Fava Beans - Resignation

My fava beans were just barely hanging on. I planted them from seed about a month before...way too late in the season. They were closely watched but that day, we had to go to Temecula to replace a car battery and as the temperature soared I began to worry. As soon as we got home I ran out to take a look at them; the beans were listing sorrowfully to one side, everything adroop. My full-scale alarm mode went into effect. "OUT OF MY WAY!" I shouted to the lazy, self-absorbed cats who apparently sat idly by, licking their toes and watching the plants die. In record time, I filled two watering cans, ran to the beds and began dribbling it to the baby beans one small splash at a time....splash, absorb, splash absorb. An hour after the emergency transfusion, they looked revived.

I became discouraged with the garden. I had too many pots! And too much to manage. As things died from then on, they were tossed. No rescue efforts. I started throwing out the half plants..where one half croaked and the other half over-grew crooked and was out of balance. No more hospital stays and nursing effort!

Epilogue: I resigned my garden shortly after this experience with the favas. Instead, I crept inside the house and have stayed there ever since, writing instead. My planted pots dry up or die - I put a succulent in the pot and wait for that too, to die....they take a long, long time to croak.

It's a good thing I didn't have children.