good 'n planty

 

I guess I'm learning what it means to be a community gardener. I'm not always super social, so I'm always happy when I  find my garden pleasantly vacant.

The garden is bordered with a fancy cathedral, a kids playground, and many houses- one of which belongs to an older gentleman who has recently started coming over to greet me every time I stop by.

 

He was friendly and interested in the garden, and despite our language barriers- at first I enjoyed talking to him about cooking.

After a half hour or so of non-stop talking, I started to get a little annoyed... I just wanted to work in my garden. After it happened a few times, I complained to Pam- gardener to gardener. Her advice was just like her- honest, direct and completely right.

 "Abby, you may have tried to send him signals that you wanted him to go away, but you were probably smiling when you were doing it. You're being too nice, you need to tell him you want to work in your garden and be left alone." She's right! I thought, I can do it!

  When I stopped by today to pick up some compost for my fire escape garden, the neighbor popped into the garden, perfectly on cue. I wanted to photograph the garden wet with rain and the soft sunlight... but it was difficult with him following me and pointing at things for me to shoot. I even got one of him "styling" a cucumber for me.
I tried my best to get him to leave, but he didn't get it.

This incident led me to thinking about neighbors.  Every garden has them- whether they're nearby houses, neighborhood kids, deer, insects, etc... They're not always what you want, but it seems like that's just a part of being outside and sharing the space we have. I'm sure I'll learn to live with the neighbor...if not, I can use one surefire method to get him out of the garden- putting him to work!

 

Anyways, I got to pick some zinnias this time, which made me happy since most of them were damaged by beetles last time, and my tomatoes are all still green. Feels like it's taking sooo long for them to turn. Is it just me?