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Jarad ruminates on garden maintenance, weeds and other day to day garden things. When I say the word gardening, people tend to think of planting flowers or trees, pruning shrubs or something of that sort. And while that is a large part of it, an equally larger part of gardening is maintenance. Watering, weeding, pest management and other general care of flowerbeds is a lot of work, and something I didn’t necessarily realize when I began my projects (mulch, or any other weed suppressant, is my new best friend). And really, you are never fully in control of the garden. There’s no way to be, unless you have a hired staff, and then, you’re not really a gardener, are you? But, unlike flowers, one cannot cultivate control. There’s always a stray weed, a dramatic plant drooping in the heat (hydrangeas are the worst of the drama queens), or some other problem that you must troubleshoot on a daily basis.
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Hats off to Tom! by Julie Carpenter (Friday is usually garden day. Is this Friday? No it is not. Pity poor Jarad trying to establish a publishing schedule with me in tow. Anyhoo...here is the post that was perfectly ready yesterday but just didn't get put up.) Tom is the gardener who lived in my new place before me. He was an elderly man who apparently died of dementia. I never met him, but the neighbors have some lovely stories about how helpful he was, finding treasures for the kids and helping them with their gardens. But even though we were never introduced, Tom gave me some gifts as well. He planted my garden full of perennials, shrubs, and small trees, and now I don’t have to start from scratch. Politics and literature are undeniably intertwined, and always will be. Today, Jarad is sharing his thoughts on their connection, and their role in protest. He asks the question, "If you don’t like or agree with a particular piece of literature, you don’t have to read it, and ideas that challenge your beliefs and ideologies are in fact a good thing. If your truth can’t handle any dissent, is it true?" Since January of 2016, we seem to be in a constant state of political uproar. It has been exhausting but necessary. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last. Resistance to ideologies that you find abhorrent is always a part of politics, and arguably everyday life, but I can’t remember a time quite like this. Granted, I’m young, but it’s still jarring to see such events occurring in 2019, and to lose friends over politics. People are polarized, and some lament this fact and worry about a society that cannot abide differing opinions. On the other hand, sometimes there’s good reason for that. For example, in the case of the recent resurgence of Neo-Nazism, there’s no in between on that issue. You either abide them or you don’t. There are times when choices become stark.
This is a short post, but I wanted to pop on here and share a little story about a gardener I’ve been observing for a while now. A couple of weeks ago, the street I live on had four tornadoes come through in one day (my house was shaking, and in between worrying that my roof was going to fly off, I did idly wonder if this was finally my chance to meet the wicked witch of the west). Luckily, there wasn’t that much damage, except to one house. It was a house I never paid much attention to, given the fact that it’s almost entirely concealed by trees. It’s a nice house; as I understand it, it was built over 50 years ago, and during the storms, it seemed that all those trees were thrown on the house at once, putting two holes in the roof and a crack down the side. The trees were almost immediately removed, and this was how I discovered that a gardener had been hiding in plain sight. The woman who lives there has a small greenhouse attached to the side of her house, and an area just outside the trees is planted with a bunch of annuals. I don’t know what else she has planted around the property (I have no doubt that she planted all those trees), but I’ve been observing her on my walks for the last couple of weeks. Every day, she’s out there working in her yard. I’ve been told that she’s at least 83, and every day I walk by her house she’s been outside, raking leaves and clearing away branches (on the bright side, she has plenty of room to plant now that the sun can reach her front yard!). I can tell that this will be me when I’m that old, because there is always something to do in the garden (it’s one of the many good things about the hobby). Our work is never done; there’s always something to be planted, pruned or harvested. I look forward to seeing what she plants in the new space! Bio Jarad is the co-administrator and writer for Sacred Chickens, attends college at MTSU, loves tea and coffee, and tries to spend every spare second reading. He recently developed an interest (some might say obsession) with gardening. Jarad is an English major with a concentration in literature. Bless his heart! Let's all light a candle for him and send him happy thoughts! Today Jarad is sharing his thoughts on the literary canon. Let us know your thoughts as well! I went through a phase in 8th or 9th grade, where it was my mission to read all the “classic” books, something I later came to know as the literary canon. I got through quite a few- Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, Salinger, Harper Lee, Mark Twain, I read them all. Was this a good or bad thing for me to do? I enjoyed some of them. I learned something. I was free to read other things while my classmates slogged through their assignments, at least when one of the ones I’d read showed up on the syllabus. But sometimes now I question why I did it.
Today Jarad is sharing a childhood experience that shaped the way he views books and literature. Sacrilege. I’ve always liked that word. It sounds grandiose, dramatic, like a high crime or grave misdeed has been committed. It sounds dark in a way, one of the words in the English language that feels velvety and rich when it’s said. It’s doesn’t seem like it’s just meant to be spoken though; it’s meant to shouted in a king or queen’s court at a heretic plotting against the crown. Regardless, it’s one of those words I loved since childhood. Since the story of how I came to know the and love the word involves books, I thought I would share it with you.
Today Jarad is sharing his thoughts on losing books. When's the last time you lost a book? I recently lost a book. I don’t know if this happens to other people, but my particular brand of absent-mindedness means that I often set things down with reckless abandon and then promptly forget about them. I put my mom’s keys down on my desk and when she asked me where they were at, I had no idea. We spent 30 minutes tearing the house apart, but we both eventually located it.
Sometimes gardening can be tough. Jarad shares his thoughts on the less pleasant chores in the garden I love plants; I really do, but there are parts of gardening I don’t enjoy. Weeding isn’t fun, and neither is pruning particularly, but removing sod is probably the worst chore I’ve encountered so far. Firstly, grass is heavy. Very heavy. A couple of days ago, I removed grass for my little vegetable garden this summer. It took 6 hours one day and four the next. I was covered in mud, hands were full of blisters, and I’m sore in places I didn’t even know existed. Grass is now my least favorite plant! But it’s worth it so I can grow a few vegetables and herbs, plant garlic in the fall, and at least I won’t have to repeat the process next year. Still, there were moments when I questioned why in the hell I was doing this ridiculous thing, can’t I grow corn in a pot, and watermelons can grow in pots as well right? You know, really, really big pots? This is what I was thinking as I removed all that grass. And while I’m sure they could, but I wouldn’t have been happy with just that.
Here is an essay I wrote on the movie Fire by Deepa Mehta Fire is an Indian Film that I watched as part of my Feminist Theory class and I wanted to share some thoughts I had about it on the blog. I think it’s definitely worth a watch. Although there are certainly cultural differences, much of the underlying assessment of patriarchal power structures has global significance. The following is a paper that I wrote exploring the ideas in the movie - in case you’re wondering about the slightly more academic style than usual.
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