Of Dragonflies and Mole Hills

I was finally able to mow the lawn yesterday after a month. When I tell you this, dear reader, I need you to be able to properly grasp the anxiety that had built up within me due to not being able to mow the lawn. It’s simply been too hot and I have been too busy with seminary work. So, yesterday, in this sweltering heat, 105+ heat index, and “heat advisory,” I broke down and did the chore that I actually enjoy … I mowed my lawn. My inner Hank Hill was satiated after a month long fast.

On a separate but similar vein … As I was mowing my backyard (which will eventually turn into mostly garden space), I was struck by the number of mole tunnels. Now, we bought this house last year and we inherited the colony of moles that dwell beneath the surface and I have yet to forcibly evict them from the premises, so I can’t blame them for doing their thing. But they’re making my yard look horrible. My inner Hank Hill is also angry.

But I noticed something else while mowing and crushing mole tunnels in my yard … a large amount of dragonflies. I don’t know what has suddenly turned my yard into a scene from The Wind and the Willows but I both love and hate it.

It is all of this, dear reader, that led to the title of this post. I feel like this should be the title of a blog on its own, or a short story, or a children’s story, or even a story of epic proportions on the same level as Watership Down, but about moles and dragonflies. Even as I write this, my imagination is going wild with the idea of a mole language, religious system, etc… in the same way in which I image Richard Adams’ must have as he was creating the rabbit culture for his daughters while driving them past Watership Down on their way to school. I’ll need to noodle on this for awhile, but I’ll do my best to keep you posted.

At any rate, I realized that, because of my neglect of this blog over the course of this year thus far, I have failed to share photos of my garden. Now, it’s not pretty because it’s my first go of it and frankly things are just too expensive to throw money at extra dirt, fancy mulch, or even fencing. My plan over the next few years is to expand my garden little-by-little in order to incorporate a larger portion of my backyard. But for this year I decided to plant some things that should be easy to grow and harvest without much work other than watering.

By this time this post goes “live” I have already harvested my radishes, which are pickling in our refrigerator. I also have eggplant coming up, plenty of summer squash and zucchini, and tomato plants. I tried and failed on multiple occasions to get carrots going this year. I also had one potato plant out of the seven that I planted actually came up. Although, as you’ll notice in the pictures, it is now being overtaken by the zucchini plants!

Here’s a quick breakdown of the pictures below:

• Photo 1: the garden plot, tilled, leveled, and seeds planted – Thanks to Greg Allison for the help with tilling!
• Photo 2 – 30 days in! Things are coming up and looking good. Forgive the cinder blocks and random tomato cages laying around – I have to keep the dogs out of the garden somehow and fencing is expensive!
• Photo 3 – about 40-45 days in. As you can see, the radishes are now gone.
• Photo 4 – an early sampling of the French Breakfast Radishes, which are slightly milder in flavor than traditional radishes.

I’ve learned a few things this year even if I haven’t grown a whole lot in the garden. First, I will try seedlings for a few things instead of direct sow. Second, I will do radishes in large containers or build some raised beds. I planted quite a few radishes this year with the intention of pickling them. While I have not put any kind of fertilizer (natural or otherwise) on my garden, none of my radishes exceeded the diameter of a quarter and many were much much smaller. Part of this problem, I believe, is simply due to space (and the aforementioned moles digging around them). Personally, I’d prefer a nice few rows of raised beds and then plant pollinators around the perimeter of the beds, but supplies cost money so… in the ground they go!

Second, I will plant my squash and zucchini farther apart. The same goes for my tomatoes and my cucumbers.

Finally, I will plant much much earlier in the year. Part of my problem this year has simply been getting the garden in the ground. I don’t own a tiller and I don’t have a vehicle with which to haul one, so I had to rely upon the kindness of a church member to bring his by. He and I are already making plans to till up more of the ground this autumn for over-wintering crops and for a bigger spring/summer garden next year, so getting crops in the ground earlier shouldn’t be an issue. Also, I will plant more variety (garlic, carrot, onion, chives, etc…). I have a whole backyard design laid out, including a few more fruit trees/bushes, herbs, and so on. While we could in no way be fully self sufficient on our small plot, I’d like to be able to learn enough to do okay in the event that we had to drastically reduce our grocery shopping.

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Okay, quick subject change before I close this post out for the week. I know that this blog has traditionally been one that focuses on theological topics and works, as well as pastoral issues. I plan to get back to that soon. But I also plan to throw in other things such as this … because … well … I wanna and I can! I do have a few books to review that I had to read for seminary that will fit the style here at The SouthTown Pastor, so those will be coming up soon. I also have some thoughts on recent cultural, political, and even scientific developments that I may comment on.

Until next week, as one of my old theology profs used to say when he dismissed class: “Go in peace, be warm and filled. See you next time.”

Peace of Christ,
Nick