Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Unfurl the Elephant Ear


Right around this time of year, the elephant ears in the garden assume larger than life dimensions. Thanks to their weekly dose of steroids (aka Miracle Grow), the ears grow to over 6 feet. Their leaves are a river of veins ... another universe, really. It's sad, though. Just at their peak, the days get shorter the nights gets colder. Soon a frost will annihilate (there is no better word) those glorious leaves and it will just be a mass of massive stalks with a rotting wet heap of pulp attached to them. I heave them out of the ground with a pitchfork, let them dry out - forlorn - in the garage, then bury them in peat. Unglorious and downtrodden in a teal-colored tupperware bin. Teal colored, for chrissakes! They will live again next summer. When the hassles of the school year are behind me and us.

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