It's a reasonable question, even a necessary one. A friend asked me that the other day about this page. And it's been running around in my head ever since. The immediate answer is easy: I want to share what I know about urban gardens, about growing plants, about the joy and peace it can bring, and I also want to write, which is my preferred medium for communicating (although I am thinking about making you some videos!) And I also want to share my plants themselves, seeds and cuttings and may even some compost worms. 

Truth is that I don't know what else I get out of it. I often don't know what a new project will get me. I just know that I need to do it. For me, creating an urban garden is political and spiritual. It's a constant lesson that you can't control everything, that you can provide the dirt, the compost, the plant and water, but you can't force a plant to grow or to blossom. You can't control what another living being does, you can only work so that the conditions are right, so that there is an understanding.

But that doesn't mean that there isn't any progress. Just that you don't control it. It's just that you can only do your part. The rest (water, sun, nutrients, and also pests, fungus and drought) have to do theirs. And you can't be in a rush. Everything takes its own time.

Yesterday, before I went to the demonstration, I was thinking about all this. And also about the rose bush that I cleaned the worms off of on Tuesday. And it made me think to check the other rose bush. From the outside it looked fine, but when I looked more closely, I could see that it was covered with citrus mealybug, a kind of scale that looks like miniature pink and white epaulets. They are relentless. If you let them, they will suck all the life out of your plants. If you search on the internet, they'll have you swabbing them with soap and alcohol and all sorts of chemical stuff, but the easiest thing to do (again) is squish them with your fingers, in this case, being careful of the rosy prickers. In the amount of time it would take you to find a spray, you'll have them all off (make sure you get the ones underneath the leaves), and you'll have a moment to sit with your rosebush and think about things.

Like my dad says, this too is life. What you plant and what grows on its own. What you can control and what you can't. But you also get stuff you never imagined. You make connections between what you've learned about the plants and what you see in other parts of your life, you get a moment of happiness on a sad day, you get surprises, and the reminder that no matter what is happening in your life, these other lives continue on, in their own way, and sometimes yes, you also get a delicious strawberry. See how political that is?

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The little pumpkin continues to grow. Today is Day 8, there is still a month to go. I'm worried about two things: the yellow leaves and those brown marmorated stink bugs. I've started squishing them when I see them. When they see me, they hide. The other day, when I pollinized the pumpkin flower, I put a pot underneath part of the plant, closer to the little pumpkin to help get nutrients closer to it. Pumpkins are like tomatoes and strawberries in that they can develop roots all along the vines. I hope that helps reinforce the pumpkin plant but I may spray the yellow leaves with potassium soap if I have a chance today.

A mitjans d'octubre faré el primer enviament de llavors i plantes. Si en voleu, subscriviu-vos-hi!