts hordes of beautiful polinators, oregano and thyme live on.

And two massive sage plants which attract only honey bees. I prune away the dead woody branches each year, though its said i should replace them by now. They bloom so wonderfully each year so I dont. And more sweetly still amidst the weeds and basil I've found their children. A few little sage plants each year mixed with the weeds but coming up strong. They take such little care and water, but bloom so prettily. and is so easy to cook with. Sage is a plant to which I give my highest regards.