Home and Garden - Gardening
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To those garden pests or worse, pen an ode or a verse

Published: Saturday, Jul. 4, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 2D

We all know what we like from the garden: deep-flavored tomatoes, corn that goes directly from stalk to pot, aromatic herbs and perfect berries.

But what is it you don't like?

Is it the weeds, the snails, the squirrels that pick the best fruit before it's ripe … or something else?

Tell us what doesn't fit in your garden and put it in a short poem, 75 words or fewer.

Please send your poem to calcala@sacbee.com by Wednesday and we'll run our favorites in the Home & Garden section on July 18.

Include your name, town and a phone number where we can reach you.

Here's a little sample to whet, or maybe ruin, your appetite:

Tomato Hornworms

Chewed leaf and stem
requires hand-wormin'.
You can't use chemicals interminably on them,
the hornéd vermin.
They're worse than phlegm.
You must start wormin'.

– Carlos Alcalá


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