This is a garden thing.

There are some broad leafed, impressive, damn near pest-resistant dark green plants in the garden that I figured were probably borage or something. I have never really seen a borage in the real world since becoming Into Botany, but I planted some and every day was like “oh look, the borage is coming along splendidly,” and “my goodness that borage is certainly vigorous!” Today when I was staring at it in awe it occurred to me that this was no ordinary borage, or any kind of borage at all, but the beginning of sunflowers sturdy enough to stack dinner plates on, tucked into open spots among beans, okra, moon and stars watermelon, nasturtiums, and roselles.

My phone is broken, but I will borrow one to get pictures of its progress.

They have MONSTER leaves. I baby the watermelon and cantaloupe so much the tall things behind got some benefit I guess. After every pot of coffee, I swish the grounds in some water and top-dress the soil, usually around that spot. I learned that while okra doesn’t mind neglect, it seems to enjoy attention very much, and that the borage is probably actually a tank of a sunflower. I’m used to sad, dry bird-shat sunflowers all over the place that have some sort of crinkly grey leaf malady, not robust lions of a plant for climbing to clouds and stealing from giants.

It rained yesterday, the transplants I started a couple of weeks ago are strong. This morning I filled a pail with compost and a little water and propped up leggy stems. I am at the stage of long covid where I can’t bike at all or walk to the little store and back without the power going out in my arms and legs for a few days, but the garden is a narrow strip right by the back door and any time I am bored I can go outside and do easy garden things. I get bored a lot lately so this is the best garden I’ve grown in my life. It is the only thing I feel strong enough to do, though it would be nice if it would rain more consistently so I don’t have to wrestle the garden hose or lug around pails of water and buckets of mulch all the time.