Botanical Facelift

  After recovering from our overwhelming welcome to India, and certain hapless misfortunes, we plied our energies into the reconstruction of the unrecognizably tangled hodge-podge of strangled tomatoes, overshadowed carrots, cynical cilantro, preposterous peppers, and the faithful noisome weeds.
  I do not know how it happens, but the produce that flourishes the best in this sunshine magnet happens to the dedicated antithesis of my exsistence.  Pepper! They seem to thrive more on the misery they cause me, then anything physical sustinence provided.
  On to more pleasant subjects. Ripping out weeds can be ravishingly rewarding, until you find that little pre-mammal predecessor of the porcupine.  These ground cover weeds are armed to the leaf with bristling burrs that "catch" you by surprise, but they were nonetheless bravely confronted and uprooted. Then came the fun part of staking up the survivors.

  Of a truth I prefer helping to stake up the pulchritudinous tomatoes.  It makes me "satisfied" to contemplate the happy state of a tomato accomplishing the role it was pertinently designed to do.  Of all the lovely plants in the garden seen, the loveliest of all are the ones that might have been. (contorted paraphrasing from a quote I cannot remember).

  Anytime I miss the succulent blueberries of Idaho, or when I am ready for a snack, or just passing by, or happen to find myself in its proximities, or in other words, all the time, I take advantage of these small berries. In Tamil its name incorporates that of the tomato family, and not being a naturalist or given to any sort of botanical classification, I have no idea where it comes from or what it is related to, but this much I know...it is a delectable edible fruit, and grows like a weed, but it holds a similarity to the blueberry only in color, not in taste.

  The battle for a healthy garden is never fought alone, thankfully, and we found sympathetic critters to conduct bug patrol in the vegetable foliage. Ecstatic as we were to not struggle on alone, we could not shut our eyes to the fearsome fact that are outnumbered by a landslide. However, thyme is on the side of truth!

  These are the the before and after shots of the gardens first face-lift.  Hopefully, if we can get a good ground cover on it than this could very well have been the last. With that said, the moral of the story is said to be eat and enjoy weeds and you, not the compost pile, will be forever full. I still have not gotten the hang of that one yet...do not blame me porcupine meatballs are great and all, but a porcupine salad is suicide.  I guess the moral is just pull your weeds as they come so you do not have to hire the Brothers In-tents to weed it.
  This is David the Post Host with the left green thumb, as the other thumb is still in rehabilitation. Good luck on your own gardens as they can perpetuate both love and hate.  Love them or hate them, remember you never know when I might post again.