August 22

 Let's talk a bit about this garden I found.

1) I have no idea if I'm allowed to actually be in this garden.  I could ask, but where would the fun be in that?  Also I wouldn't really know who to ask, and also they might say no, which would be awful, and ALSO ALSO it SAYS 'Community Garden' RIGHT THERE on the sign.  I'm community, ain't I?

2) Whoever planted this garden subscribed to the 'scatter wide and deep' philosophy of plant management.  There are lovely, deep garden boxes filled with soil and....plants.  I'm not a horticulturist but my best guess is several packages of seeds marked 'salad mix' liberally spread amongst the tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and such, and a healthy dose of "Wait!  Doesn't Susan have a herb garden?  Ask her if she'd donate anything!"  Nothing has been watered much at all this summer, or possibly ever; you can tell from the lack of plant growth and the paltry returns.  The sage seems happy, mind you.  You know you're a negligent gardener when the sage is insane.

3) I'm not harvesting anything, because again...not my garden.  But I am making some executive decisions - y'all can't tell me you want to eat lettuce that flowered, went to seed, and then partially died.  I'm pullin' it.

4) I noticed tonight that some of the plants are trees with tags on them.  The tags read 'Serviceberry', and I happen to know those are edible.  The trees are too young to produce fruit, mind you, but they seem pretty healthy and are about 5' tall - so perhaps next year?

5) The children have taken to calling it 'The Secret Garden'.  It is, isn't it?  It will stay a secret, because we can only go in the evenings once the temperature has cooled enough to be outside, and by that point no one seems to be around.

Image by @leafoureaux via Unsplash