The Solitary Man’s Refuge by Ron Foster Page A

with mushrooms in it, by the way.”
Janice told him as she settled down in the chair across
from him.
    “It’s good as a meal or a side dish. Hey, you want
me to fertilize those trees for you next time I am up? It’s
that time of year again.” Don said, looking out the window
at her garden at a pair of Filbert trees.
    Filbert orchard nut production increases
dramatically after the size of the tree increases, especially
when heavily fertilized. The nut from the Filbert (Hazelnut)
Tree provided a unique nut food source. There are many
brands of nuts available in the supermarket, and the Filbert
is very expensive at the grocery store, but can be grown
inexpensively with very little maintenance in your garden.
The Filbert (Hazelnut) Tree is also called hazelnut in
European communities and is one of the popular nuts
found under the Christmas tree.
    “Yes, I wish you would. I also wish you would have
gotten around to pruning those other fruit trees, but yea, I
know you were too busy writing books to get around to it.”
Janice said, not too kindly.
    “Not enough hours in the day. Sorry about that.
They’ll be ok though.” Don replied and shooed the cat off
his lap so he could wander over to the backdoor to survey
the garden better.
    “I just don’t have time to help you much this year
with your garden and put in mine, too. I am going to grow
more than we need anyway, maybe you should just cover
most of your beds with plastic and solarize them this year
and let the soil rest and get sterilized.” Don said, dreading
his ever-growing pile of things on his to do list.
    “You got to dig up and transfer that big asparagus
bed next to the house to your farm. If I decide to paint the
house, I am scared the workers will ruin it, besides you
bought all those plants years ago, and last year you put in
those asparagus beds out back and they are looking good
and healthy.” Janice said bringing back the memories of
their joint prepping efforts.
    “Those roots gotta be 5 or 6 yrs. old now; most of
them were three yrs old when I put them in. I haven’t
looked, but I think most survived fine, gotta be over a
hundred in there.” Don said thinking it was probably going
to take him at least half a day to dig them up.
    “I lost track of what all you did, I know you got the
all male purple and green hybrids as well as the Martha
Washington Asparagus that produces seeds so you might
have a bunch of young ones, too.” Janice said pouring
Don another cup of coffee.
“I hadn’t thought about volunteer asparagus. How
are your other beds doing?” Don replied.
    “Oh, they are doing well, you know we didn’t add
manure or fertilizer like we said we were going to after the
foliage died back this winter.” Janice said reminding him of
one more duty they had shirked.
    Janice had back problems if she overexerted and
Don usually did most of the manual labor, but had just
found too many other distractions in the last year and
basically left the perennials like asparagus and
strawberries to fend for themselves.
    “You need to recruit your sister and one of your
girlfriends to pitch in if they want some free veggies this
year.” Don suggested.
    “Well, they mean well, but you know how that
goes, it’s never convenient for them when it needs doing
now.” Janice said evaluating the possibilities to get some
garden help from someone other than Don.
    “I got more plants coming in the mail, by the way,
for my spread and I got my regular start from seed planting
to do for squash and okra, etc.” Don said hinting that he
couldn’t be counted on either this year.
    “Well, you could just till me up two beds and I can
handle the rest. The other beds can just lay fallow, be
solarized or planted with some kind of cover crop, but you
could take a day here and there and try to help weed the
perennials if you would.” Janice said glumly.
“Will do.” Don replied and then hurriedly changed
the subject.
    “We need to talk about what, if any, preps