What to plant in June...Kindness

Taking advice from House Beautiful, we should be planting heat-loving flowers, herbs, and vegetables right now. I love this time of year when the days are longer so that I can get in the garden after work, see how the maters and other veggies are doing, and try to stay ahead of the weeds. If we get a late shower to keep from having to hook up the hose to water, even better.

What a variety of suggestions HB gave us this month: lavender, okra, basil, fan flowers, peppers, eggplant, etc... A diverse group with beneficial qualities each and every one...absolutely fascinating! Not a single plant is the same as the other or "use"-less. Isn't that the same for us, for the human population? Aren't we just as fascinating?

Who are our herbs in this community---people who make us feel better and add flavor to our lives? You know we have some hot peppers to spice things up a bit ;)

Let's not leave out our flowers who show their beautiful colors with each rising of the sun. Even sour grapes and horseradishes have a place in the community garden. Can you pick them out?

To fascinate is to draw another by exerting a powerful influence; to attract. I believe we are definitely fascinated by that definition, in that we are obsessed with our differences. We can't seem to stop talking about them, but unfortunately, it's not in a positive way. If our garden behaved as our communities do sometimes, it would look like a basket of produce thrown in a garbage disposal. Disgusting, which interestingly enough is an antonym of fascinating.

Let's strive to be fascinated by one another. Let's make salad!

Make room for roots to grow deep in the COMMON GROUND we have.

We are humankind, and should behave as such.

Cindy Rivers McGraw, backyard gardener