September 4, 2007

Lion's Tail trimmed. Plumbago, aka Sticky Bush, trimmed so car can get by. Corn silking. Black Zucchini flowering, flowering, flowering. Fennel cut down to their very stalks.

That's fennel up top. Not the same fennel you've had in what many Americans would call a "fancy meal" (Farfelle with Seafood and Chicken Bolognese Sauces, Fennel Apple Salad, and Watercress Soup, but the one that grows in ditches, throughout parks, and in vacant lots even Chevron has abandoned.

I love fennel. Even though mine has no bulb as the Italian one does. (That's the trick, aye. Fennel with the bulb. That's the delicious part.) When I was a little more passionate about cooking, I'd go out in the spring and fall and snip some to put in the salad. Yes, I liked the taste, but I think I liked the fact something from my garden was actually in the salad more.

Still, when it's coming back, poking its furry fronds out of the soil, I still do like to grab a bite and get the licorice rush while doing my yard work.

Sadly, fennel is not from here. In fact, it's from very far away from here originally, the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Also, sadly, my fennel, bulb-less seems to be the noxious invader taking over wild spaces throughout California.

I've got three stands of fennel, with which I've decided to make a compromise after speaking to a native plant guy who educated me on the threats caused by it. I promised to cut it down before it went to seed and could make any more fennel plants.

Ryan has been dying to cut them down for at least three weeks now, but I was waiting until they were absolutely done flowering, mostly because the bees and butterflies love them so much.

It was only when we did cut them down that we discovered most of the stalks were dotted with empty ladybug larvae skins. Looking at them, I thought I had to rescue them before putting them in the green bin. It was only when Ryan and I looked closely that we discovered these were empty shells, the ladybugs flown off to other venues.

Now I ask you, how can I cut down a veritable ladybug creating machine?

Ryan, now wary of spiders and tall grasses did his best to jump into the fennel, cut a stalk down, then jump back. I tried not to be the Father of Yore and yell. When was the next time I'd spend with him out in the garden? (I don't know, it's an interesting edge. You spend too much time pandering to them and it can work against you. Why? I'm not sure, it just does.)

He cut down 10 or so stalks and was done. I finished up, hoed the rest of the grass that had grown up between it and considered going out for mulch.

That would have to wait for another day. It was aptly Labor Day, 9:30 in the morning, and the temperature was climbing in the upper 80's already.

I headed inside for a shower and breakfast.


(Photo by ellengwallace)