Did you see last summer's blockbuster action comedy Guardians of the Galaxy? One of the characters in that movie was a gentle soul in the form of an anthropomorphized tree who spoke one line, over and over: "I am Groot." At the end of the movie he sacrifices himself to save his companions.
Last summer I grew castor bean plants in the front garden, a great plant (although toxic) with big, dark purple leaves that gives the garden a wonderful tropical look. But it's not frost-hardy, so at the end of the growing season I left the plants in place, and the frost turned the leaves to mush.
The stalks, however, turned out to be the kind that turn hard and stiff, and since they grew about 6+ feet tall, I briefly toyed with the idea of leaving them in the bed this year and growing sweetpeas on them. But I decided not to, and a few weeks ago I dug up all the stalks and roots and tossed them into the yard waste bin.
Except for this one, which was shaped like a little person. I couldn't help it. I drew a face on him with a Sharpie, and sat him down on the recycled concrete wall. Now I smile at him every time I go out to work in the front garden.
And he smiles back.
I may not be the only gardener who does silly stuff like this, but I might be the only one who boasts about it on the Internet.
Too bad there was only one. If there had been two, I could have named them Castor and Pollux.
