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Ah, it’s spring, when the garden competes with my deadlines. Don’t get me wrong, I love flowers. Even so, I try to avoid gardening as much as possible, despite my apparently natural green thumb.

A few years ago, I attempted to re-create a medieval medicinal garden (a herber or herberie), or some representative semblance of it. I needed a project that I could do with my preschooler running around which would also be of some benefit to my medievalist hobby in the SCA. A lovely lady named Lunette suggested I enter our most prestigious arts and sciences competition based on the research and work that I’d already accomplished. I did, and won.

The garden has since returned to my law of the survival of the fittest: if the plant can survive me ignoring in in deference to deadlines, it stays.

A lot of mint grows now. Yay, mohitos!

Every so often, I have a burst of “OK, OK, I’ll reclaim it” and head out to sort out the wilder plants and bring in some new varieties. Today is one of those days. It also happens to be a deadline day, and I FINALLY found my story for this particular submission over the weekend. Originally, I planned to write a fantastical piece about Queen Marie Antoinette but the details weren’t lining up with ther artifact in question.

I shelved that idea for later and moved on to another time period in French history: The unification of the Franks and the Burgundians. After several days of research and moving words around on a page, I have the “right” characters and plot.

I’ll set up the flower bed for a planting frenzy tomorrow, then it’s back to the keyboard.

Forgive me if I disappear for a few hours. Midnight isn’t far from now.

What’s the law in your garden?

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