Tales from the Garden

Ladybugs bringing good luck to everyone! One of my favorite things about being a human being is the chance to experience how the web of life goes on around us every day, whether or not we participate, and whether we even notice.     A few weeks ago, that played out in a small but significant way in my perennial sunflower patch, and happily, I was there to notice and learn. Because I’ve spent all my other summers in the Pacific Northwest, I haven’t yet gotten to see my Arivaca garden's sunflower patch in bloom.  Nevertheless, I always enjoy how the sturdy green shoots pop up out of the soil each spring and head up towards the sun.    So on the day I started getting my drip irrigation up and running for the first time this year, I saw that the bright green sunflower leaves had popped up, and I headed over to check them out.    Our sunflower patch is planted in the bottom of the "Sombrero Pond", which we built to catch and temporarily hold the monsoon storm water th