Let It Grow Organic Gardens

And I resumed the struggle. -Vladimir

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Straight and Narrow

We untangled the string. That's what we do here at Let It Grow. We untangle. Unravel. Untwist. We straighten things out and set thing in order. We help. We heal. We feed.

The string got itself all tangled up sometime around the cabbage planting. Maybe it was the kohlrabi. Anyway, its been in a twisted pile in the middle of the field since sometime in April. And ever since then the rows have been kind of wobbly.

Today we finally got around to getting the peppers in the ground, and I was going to be damned if the row wasn't straight. There's an aesthetic quality to a row of peppers that is all the more enhance if they are laser straight.

It all started sometime after lunch. The string, brought down from the brassica field, lay on the edge of the table, mocking us in its disorder. The last bite of burrito munched, the last leaf of lettuce chomped, it was time to get to work.

Intern #1 seized the coil and began pulling on different ends. He showed remarkable aptitude. Intern #2 sat on the edge of his seat. He clearly wanted to lean over and and yank on part of the string, but he bided patiently.

We're all about some team work here at Let It Grow.

Intern #1 untangled about fifty feet, and decided to snip. He coiled that length up nicely, and set to work on another. Intern #2 refrained from offering helpful advice. Intern #1 snipped and made another little coil, and then another. With a little time and patience, he untangled the prescribed 183 feet and we were ready to get to work.

Up at the solanacae field, we drove a stake into the ground and unfurled our string. We tied a few lengths together, pulled it all taut, and tied it off to another stake. There before us on the ground was a precise linear reference that we would follow when planting the peppers. It all went beautifully. The peppers now stand in two perfectly straight rows, getting rained on tonight and (hopefully) sun shined on tomorrow.

They're beautiful. And will become more beautiful as the grow to their full height and become laden with big, sweet bell peppers. It all shows you what a handful of motivated people can do together.

That's what we do here at Let It Grow. We turn chaos into order.

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