Unemployment: Unintended Consequences 2

One of the unexpected pleasures of having this time away from work is that I have been able to spend more time outdoors in my garden. It is a joyful place and every little thing I do brings rewards.

The pond is one of my favorite parts of the garden. It has a small waterfall that helps block out the sounds of the neighborhood and enhances the tranquility. There is a wooden bench beside it and now the plants have matured and it looks like it has always been there. Sometimes I sit on the bench and let my mind wander as I watch the activity of the pond life.

A good garden requires lots of love and must be fed. I compost all of the kitchen plant and vegetable matter, continuously filling the two huge black compost bins and working the compost into the earth. For Mother’s Day, my sons built me beautiful cedar raised beds for herbs and vegetables. We filled them with organic soil, compost from our bins and cow manure. I planted vegetables and herbs and every day spend a little bit of time weeding and watering and tending to these special plants.

Eventually the tomato plants began to flower and little green tomatoes appeared every where. Tiny beans appeared and peppers and okra flowered. They grew with every feeding of compost and cow manure. It was thrilling to see the results.

Finally, it was time to harvest the first crop of beans. It yielded 10 beans. We had five people at the dinner table that night and everyone was allotted two beans. I served them with a reverence that was perhaps undeserving but everyone tried to be enthusiastic although there were some snickers. Fortunately there were other more substantial courses.

Soon after, the tomatoes began to turn red and I marveled at the changes every day. Finally, I was able to pick a few and enjoy them. There were hundreds of tomatoes on the plants and surely, I thought, they would ripen gradually so that the crop would last for many weeks.

Then one day I noticed that a tomato had been violated with a huge gash torn through its crimson flesh. I gasped in horror and looked around for the culprit who had by then vanished. Daily, I noticed more gashes on other fruit. I left the damaged goods so that the perpetrator could claim his original victim rather than choose a new one. That tactic did not work. Then, I found 4 beautiful red tomatoes, partially eaten, underneath a bush. I must have startled the thieves who dropped the goods en route to their hiding place. Fruit continued to disappear.

I tried picking tomatoes before they were ripe. Soon I found green ones on the ground around the plants and I noticed that the leaves of the tall plants were shredded...presumably by the miserable little feet connected to the mouths that were eating my tomatoes.

Today I took inventory and one plant has no more fruit. Most of the tomatoes are missing off of the other plants as well. Tomato season should last a while longer, but mine has been cut short by varmints.

I have enjoyed my tomatoes. I’m annoyed at the thieves. But there are few more tomatoes and they don’t eat the beans or the hot peppers or the okra. And the herbs will last far into fall. Maybe it’s the peaceful sound of water falling in the pond that keeps me from losing my temper over this, or just knowing that this has been a special time and an unusual opportunity to appreciate nature in many forms.