We’ve had a rollercoaster of a year so far, weatherwise, but the dog days have most definitely arrived. Things are getting overgrown and sticky, and all kudzu-looking.

I like that phrase, “dog days.” Do you know where it came from? Sirius, the dog star, rises and sets with the sun this time of year. The ancients actually thought, because of its brightness, that it played a role in the particularly hot, sultry weather from late July to late August. Speaking of hot and sultry, here are a couple of pics of your gardener in the state of nature (well, almost)…

I know some of you are rolling your eyes right now, and I don’t care. “Love the garden, love the gardener,” right? That’s what Serpico said in the movie. You remember that?

“I like your garden,” that chick says.

Serpico’s like, “Love my garden.”

She’s like, “Okay. I love your garden.”

“You know what they say, don’t you?”

“No. What do they say?”

“If you love a man’s garden, you gotta love the man.”

(Between you and me, I think that second “love” was the euphemistic one. Didn’t he go on to say something like: “I got some zucchini planted. You love zucchini, too, right?”)

Anyway. I’m not sure if it works the other way around or not. This is one of those riddles of deductive reasoning. It’s like the great martini debate. Because you know what they say about martinis: if it’s not in a martini glass it’s not a martini, right? Well, does that mean that everything in a martini glass has to be a martini, then? Many bars and restaurants around town seem to think so.

So the question is: if you love a man, must you love his garden, too? I think you could love the man and just sort of like the garden, or maybe even just tolerate it, like when you have a new boyfriend or girlfriend who has a pet you really can’t stand, and it’s always like, “here, pet Tinkerbell! hold Tinkerbell! Love Tinkerbell!” And you can’t come right out and say, I freakin hate that freakin furball! because then you might not get your scooby snack at the end of the night if you do. You set about silently plotting Tinkerbell’s demise.

I hope no one feels that way about me and my garden. Honestly, I have not been there nearly as much as I would like. The dog days are definitely here, and, if you want to know the truth, right about now, it’s become a bit of a slog.

The flowers popping up now are pretty hardy, and you can tell by looking at them:

Categories: gardening philosophy, garden snapshots