Ah, Mexico

This is a view of the Grand Oxalis Highway in the Back Forty of Great Plotnik World Headquarters. Soon, with sun, the California irises on the left and right in the foreground will burst into various degrees of purples, followed by multicolored columbines still out of sight under the California irises in this picture, and then the bearded irises to the left should erupt in pinks, whites and maroons; already the day lilies are filling their flower stalks, in back of where you can just see Crystal Kitten guarding the tulips and lilies. After that, stuff starts popping up all over the place. In a few months, the back of the garden should be thick with pole beans. Huge, red, slobbery sweet tomatoes? Ah, Mexico, like James Taylor once said, not Saint Plotniko.

Tomato-growing zones are what count here. Like the Upper Deck and Scenic Overlook, where it must be at least five degrees hotter than it is down below. Tomatoes really need heat, so for years Plotnik grew tomatoes in tubs on the deck...until the redwood deck posts and railings rotted. After fixing the deck, it was determined a more home-repair-negative planting method was needed. So Plot devised putting self-draining flow tubes into the bottoms of two large pots, which would eliminate pooling water and, therefore, rot.

Except they clog. Yesterday Plot spent much of a beautiful day on his hands and knees, covered in mud, trying to unclog one of the pots. At the end of the day, it's still clogged. Ah, Mexico.