"Everything Is Relative,'' by MIMO GORDON RILEY, in her current show at the Providence Art Club.

For growers of flowers and vegetables this is a edgy time of year. On the one hand, you want to get the tomatoes, etc., in the ground, on the other, your fear a late frost. Even the more tropical parts of  southern New England are vulnerable well into May. This gives a great excuse to put  off the work and sleep late on weekends. Growing things is very satisfying  but also very tiring, especially when the weeds get going and you can't afford yard crews of undocumented aliens.

By August, a lot of us are longing for the first frost, though that feeling doesn't last long.

You think of summer as a relaxing time but if you're growing things, there's always that pressure to get back to work, albeit outside and not in front of a computer screen. And it's politically correct to grow vegetables because that is seen as harkening back to principles of self-sufficiency, however  basically bogus your ambitions in this mission may be since it's much more efficient and usually much cheaper just to buy the products of agribusiness at the supermarket. You can even  get "organic'' produce there, if you believe that  it actually is. (How can you really find out?)

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