XUNICEF News and Views

My only pumpkin, grown in the year of Covi d For a few years, I have been attempting vegetable gardening. I enjoy being outside in our quarter-acre plot. My husband cares for the flowers and I try to grow vegetables and herbs. I say “try” because I am in my sixth year of gardening and each year has been very different from the previous one. The first year, 2020, the only seeds that yielded anything were pumpkins. We had a truly homemade pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. The second year, I managed a few potatoes and a full vine of cherry tomatoes, which were delicious. Then came a couple years with beautiful peas and beans ... until grasshoppers ate the delicate sprouts. Last year’s effort to grow the indigenous “three sisters” – corn, beans and squash planted near each other – was a failure, mainly for lack of adequate sun. This year, our neighbor allowed us to trim some of the Siberian elm trees that form the border between his place and ours. More on these pernicious trees later. Having ...