As Jeff glanced at my stack of books, fresh from the library, littering the kitchen table surface, he began heartily laughing. What is so amusing, I wondered? In my foray into companion gardening I had selfishly plucked almost every gardening book from the newly renovated library's shelves; they lay haphazardly strewn amongst Gavin's school papers, a half-burnt rainbow beeswax candle, a half-eaten bowl of bran flakes, and Rebekah's clean underwear and pants.
"Ecological gardening???" He read one of the book titles, still amused and chuckling. "Isn't ALL gardening ecological gardening????"
I am a Gardener. Stated with some hesitation as I have only a couple of summers working for a landscaper (in which I murdered a fifty-foot poplar due to misreading of pesticide:water equation; drove a tractor backwards into a milk shed;and chopped off the first-in-five-years blooms of the owners' favourite smokebush - all stories for another subject and another time) and a few months as a subservient greenhouse go-girl so truly I have very little horticultural knowledge. What I have been blessed with, however, is this uncanny ability to grow anything anywhere. Green, bushy things happen to like me.
For weeks now I have been working the soil - turning it occasionally, yanking nasty weeds, eyeing patterns and contriving what plants are going to shortly have new homes, and desperately feeling as though I should have already carved out nests for seeds and tucked them into their earthy home. Not until May 24 - wait until Victoria's birthday has passed and safety assurance kicks in. No that I get any much thing done at any one time with little ones "helping" (although they are more that content to throw dandelion weeds down the groundhog hole - nope, hair clippings don't appear to have assisted in eviction).
And this year I am ditching the formerly ingrained idea that garden = linear. Peas and carrots and onions and beans don't have to be planted in rows??? Revolutionary! Anarchy in my gardening boxes! How defiantly delicious!
Can I plant yet? Please, please, pretty please can't I just plant yet????
No comments:
Post a Comment