The challenge of summer gardens in the American south

Summer gardens, at least here in Memphis, are heading into the most challenging month. The heat takes a toll on plants and gardeners alike. It seems that only weeds love this time of year.

Every year when the weather makes working in the yard a sweltering pain, we ask ourselves, why do we have a garden? For food, for exercise, for meditative relaxation. But really for something we don’t quite understand, something deep in the ancestral memory of our DNA that comes alive whenever we sink our fingers into the soil, that compels the planting of new seeds. The garden grows in our very souls.

[Daily post 029 of 260 in my year-long challenge.] ♨