Organic Poison Ivy… Who Knew?

The raised garden bed is going garbonzo-beans. Carefully tended, with generous rainfall provided by mother nature, it is now urgent to keep up with the increasing salad supplies of red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, sweet basil, etc, lest the plants move beyond harvesting to final seed. (The broccoli may have beat us to that already.)

I have enjoyed several salads made with things from their garden. This past Wednesday evening I went out again to harvest but had to retreat after only 15 minutes. The rain in our recent past has produced bumper crops of mosquitoes. Very healthy (read: LARGE) mosquitoes.

When we left, I left the harvest behind, drat it all!

Well, not entirely behind.

I first noticed the blister welts on my legs in the shower this morning. The power of regular (and repeated) cases of poison ivy alerted me to the probable diagnosis. Yup. Rote memory is a strong reinforcement tool. Pain, too. And then there is the oozy mess associated with the developing blisters… These are all guaranteed to assist in recalling previous episodes.

I do too know what it looks like! But… I am not always the most observant when it comes to my surroundings. It was getting on to dusk. I was focused on the raised garden bed, but strayed off against the fence line and its wild tangle of tall grasses amidst the tomato plants and pea pods. It must be hidden there.

Sigh.