I’ve been digging up the front yard, which is on a slope. To prevent erosion, I’ve been cutting into the slope with a spade and laying paving bricks to form terraces.
The Wise Woman likes to garden and needs more room for vegetables and flowers. I do not like mowing lawns. If I have my way, all the Bermuda grass will be gone by year’s end.
The Wise Woman put the first seedlings of lettuce into the new beds March 14. Collards might leave the greenhouse and go into the beds today. Cabbage and brussels sprouts are next. The beans and squash in the greenhouse are getting big, but the soil in the garden is still too cold for them, the Wise Woman says.
I can’t tell. I spent too many years in Texas and am disoriented by four seasons.
In Texas, I watched the old mesquite trees.
In Georgia, I’ve been watching the insects. Although we’re supposed to get close to freezing next week, the bugs think it’s spring. I’ve seen bumblebees, honeybees, stinkbugs and beetles.
But as I’ve been digging, I’ve paid special attention to the red paper wasps. I’m pretty sure they’re in genus Polistes. Two species are common— carolina and rubiginosus —but I’m not planning to get close enough to distinguish them.
The wasps are beautiful, though: red with black wings and just a hint of yellow trim.
The “paper” in the common names refers to the nests. Paper wasps chew wood fiber, mix it with saliva and build papier-mâché nests that look like inverted umbrellas. We don’t use chemicals in the garden, so it’s my job to watch the wasps and shoo them away from the cold frames and greenhouse.
The garden is coming along. The negotiations with the wasps are not going anywhere.
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