Horticulturally lame
\nmy garden, half-way through June
\nwho knows how far into Midwestern
\ngrowing season<\/p>\n
Weeds have a foothold
\nbut we have managed to keep the bulk of
\nthe interloping bastards at bay<\/p>\n
One pumpkin plant with
\ntwo massive, yellow blossoms
\neach bigger than the plant itself
\nmy subtle goal of two carvable in
\nOctober cultivar spheroids
\none for my grandson, one for me
\nremains shakily on track<\/p>\n
Pepper plants getting there
\nas are some varietal tomatoes
\nmy wife and son planned their
\nfirst salsa garden
\na bowl or two remains feasible<\/p>\n
Ahh, tomatoes!
\nUmami, oh baby!<\/p>\n
A phrase in current lexicon has me
\nscratching my head at mugs, shirts:
\n\u2018haters gonna hate,
\npotatoes gonna potate\u2019<\/p>\n
I question the organizational skills
\nof our tomatoes, trying to tomate<\/p>\n
One plant, in just the past two days
\nhas produced one, two, three\u2026
\nnine green tomatoes, varying size
\nand already straining the plant which has
\nyet to reach my knee in height<\/p>\n
Our cilantro so far cilant-no, the basil\u2026?
\nmy ever-blossoming optimisim says
\nthere is still time for the thyme while
\nour bought-at-a-who-wants-em discount
\nbrussel sprouts do Belgium proud<\/p>\n
A rogue carrot is thriving<\/p>\n
refuge from last summer via
\nthe previous owners of this house
\nthe past cultivators
\nof this charmingly uneven plot of
\nau natural urban agriculture<\/p>\n
untouched, allegedly for
\nmany years by chemical compounds
\nartificially truncating the unwanted
\ncajoling what is welcome to
\ncome, stay<\/p>\n
We are fortunate
\nthat subsistence is not reliant on our
\nagricultural abilities<\/p>\n
Though we could
\nin a fevered, pioneer pinch rely on
\na fence line of wildly flourishing
\nrhubarb \u2013 ubiquitous, still replicating
\nalready having provided
\ntwo batches of sauce, one pie<\/p>\n
Ahh, but man does not live
\nby pie alone<\/p>\n
Fortuitously my neighborhood has a
\ncharming farmers market, a
\ngrocery store with nice produce
\nand neighbors who,
\nin their Midwestern politeness
\nhave not yet commented
\non how my tomatoes tomate.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Mark L. Lucker
\n\u00a9 2019
\nhttp:\/\/lrd.to\/sxh9jntSbd<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Horticulturally lame my garden, half-way through June who knows how far into Midwestern growing season Weeds have a foothold but we have managed to keep the bulk of the interloping bastards at bay One pumpkin plant with two massive, yellow blossoms each bigger than the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48422,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48321\/revisions\/48422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}