A long time ago, someone got the brilliant idea to plant silphium.  It’s a tall native with pretty yellow flowers on top; what could go wrong?

Fast forward to years later, and they’ve become an aggressive forest of 10’+ square woody stalks, 14′ taproots, seeds being spread everywhere, and uncontrollable expansion.  The good news is I’m not the responsible party; the bad news is they’ve taken over the world and pushed out any weaker plants.

Do you see where I’m going with this?  Another garden metaphor by YT.  If you don’t get it, read on.

Anyway, knowing I’ll never single-handedly eradicate or control them, I decided on a compromise, but hear me out.  Much bashing and mashing later, I managed to clear the area of most of the surface stalks and new growth.  I hand-cultivated and soaked the area.  There are a lot of other native plants and trees in there I want to preserve.  In fact, it will become a strip of redbud trees one of these days.

Today was back to hot, so when it cools off again, I’m going to transplant a lot of green dragon and native ginger as a green ground cover.  They too are aggressive spreaders, so I might as well use that habit to my advantage.  At some point, I may add some other tough, beneficial natives to help compete with the silphium.  Picture an eventual redbud grove with a green ground cover and flowers all season

The point is, I can’t realistically undo the “damage”, and left to its own devices it will just multiply into the rest of the space.  But if I do what I can to fill in the spaces with stronger, smarter alternatives, and nip or chelsea chop the new silphium growth in spring, eventually the other options will impede its expansion and even take over.  It’s a long process, which I may not live to see, but at least I started somewhere.

If you know, you know.

Botcode is my favorite language.

In other news, I’ve never grown so many eggplants!  Too bad they don’t get used much, except by me! 😎 🍆🍆🍆

I grew all the hanging gourds in the sukkah, mostly accidentally!

So much got packed into the weekend, that I’ll just summarize and let the photos tell the story.  The culmination was Tower Grove Pride, but I was so engrossed in being there and talking to people, I neglected to take any photos!  The real reason was, I didn’t feel like a tourist, I felt at home in my element.  But more on that later.

For erev, Stacey made this wonderful meal: chicken parmesan, and two challot, one an experimental garlic challah to go with the meal, which was great.  I made garden Italian zucchini with fresh herbs.  Meanwhile, I had time to prune lots of trees and tall semi-woody plants (Silphium and Tithonia) for the sukkah.

Saturday, Avdi and I worked on the sukkah frame and drank beer.  I mostly did the latter, while he did the ladder, and his famous knot-tying.  He did a beautiful job, and then collapsed on the swing.  Loucious supervised (waited for frisbee-throwing).  I threw branches on top.  Jess and I applied branches to the sides.  Later, Avdi spent the night at Jess’s, while I slept over.

Sunday, we all piled in cars and went to Tower Grove Pride.  We all split up.  I spent the day getting to know people at the nonprofit orgs booths, to see if I could find a good match to volunteer for.  There were so many doing great work in the communities.  I totally lost track of time.  I didn’t even mind having no money, because the conversations were so worth it, plus people were practically throwing freebies and flyers at me, a shopping bag’s worth!  My HW’s cut out for me.

This was the less capitalistic STL pride, not the huge corporate theme park-like Pride sponsored by big corps.  Tower Grove Is surrounded by trees and a park, and is more friendly and genuine, IMO.  So many diverse communities and groups were represented.  I was amazed by the number of local companies (e.g. Schnuck’s) and orgs that are queer-inclusive and supportive.  Also alternative political parties and collaborations that I could get behind.  I just need to pick one that I could actually help behind the scenes.

After Pride, S and I worked on decorating the sukkah.  S hung trans colors, and named it the Trans Sukkah, or, the Tardis Sukkah, except it’s not really bigger on the inside..  After that, I removed all the light strings from the veg garden and strung them up on the sukkah.  Later, we had the family meeting, with good attendance and food that Jess brought.  When it was dark, Jess sat in the lit up sukkah and did some work.  Stacey, S, and I also have been spending time in it.

Today I raked up some of the debris, and watered the garden.  The lettuces and greens are already coming up.  More asters are blooming.

Today was again perfect for working outside.  I sawed and lopped down large branches for the sukkah, the largest of which were shading out the part of the cleared area I hope to try again with Queen of the Prairie, which I need to sow soon to stratify adequately (C90 code).  They and other natives need sun and wet conditions, so it accomplished two goals.

Later I’ll cut down some large, more herbaceous branches for the next layer of the sukkah, and then some excess flowering natives for ornamental purposes.  There aren’t many colorful leaves yet this year, because of the climate, but lots of flowers.  Last, we’ll decorate the sukkah; I’m thinking about stringing up lights as well.

Stacey was gracious enough to pre-prepare both challot and a whole meal for erev, which allowed me to prune branches, and later add a green side of my own.  I think we may have a crowd, but one never knows around here!  Lots going on, as usual.

I got more work done on my garden projects.  It’s easy when it’s so cool and pleasant out.

I cleaned up the cilantro and parsley sections of the herb garden and sowed a fresh batch of each.

I planted some rooted native tree saplings along the woodsy area to fill it in more.

I cut down some more fallen silphium, and weeded around the perennials in the hosta garden.

I cleaned up and bug-sprayed the last of the house plants outside, and brought them in.

I raked away more debris in the veg garden, and weeded the flower strips around the outside of it.

I decided it was time to bring in the one pumpkin I grew.

As soon as Avdi puts up the sukkah frame, I’ll cut all the branches he’ll need for the roof and walls, then help decorate.

Today’s project was cleaning up and hand-cultivating the large and smaller raised beds, and sowing a salad and greens bar for fall.

More exciting was taking Loucious to the vet for his injured paw.  He’s fine until other dogs show up; then he turns into a raving maniac.  There were a lot of dogs, from tiny to gigantic, and they were all his enemies.  He liked the people.  We waited a long time.  Finally the vets examined his paw, two nails broken off at the quick, and prescribed meds.  Poor doggie was such a brave trooper.

It was even cooler and breezier today, so I got more done on my projects.

I cleaned up and organized the compost area even more, with sections for leaves, wood chips, and debris.  I cleared out most of the old cardboard from the veg garden and dumped it.  I pruned out the walnut regrowth and covered it with cardboard and piles of silphium stalks.  I did a rough inventory of branches that could be cut for the sukkah and I think we’re good.

Note the different pollinators on the goldenrod.  It’s almost like native mountain mint for attracting them, fun to observe.

I’ve been a delinquent about High Holy Days this year.  For Rosh HaShana I had an excuse–I was recovering at home from surgery.  Today, Yom Kippur, I had no such excuse.  I did mostly fast, but I also worked hard in the garden, it being the first day of a cool spell after rain.  Gardening is about as spiritual as it gets for me lately.

I worked on three big projects on my fall list: I hand-cultivated half of the veg garden, raking the weeds and cardboard out of the way; I cleaned up the compost area, and designated sections for leaves and brush; and I cleared and rototilled a wider bed along the woodsy area for natives.  Toward the end, it was all misty and breezy, a far cry from the humid furnace.  I felt back in my element.

I’m now learning that when you get cat surgery for distance only (the most affordable, covered type), your closeup vision does get worse, because the artificial monofocal lens doesn’t adjust like the natural one does.  They didn’t really clarify that pre-op; they just said I’d need to get upgraded reading glasses (prescription or not) after the eyes heal and stabilize completely, which can be months.

It turns out many people had this same experience and weren’t really advised about it.  Not that I had a choice, or more accurately, I had the choice of one or the other, unless I paid thousands out of pocket for the progressive/adjustable lenses (to avoid glasses altogether).

In a less capitalist system, maybe it’s possible for most people to get the comprehensive lenses affordably.  Here, the insurance companies own the parts of your body and assign value to them, on a schedule, and you have to prioritize which can get treatment.  Assuming you can even afford privatized insurance.

I am not complaining; they supplied the basic information I needed to go forward, and met those terms efficiently and thoroughly.  The surgery had to be done, and I chose the most accessible procedure, with help from friends.  My eyes are not done recovering and adjusting, so I’ll reassess in a month or two, when I’ll be cleared for glasses, which is what I signed up for.

Now back to our usual programming.

I must be out of practice doing erev Shabbat, because my challot didn’t rise or get fully baked inside, and the meal was not my most inspired.  But everyone seemed OK with it.

Then A, Stacey, S, N, Y, and I introduced Stacey to Grant’s Farm, for Octoberfest.  We took the tram ride in the dark, past all the different kinds of deer and animals grazing in the trees.  Then we had fun with the herd of adorable little goats in their corral.  Then past all the other exotic animals in their pens, to the Anheuser-Busch biergarten with its live music, dancing 🤮, and Free Beer!! 😁  Under the still hot circumstances, even Bud on tap tasted good!

I could still see to drive home in the dark, so no worries.  There’s a large, bright halo around every light, but hopefully that will tone down.

Today I slept in, lounged around, got things done, and then went over to the Avdi’s to supposedly sleep over.  I joined Avdi, Stacey, and S in the pool, my first time since the surgeries, and chilled out.  Then Avdi baked pizzas, and I started to watch “The Terror”, which Stacey turned me on to.  Then it turned out I didn’t need to spend the night after all, so I came back home!  It’s almost like that archaic concept of “the weekend”!

Side note: I can’t believe I accidentally grew a whole pumpkin!

Innumerable species of goldenrods, asters, boneset, snakeroot, and many other natives bloom this time of year.  Some people may consider them weeds, but they are essential for late-season pollinators when other flowers are fading.

En masse they are beautiful, though modest, as well as drought-tolerant.  They’ll outlast cultivars any day in this heat.  Also, they are not allergens.  They serve many purposes for wildlife going into fall and winter.  If there is a winter, anymore!  Consider them your allies in the fight to preserve the natural environment that we depend on for survival.

Possibly unrelated, though maybe not so much, repugs are actually trying to outlaw food vendors and shop-owners from giving out water to unhoused people in this dangerous extended heat wave.  Can you imagine the psychopathic hate it takes to treat fellow humans like that?!  Even the god they claim to follow in the book they claim is infallible, says, and I quote, (Matt. 25:42-3):

“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”  It’s equating any humans they treated inhumanely to god, and threatening the perpetrators with hell for such cruelty.

I never quote biblical anything these days, but the hypocrisy!  Just like repugs are propping up an undead corpse named Mitch to try to get the vile votes they require to eradicate justice and human rights, while they eliminate perfectly qualified and competent people of color from serving or voting, because “DEI”.  If dems used a corpse to get a majority vote, repugs would condemn them to communist hell, or voting fraud, or something.

Somehow these two topics are metaphorically related, because I’m a gardener!  It’s all related.  Humans are not weeds to be torn down or eliminated.  There are consequences for heedless, reckless behavior.  The perps will pay for what they did to all of us and nature itself, hopefully in a proportionally extreme way.

For illustration, here are natives blooming!  😇