Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Piers Anthony's Garbage Garden


We had a grindalator thing under the sink that chewed up stray kitchen garbage, but it broke, so I started taking the garbage out to compost in our little flower garden square in the back yard. That worked, and also led to spot gardening adventures. Some of those leftovers were alive, and grew: potatoes, tomatoes, squash, avocado. I care for them as well as I can, trying to give them their fair chance to find their destinies, but this is not native soil for most and they don't do all that well. We do get tomatoes on occasion, but freezes take out the avocados before they can get big enough to bear fruit. This year when I was about to cut up a radish for our supper salad I saw that it was sprouting, and I thought if it was that eager to grow I should let it, and I planted it. It put out a fine cluster of leaves. Then something ate them off. We do live in a forest; wild creatures come. But it survived and grew new leaves, and flowered with little white four-petaled flowers. Things like to dig up our freshly-buried garbage, so finally I laid chicken wire on the ground, making it undiggable, and that helped. Sometimes I dose the garbage with hot chile sauce. But mostly I just water it and it's on its own. It doesn't look like much, but it's not for show anyway. I'm a vegetarian because I don't like to hurt animals, but neither do I like to hurt plants unnecessarily.

34 comments:

  1. You made my life so much better thanks through youre books, and now by reading your blog i can see that youre such good person I allways dreamed you are. Piers you are the greatest!

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  2. I have a different suggestion for the talent of Ida's child. S/he has the talent of traveling the shortest distance between two points so they can take people between 2 of Ida's moons without traveling through the intervening moons.

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  3. We've been doing some gardening the last two years, but it's tough. The weather is unpredictable lately around here, with late frost and early rain. Our tomatoes hardly put out any fruit, our zucchini grew like vines with no fruit (6 feet long!) and everything else was pretty much stunted. I also threw in some tobacco seeds I had and they only grew about 12 inches tall (they're supposed to be about 5 feet).

    Slugs and snails were getting at the leaves so I ended up pulling most of them (the leaves, not the plants). Strangely, now the plants are taking off again. It's almost November and they're looking healthier now than they did in August. Oh, well. We're going to try a greenhouse next year, and possibly get an aquaponics system running.

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  4. I'm infatuated with you, you old bugger.

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  5. I am sorry that I submitted an idea through your blog chain. When I tried to e-mail it to you last month the letter got returned twice. I hope your compost garden will continue to thrive.

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  6. PA, I have read your books since I was out of bell-bottom jeans. I have been a constant fan over the years, and I still buy your books. I have followed you through Xanth, and through the universe with many great Sci-F books. I recall one character named Mitt. Nothing about the current politics. Mitt was a nebulous thing that either pulled or pushed. If Mitt liked something he pulled. If he did not like something he pushed. Do you remember this my dear author? BTW. You are linked to my medical blog wwwsonographersblog.blogspot.com I remember when you had a kidney stone. TW

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  7. On the topic of exotic animals from the forest . . . my Aunt Marge was abducted by an iguana hiding in the barn.

    I think the iguana is really an alien, but I do not know for sure. It is really a good liar. We thought that Marge was the liar, always cracking those jokes about a talking lizard in her backyard and a spaceship in her barn. It turns out she kept a straight face because she was not joking.

    Whe she disappeared, I flew out to see if I could find anything. I have always been good about finding things, but finding Aunt Marge has been real hard. I have not found her yet, but I figured I would write all this down. Better if I did it all right away. I keep a note pad by my bed.

    It could really be aliens who got her, because of the spaceship in the barn and all the oil stains on the grass. I asked the police to test for radiation, but they were too busy. I suspect the police might not have an open mind about aliens. I think either the aliens left in the spaceship, or the iguana ate her.

    So, I would like some advice: if I eat the iguana, is it cannibalism?
    Edit your post:
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    My Aunt Marge was abducted by an iguana hiding in the barn.

    I think the iguana is really an alien, but I do not know for sure. It is really a good liar. We thought that Marge was the liar, always cracking those jokes about a talking lizard in her backyard and a spaceship in her barn. It turns out she kept a straight face because she was not joking.

    Whe she disappeared, I flew out to see if I could find anything. I have always been good about finding things, but finding Aunt Marge has been real hard. I have not found her yet, but I figured I would write all this down. Better if I did it all right away. I keep a note pad by my bed.

    It could really be aliens who got her, because of the spaceship in the barn and all the oil stains on the grass. I asked the police to test for radiation, but they were too busy. I suspect the police might not have an open mind about aliens. I think either the aliens left in the spaceship, or the iguana ate her.

    So, I would like some advice: if I eat the iguana, is it cannibalism?

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  8. Mr. Jacob. Mitt: Push: hate, Pull: Like. From one of your early writings. the thing with many feelers. named Mitt. You are great. Gallgizzard

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  9. I'm in Orlando and attempting to grow Avocados myself. I have seen a few trees, fruit bearing size, around so it must be possible..I'm sure it also depends on the variety...best of luck!

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  10. Very exciting to see your guideline sir. Mr. Anthony! I just picked up a spell for chameleon again and my husband and I are reading it together at night. Love your work!
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