I like to think that I have a smooth & easy relationship with my emerging food forest.   

A food forest is a term used to connote a piece of land that is developed organically in the manner of permaculture which can include fruit trees, berry & herb bushes, vegetables and other edible plants.  Ideally, all the plants will be operating in ways that will benefit the soil, the plants around them and the entire scheme of the forest itself.  Then enter yellow jacket wasps....

Last week, Ellis noticed a few “bees” hanging around our eaves, above our living room picture window.  On each succeeding day, we noticed more of a gang.  Then suddenly there were 3 gangs of “bees” along the eaves. 

Hmmm, I don’t think that they are bees.  Their bodies are long & thin like a wasp.  Let’s google “wasp pics”.  Some wasps are beneficial for the garden because they eat pests and fertilize flowers & fruit & veggies; yet some are aggressive meat eaters that hurt & eat bees.  Oh, no!  These aggressive wasps are the yellow jackets.  Luckily, ours are not yellow jacket wasps.

Well, just in case, let’s take a longer, closer look.  Hmmm…maybe there’s some yellow, and maybe the yellow is alternated with black stripes.  Alas, these ARE yellow jacket wasps. 

Listen you wasps, keep away from my bees.  Understand??

Online I discovered how to make a wasp trap with a plastic bottle, scissors & a stapler.  Now hang it up near the wasps, and…..wait…….

In the meantime, I’m ready to plant some garlic….where?  Scoping out the yard – in a shady area in back – ok, pull out the weeds, fertilize & soak the soil with compost tea.  Compost tea is a mixture of a handful of compost, and cut up comfrey &/or borage &/or nettles which has fermented for 7-10 days.  This allows beneficial bacteria to form, and contains many nutrients for the soil.  I use bulbs of garlic that I bought from the store, and break them apart into the individual sections.  Using only the large cloves, I scrape away some soil, stick in the clove with the pointed end up & cover it over with dirt; doing this over & over until the garlic is all hidden in it’s cave of soil for the next 9 months.  Garlic is easy to grow, repels pests, endows us with yummy garlic greens all winter, and then next summer, I will hopefully harvest a year’s worth of garlic plus enough for planting the following fall.

As I pass by the Early Girl tomato plant, I recall the delectable taste of my lunch of juicy tomatoes, cucumbers, hummus & mustard greens all wrapped into a toasted tortilla with just a touch of mineral salts sprinkled on top; so I carefully snip off 4 ripe tomatoes to serve with dinner this evening.  And I grab a few cherry tomatoes on the other side of the path and pop them into my mouth as they explode with a juicy sweetness and flavor which reminds me why tomatoes are technically considered to be fruit rather than vegetable.  I make my way back to the house with bulging pockets & hands full.

I saunter into the garden, quietly walking past the “wasps”, watching them sleep on this cool windy morning; and I begin picking ripe cherry tomatoes.  I see some “crabgrass”, I think it’s called, although I haven’t looked it up to identify it.  I’ve resisted researching it, as if the not-knowing would somehow diminish it’s effect upon my garden, as if it may just somehow disappear without me knowing what it is, it’s invasive effects & all the toxic chemicals that are recommended to eliminate it.

I just don’t want to deal with the anxiety & overload.  Blehhh!

That said, I think that I will now do an internet search on it.  Maybe I can discover an easy non-toxic way to diminish or eliminate the “crabgrass”.

As I move back toward the house, I pick up a few newly-fallen apples from under the tree.  I hear  my hoarding & thrifty mental patterns saying, “Waste not, want not”.

Now, it’s time to make and pack our HEALTHY veggie sandwiches to eat while watching the 49ers game on the big screen at our favorite local hotel.