Repairs

Every few days I walk through the property to see what Nature has done.

At the beginning of the season this was a daily…sometimes twice daily…ritual. It was exciting to see those first few leaves turn green in the kitchen garden, swale, vineyard and fedge.

As the season progressed, it was fun to see the fruit on the vine, the head forming on the broccoli and the cabbage and the grapes turning from green to red.

Then the pests came and, while it wasn’t fun to witness the damage they caused, it was amazing in an awful way to see the harm that nature could inflict.

And then extraordinary to see the repairs nature could make.

The mulberry trees, attacked and eaten by deer when we forgot to put the cages back on, came back stronger with greener leaves. The branches are reaching through the cages now and, for some unknown reason, the deer are not eating the new leaves.

The apple tree, all but obliterated by Japanese beetles, quickly rebounded.

The marigolds, the ones I thought we’d never see, burst through the thick dill and volunteer tomatoes in the kitchen garden.

The plants are the tallest our marigolds have ever been. These little seeds valiantly struggled through the soil, cardboard, weeds, dill and overachieving volunteer tomatoes.

Incredible.

The broccoli, viciously bombarded by the two Broccoli Bandits, is going to seed and some of the plants have new heads forming.

Nature can be vicious, brutal even. But…she can also be gentle.

Nature’s surprises
Repairs this late in the year
I marvel at her