In my unruly spring vegetable garden, space for new plants is scarce.The current residents are still busy self-seeding, and look beautiful. This happens every year, and every year, I vow to aim for nice neat beds and thinner plantings for higher yields, but it never happens, because I prefer a lovely tangle of spilling flowers and lush greenery....
More importantly, the plants, left to their own devices, companion each other without my interference. Where once was juicy borage, is now a lush mop of silky parsley, growing in borage's improved soil, and around strawberries, sweetly-scented chamomile offers filtered cover, hiding succulent, soft fruit from predatory birds... Nasturtiums romp everywhere there is space, and are a decoy for caterpillars on soft, green lettuce and brocolli... Rabbits haven't discovered the tender seedlings hidden within what must feel like a jungle to the furry gourmets... There are so many examples of nature's intelligence here...
So, for now, I am willing to abdicate responsibility, and harvest less produce... I feel quite satisfied... and I suspect so do the ladybirds and butterflies...
