Suzanne’s Blog for 7/1/2023

It is getting hot and the broiling heat that I used to love so much when I was younger … is not as easy to deal with as I am older. I love that I live in northern California and that where I am (on the ocean side) of the mountain that at least we get the cooling breezes off the water in the morning and evening.
It is as if the big redwood trees call the fog and mist in and then breathe it back out into the world.
I love living in this more temperate zone. The universe totally knew what it was doing and what I needed as I get older.
The artichokes have come in. I am eating the last of them now. Asparagus came and went but “oh my!” what a lovely gift that continued to give for extended periods of time.
The tomatoes are beginning to look interesting. The baby apples have appeared. The butterflies are loving swooping through the myriad flowers though they seem to prefer the blue ones. The peppers are doing their best after getting munched by the deer after the gate was left open by accident. And the sugar snap peas are 6 feet tall. Broccoli is peeking through the leaves and cabbages are announcing their presence. We have to start diligently eating the kale as it is going to town, and we had our first bowl of strawberries. The garlic is in the drying area as we have loads of it this year. Red onions need to come out, they are showing their bright red tops peeking out of the soil.
Gardens remind me that all things have cycles. All crops offer us wonderful things. Those things that we eat are a part of certain plants natural cycles. We nurture them to grow and give them the nutrients that they need to thrive. We protect them from certain things that want to munch them before they naturally come to the end of their cycle and then they will offer us up delicious things for us to eat and hopefully we learn to celebrate their life as they help us feed our own bodies.
It is a natural process, ancient, and a part of this worlds many gifts to us.
I am grateful that I have learned how to become a gardener. I feel that I am more in the flow with nature and no longer standing outside it. I feel that I support life and those I love with the gifts the garden offers.
We are a part of the cycles. We are a part of what needs to give back. I keep sections of strawberries for the critters. As I imagine it is torture to smell and see strawberries that can never be tasted. It seems just too cruel. So I have learned to live in harmony with the thriving life in my garden, and I strive to work with all that is attracted to the garden. The garden has taught me that life is a give and take. The garden has taught me to be in the natural flow and work towards ways that allow for all to win.

~Suzanne Wagner~