With Apologies to my garden… (and Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

How do I neglect thee? Let me count the ways.
I neglect thee to the depths of summer’s day and night
My garden hose can’t reach, it’s actually out of sight
For the ends of Growing and ideal Placement.
I neglect thee to the level of every daisy’s
Most urgent need: by water, mulch and sun-filled-light.
I ignore thee freely, ev’n as my spindly tomatoes strive for light;
I disregard thee surely, as the sun my cosmos braises.
I neglect thee distractedly, with passionflow’r, put to compost use
Remotely, with book and laptop, indoors I idly layeth.
I kill thee with a watering can I seemed to lose
Oh my lost plants, – I relish not your death,
My Denials: no shears, nor pruning knife! – and, if this Gardener choose,
I shall but love thee better once I am watering, weeding
and thwacking off thine heads that are dead.