Dear Chives,

Thanks for being there for me. Last fall, I ripped you out of the ground, rudely and unceremoniously, and tossed you into the compost. "If I want more chives next year, I'll buy them again," I declared. But I forgot. I didn't plant you again, and I forgot to buy you in the grocery store last week. I needed you for my all-time favorite coleslaw recipe (cabbage, chives, cilantro, and a simple oil/vinaigrette dressing), among other things. And guess where I found you? On the edge of the compost pile, growing four times as big as you were when I chucked you there. Thanks for hanging in there and being there when I needed you most. It's a lot for a girl to ask from an herb, but I surely do appreciate it. And I'm sorry...she said sheepishly.

Love,

The Careless Gardener

Talk About Slow Food

We keep a small vegetable garden. This year, we have 18 square feet planted with lettuce, carrots, peas, beans, scarlet runner beans, peppers, basil, parsley, cucumbers, lima beans, small watermelon, and small cantaloupe. We also have seven or eight tomato plants in grow bags. The vegetable garden doesn't really produce much, at least it hasn't in the last three years, and with our CSA membership, it's kind of unnecessary. I guess I keep doing it because I want to keep us in the habit so that when we have our own house, I can grow a bigger and more productive garden. It's also kind of fun and helps keep Duncan connected to the earth in between our weekly visits to the farm. He's proud that the lima bean he started at school from a seed is growing like a weed, and he likes to eat lettuce right out of the ground. Even if we ate nothing, I would think it was a useful exercise.

One interesting and annoying feature of our house is its lack of outdoor spigots. I have to water everything by hand, with watering cans filled at the kitchen sink. Since we're in the middle of a heat wave, I have to water every day. It takes eight watering cans to water everything:  vegetable boxes, flowers in pots and barrels, hanging basket, shade garden. I am embracing the fact that it takes me 4 trips in and out of the house to water everything; I'm thinking of it as extra exercise. I wouldn't mind if if cooled down by 30 degrees and rained every fourth or fifth day, but in the meantime, as long as I keep up the watering can routine, the plants are loving the heat wave. I hope it's really worth it because that is some seriously slow food.