My Uninvited Guests

My garden evolves from year to year. Some years, like this year it has mostly edible fare. In other years, I'm lazy. These years I still plant tomatoes and peppers, but never greens. Greens have to be continually harvested and replanted. Peas and beans have to be tended constantly to keep producing, so they are not welcome. Tomatoes and peppers tend to be easy. Plant once. If they turn red, they usually will be happy to sit there for a few days, and the red is easy to see to pick. They are welcome in my lazy gardening years. In these years the rest of the garden is usually planted in flowers.

I love flowers that can be cut and brought inside, but this year only a few are growing, and only in places that veggies can't grow. Most of my cut flowers will have to come from the perennial border and strangely enough, my weeds. The ox-eyed daisies grow in the path between the house and the garden. I didn't plant them there. They just showed up unannounced like bad neighbors. But I still welcome them in. I may regret it later if they get pushy, but for now I have my tea with the daisies on my kitchen table.