We weren’t going to have a vegetable patch this year. We were off to Australia for a couple of months, with a stop-over in Malaysia. We were going to catch up with old, dear friends, do some exploring, and enjoy a last big family holiday with our children, who are on the cusp of leaving home. It was going to be wonderful!
Well, you know what happened.
So, instead, I’m hastily digging over the vegetable patch, and planting a desperate hodgepodge of seeds – things we found in the local ironmongers, some plants donated by my dad, some broad beans from a roadside stall, some seeds left over from last year. It’s all a bit random, and I’m not sure what we’re going to get out of it.
Usually, I linger over seed catalogues, making careful choices. My particular favourite is the Real Seed Company, a small set up which sends out little brown envelopes of heritage seeds. It feels so special! And what I love most is the names. I picture the original gardeners – broad-fingered men in corduroy trousers, no-nonsense women in wellies – and think they must have had some romance buried deep in their gardening souls, only waiting to blossom. Because these are not the names of vegetables – they’re chapter titles in a high fantasy epic, they’re fairy tales told on a dark winter evening, they’re spangles and sparkles…
So, tonight, I want you to plant in my poetry patch. Take a look at these vegetable names, choose a few, toss them in the rich soil of your imagination, and see what comes up. Maybe it will be a strange and wonderful plant. Maybe it will be a whimsical fairy tale. Maybe it will be a magical stream of consciousness. Hopefully it will keep me going as I dig in the horse-manure over the next few days (thank you, Rob and Lin, for your kind donation!).
Black Beauty
Trail of Tears
Lazy housewife
Princess
Purple queen
Jacob’s cattle
The Czar
Wizard
Golden acre
Dazzling blue
Purple sword
Jack Ice
Reine des Glaces
Blue fire
Aurora
Tender and true
Whatever you do with them, don’t forget the dVerse rules:
- Link up to Mr Linky – this prompt is open for 48 hours.
- Put a link back to dVerse in your post.
- Take a wander round your fellow poets’ posts.
- Most importantly – take pleasure in the poems – including – especially -your own!
dVerse 
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Good evening dVerse poets, and thank you Sarah for hosting. I enjoyed the prompt and hope you like my poem. I will hang around a while, but will be back in the morning to read and comment.
Lovely to see you here, Kim. Thank you for your poem. We had a very light frost last night, but it wasn’t heavy enough to harm anything. Ice and a slice?
Yes please!
Hi Sarah and All- Thanks for hosting Sarah. I love all the names! Working on something now.
Lovely to see you here, Linda! You have lots of time to let your poem take root and grow.
Welcome to the poets’ bar. Social distancing is in order, but here we can drop our masks and be ourselves, and get closer to each other’s souls through our poetry. And the first drink is on the house!
Hello Sarah… I liked the blossoms, but my poem didn’t turn flowery at all…
I don’t think you’re a flowery person, Bjorn. I’m curious now.
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Hello Sarah and All. Great idea for a prompt. Sunny today and have been outside working again. Off I am to build a garden of words…
I look forward to having a little wander through your word garden, Lisa.
The flower names are such fun. Thanks, Sarah. I’m so behind. I may have to come back to this one.
No worries, Merril. I’m sick of seeing people complain about being bored during lockdown. I’m so busy I hardly have time to make a cup of tea any more.
🤣
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A great idea for spring, Sara! Where in the world did you come up with these names? Are they real or did you make them up?
They are all absolutely real. Aren’t they great?
They really are… should be interesting!
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Thanks for hosting, Sarah! That is a nice collection of seed names around which to write a garden poem.
Thanks, Frank! Yes, I love those names. And I could have gone on and on…
So sorry your trip got canceled 😕 We canceled our too. I like the prompt today!
Thank you. Yes, it was a real blow, but I’m over it now (sobs quietly). Sorry it happened to you, too.
I ran out of time last night and so have just posted my poem. Sorry it’s late 😕
Thank you all for a lovely evening. I’m going to bed now, but the bar stays open! I’ll be back tomorrow to read more of your lovely poems. Put your coffee orders in now!
Night night.
Oh, Sarah, this was so much fun! A little like the magnet poetry on the fridge, with other words woven in … 🙂 This almost wrote itself. Delightful.
(And, oy for the cancelled trip … bummer! I hope you get to go soon, and in health, and for an excellent time)
Na’ama
Thank you, Na’ama. Yes, there’s always next year. And at least we can connect through our devices – I just read a book about the early settlement of Australia – you were going to a different planet. Thank you for coming out to poem tonight.
Yeah, I remember reading about the ‘prisoners’ ships (some including children who were sent to that other planet, never to be seen again, possibly to die en route, all because they stole some bread to not starve to death), and the realities of early Europeans in Australia. History is filled with challenges (and hopefully with growth and opportunity and repair). Yay to connecting through devices! 🙂
Thank you for the fun prompt, my muse really got carried away in the garden of fantasy and dreams.
Excellent! I thought we all deserved a bit of fun.
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I feel really bad about this – Transition of Thoughts has posted on Mr Linky, but I can’t open the post.
I really luv this prompt, and found myself easily swayed so off i went with my words.
I saw a edited to fine tune the grammar and correct a spelling error and while i was it , i said why not name my housewife.
So to visitors Sarah, Frank and Lili : The housewife is called ‘Aurora’. The last two lines contain edits ‘Port of Spain’ and ‘had bought’
Much💙love
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Your poem gave me lots of pleasure.
Sarah I hope you get down here eventually. Only today we planned some of our winter garden crops. Tomorrow I dig 🙂
I’m sure we will. We were in Australia many years ago, and I have such great memories, I really want to go back.
Such a vast wondrous land indeed.
This was fun Sarah! (K)
Good. I think we all need a little fun at the moment.
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Hello Sarah, thanks for hosting 🙂 I liked the prompt very much and I’ve submitted my work, hope you’d enjoy it 💙
jay
I’m in a bit of a dry patch visavis the poetry at the moment. Came to a grinding halt about 5 days ago and just haven’t been able to write anything at all. On the plus side, my own garden is plugging along, ready to plant now that the weather is finally looking like catching up to spring. Blessed Be, all, and I look forward to everyone’s VeggieTales.