[gardeners] Today's Gardening

Liz Albrook (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 1 Apr 1998 12:56:16 +0000 

Today's gardening adventure is taking place in the pool.  Yes, the 
swimming pool.  As you guys know I'm not going to have a garden this 
year and my guud friend Catharine has decided to not raise a veggie 
garden this year in sympathy with me.  Ms. Catharine, like me, is a 
believer in cliches such as "misery loves company" and "no good deed 
shall go unpunished".  But I'm getting sidetracked here.  I figured 
if I couldn't garden in the ground I could garden in the pool.

Gardening in the pool.  I have spent the morning harvesting the kelp 
-- at least I think it's kelp although, until this morning, I thought 
that was a salt water plant.  Great, huge pads of what almost appears 
to be leaves, slimy leaves, and drying poolside.  These pads, 
harvested just minutes ago, must be seaweed.  I believe that I'll 
serve sushi as an appetizer since I have these fresh seaweed 
wrappers.

I am unsure what crop to plant next in the pool.  In truth, I didn't 
plant the current crops so perhaps I should leave the next crop in 
Mother Nature's hands and wait for my next pleasant surprise.  (And 
did I mention the giant earthworms?)  Rather than add compost to the 
pool -- it doesn't appear to need it -- I tossed in a Kreepy Krawly 
for fertilizer.  I'd almost swear I heard a scream when it hit the 
water.  

One thing is certain -- my calendar for this winter will have a 
notation on January 5 that says "Add chlorine shock to the pool, 
idiot".  Much to my surprise there was no such notation for January 
5th of this year.  Well, it wasn't actually a surprise until I got a 
letter from the pool people that said "If you didn't add a
mid-winter shock to your mesh covered pool you should call us about 
opening your pool".  I am not going to comment on whether it would 
have been better for me to recieve a letter in December with the 
words "Have a Shocking Good Christmas -- keep that chlorine level up, 
friends". 

At least it's given me some gardening to do today rather than leaving 
me with the taxes to finish.

Liz