Even in the Desert
Winter is the planting season here. Yes, there is a planting season. Of course the only plants indigenous to the area are date palms and some tumble weedy things that blow around in the desert, but it is possible through the miracles of modern farming (water and fertilizer) to plant right in the sand! Crazy, huh? But it’s true, as long as it’s “sweet” sand and you keep the water coming. Sweet sand? That’s one of the many oddities we’ve encountered here. I have no idea what it’s sweetened with, doubt it’s Equal. All I know is it’s just not the sand from the beach. There’s sweet water, too. That’s desalinated water, as opposed to water from the ocean. The fertilizer isn’t too sweet, however. We have to keep an eye on our gardener, Abdul. Every so often he thinks he’s doing us a favor by bringing in bags of what appears to be raw sewage, and dosing our garden with it. Check out the petunias. They glow at night.
I guess you can take a girl out of Iowa, but you can’t take away her desire to dig in the dirt – not this Iowa girl’s anyway. I cleared a little plot next to the wall surrounding our back yard and planted some peas, couregettes (that’s what my proper British friend Della calls zucchini), watercress and spinach. The couregette seeds are supposed to produce the little round variety of fruit. Della shared them with me. Her sister passed them along to her from some she had grown herself. I guess gals from the Isle of Wight like to dig in the dirt too. I enriched the sweet sand with a little bit of potting soil. In the front garden, in the bed with the radioactive petunias I planted a row of basil. I figured that soil was already rich enough.
Last night, we had a nice little rain, so I went out to check on my seeds. I nearly leapt with joy! Everything but the spinach had shot right through that sweet sand! I’ll keep cheering for the spinach. I’m sure it’ll come up. The sun is out today, and the air is warm. I predict a nice fresh salad of spinach, watercress and pea shoots in my future. I’ll serve it alongside some stuffed roly-poly zucchini covered in tomato basil sauce. A volunteer tomato plant has come up from the fertilizer, but don’t think I’ll eat any fruit off of that. Probably not so sweet.
I will never cease to be amazed by the power and beauty of Mother Nature. Even in the desert.
