INSTRUCTIONS TO THE GARDENER Chapter 1: Gather your tools. You'll want them with you even if you don't see a need when you open the gate into the garden. Pull weeds from the stone path in the morning, before it gets too hot. You'll see there is wild lettuce growing unnoticed under low branches. If it's been a while since you looked there, one might well be over a foot tall. A thousand thorns. This won't be your first rodeo, not by now -- just put on thicker gloves and pull with both hands. Feel your weight on the ground. The tap root will do its appointed job, becoming one with the ground probably half the depth as the stem is tall. Nothing will move. Still, cut it with a gardening knife so it can't blow seeds, and finish the remaining weeding. It will bleed milky poison, or medicine, depending on your point of view. Chapter 2: Return in time to the thorny stump. It'll regrow quite happily if you don't get it now, typically even happier than before, as
