Going Inkless

     I knew when I planted them that these would probably be the last tomatoes I would be able to grow in the back yard garden.  Our trees have been getting steadily bigger, their flourishing foliage increasing the shade there year after year.  From one crop to the next, I've moved their position in the plot to maximize their time in the sun.  Vegetables in general tend not to be shade plants, but some require more sunshine than others to do well.  Tomatoes and peppers, two of the most requested vegetables each time I ask my family what I should plant, are particularly sun-hungry.  So, when spring buds unfurled into summer leaves, and the canopy began to block out the sun, I wondered if we would get any fruit at all from these plants.  They started out looking weak and spindly, so I've worried over them all along.  While I'm generous with the compost, I don't use chemical fertilizers in our garden to give things an artificial boost. ...

     Back in May of 2010, I wrote a post on the joys of having a little untamed greenery in your domain.  Later, in July, I followed it with a tale of the conflict of landscaping philosophies we've had with a neighbor and how we managed to assert our autonomy in the face of his hostility.  What appeared to have been resolved then was only sleeping, it seems, to wake when the neighbor felt a little cantankerous again.      A little over a week ago, I was out pruning the lilacs and trimming some of the other plants that decorate our front yard when he asked to talk to my husband.  His complaint was that our son never mows the patch of "weeds" near the fence, and he was concerned they might creep over and affect his garden.  Now, there are certain areas where the natural plants flourish and add a woodsy quality to the shady parts of the yard.  There are also areas where we have deliberately planted native perennials because they're w...