Mono-perfect

Since it was a gorgeous fall day I headed out for an afternoon walk.* I got to talk with some neighborhood characters, like the one-man band down the street. I've heard him all summer, a languid drum beat accompanied by an unnameable brass instrument. 'Turns out he's an old man with a long white beard and mustache and was playing a nice wooden drum with one hand while holding a bugle in the other. I didn't stop and stare, but it also seemed like he had cowbells hanging off the back of his pants. He said hi and commented on the day. He also mentioned that he was doing a sound check because he had a gig on Saturday. I'm pretty sure this is the guy who sits and plays on the curb at the farmer's market...

Down the block, I got hit on because of the weather.
--"It's a good day to be with someone."
--"Um... It is a nice day."

Then I was thinking about gardening and the astonishing variety of plants that were just growing wild in the alley I was walking down. Of course I thought about natural selection and how, as a plant picker, I select plants according to my whims of aesthetics. And then I wondered if I had to plant a garden in only one plant, what plant would that be.

I can choose a tree; Maclura pomifera, duh, but anything smaller than that kind of baffles me. A clover, perhaps? Sunflowers? Lilacs? What about a vine? To be practical, should it be edible? Runner beans? Anyway, I also found an apple tree where all the apples were rotting on the ground underneath it.




*I think I'm going to start my days with a walk.