State of the Garden
Caught in the act, and I just admired and took a picture. I will kill invasive insects (usually by squishing them, never with toxic pesticides).

Caught in the act, and I just admired and took a picture. I will kill invasive insects (usually by squishing them, never with toxic pesticides).

I’d heard that concentrated garlic spray worked to keep mosquitoes out of the yard. I admit that I was skeptical. I’m one of those people who will get a mosquito bite on the 5th floor of a building with windows that don’t open. My little garden is unbearable come June, and I dress to weed and water as if I were trekking in the Amazon. I’ve tried various dunks and pellets (the ok for an organic garden kind) to no avail. This year I finally got my act together and ordered garlic spray for the yard.
I am hoping if I spray every 3-4 weeks I will be able to garden in peace (from mosquitoes at least), but I won’t be able to report until later in the summer. I can tell you that while I was out doing the initial spraying, which raised clouds of mosquitoes, I did not get a single bite. Then, when I was out (albeit rather briefly because of the heat) this morning, I similarly was left bite-free though I was not covered up. It may be stinky, but I’m prepared to give a high five for concentrated garlic instead of DEET (not that I have ever sprayed DEET on my garden) or chronically being covered with angry, itchy welts.
Having just returned from Arizona (yes, Sedona is in Arizona, as hard as that may be to believe from any perspective other than cartographically) from a meditation retreat, and having two more scheduled with my teacher at the same location during the year, I have pondered with my usual degree of self-questioning about the potential impact of my choices the suggestions to boycott Arizona.
I had decided — perhaps because continuing to study with my teacher, including on retreat is so important to me now — that as I pretty much go straight from the airport to the meditation retreat and back without shopping, I am probably supporting people who did not support the immigration law. On previous trips, in addition to paying for the food and lodging at the retreat (my teacher lives in California, so the tuition goes to California), we ate at a Mexican family-owned restaurant and a raw foods restaurant and bought some supplies at the natural foods store (eschewing the Whole Foods in favor of the local natural foods store). I’ve decided it is OK — perhaps even a good thing — to support those who clearly were not in favor of the immigration law.
What does it mean to engage in a boycott? Who does it hurt and help? What impact could the Arizona boycott have? Have you thought about whether to boycott Arizona?