how does my garden grow?

Three of the fifteen Prairie Fire seeds have sprouted, a touch ahead of schedule (planted 8/29, 14-21 days to germination). It was kind of cool to see the husk of one of the seeds at the tip of a new leaf (as if to reassure me: hey! this is what you planted!).

I thinned out more of the arugula yesterday. It looks and tastes like arugula. Whee!

There is a handsome caterpillar parked in my parsley, and devouring it. The plant wasn't looking great to begin with, so I shall leave it to the critter and admire his or her stripes.

I need to devise a solution for my other plants, however, especially at the foot of the stairs. There will be no point in planting more radishes until I do. I may try making hot pepper spray. I will also try lining my hollyhock patch with dog hair (to deter bunnies).

The weather forecast says it will be stay above 80 F the next two weeks, so the lettuce and pansy seeds will stay in the cupboard. There are plenty of indoor projects and chores to contend with, so it's just as well. At the same time, some say this is the best month to sow hollyhocks. I have been dreaming of lining my driveway with them, so perhaps I will splurge on a packet or two...

selections from THIS PLACE I KNOW

I came across This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort last month, while looking up Karla Kuskin in my library catalog. Each poem is paired with an illustration by a different artist. You can see some of the illustrations in this Candlewick Press PDF, including one of my favorites, Chris Raschka's depiction of New York City. It's next to Ann Turner's "The Beginning," which opens with

This is where it begins
like God really lives in New York
and he opens his hands, PRESTO!
there are subway trains
churning through the dark
and Brooklyn Bridge swaying
all its lights like ribbons...

And the line "dogs running underfoot / like bits of escaped rug" -- oh, hee!

Another pairing I especially liked was Margaret Tsuda's "Commitment in a City" with a painting containing dozens of people (as well as some dogs and cats and birds) by Jill McElmurry, whose work I now definitely want to see more of (her new book, Tree Lady, is about "the first woman to graduate from the University of California with a degree in science," Katherine Olivia Sessions). The ending of Tsuda's poem:

... You are part of my city,
my universe, my being.
If you were not here
to pass me by,
a piece would be missing
from my jigsaw-puzzle day.