For a while this spring, it seemed like nature was going out of its way to ruin any chance for me to have a garden this year. We had four late freezes, which destroyed much of what I had planted. It was disheartening. Then came the rain, lots of rain, and with it, lots of mowing. For a while it was all I could do to keep up with the pastures.

The rain is easing into a more typical June pattern, so the grass is growing more slowly. Dorothy’s house, around which I was mowing, is now being mowed by another party. So that leaves more time for me to garden. And the garden itself, which for a while due to my negligence became something of a grass plantation, actually has some decent-looking fruits and vegetables in it.

Gardening can seem complicated – egg shells, nitrogen, deep watering, when to spray what with what, soil types, blossom end rot, horn worms, pin worms – but when I’m actually doing it, it clarifies everything, and my life gets very simple and straightforward. Pull up grass. Pull up weeds. Water. Wait.

As I gardened last night I was joined by a fairly large Wolf spider. Not at all welcome in the house, spiders are my best friends in the garden. Along with ladybugs, spiders help keep destructive pests under control. The Wolf spider and I moved around the garden together. I’d like to think he was keeping me company, but a more likely explanation is that he was just trying to stay out of my way as I pulled up weeds.