It’s the end of July. I’m in utter heaven. Any doubts I have about misgivings in a previous life are melted away in the sun-baked heat of the day.
I must have been a saint in a previous life. I am being paid to work in the garden. Beechgrove Garden no less.
I’m doing a job I love, in glorious weather. We may not be the richest, us gardeners, financially, but we are spiritually. I’d have it no other way.
What’s happening?
I am currently in maintenance mode. Everyone assumes gardeners are super busy in summer and twiddle their thumbs in winter.
The truth is that we actually are busy year round. We tend to be very busy in winter. Contrary to popular belief, winter is when we prepare for the season ahead.
The summer only flows if we have put in the work the previous winter.
Summer becomes maintenance. Watering, feeding, grass cutting and edging, pruning, sowing for winter, picking fruit and flowers, and deadheading are our main concerns.
They are of course glorious jobs to be concerned with. Complex yet simple and pleasurable albeit laborious.
What are you up to?
I’m going to flip this on its head. What are you up to at home? I don’t care what I’m doing, I want to know what you are up to!
I would like to know if you are out there in your own garden watering, weeding, mowing, picking.
If you can’t get out there and embrace your own garden in some way at this time of year then perhaps it’s time to take up trainspotting.
I find I suffer from gardener’s vision.
This is a phenomenon where I seldom enjoy my own garden or the garden I work at. Instead I’m plagued by a constant voice of criticism in my head that this or that isn’t looking how it should.
I list all the jobs still to be done and plan how I wish it looked. The irony is this never changes at any time of year.
It takes some discipline to take off the work hat so to speak, and look at it with fresh eyes.
You very well may be the same. If you are then I feel your pain. Do try to take a moment to relax.
“Hard work is the reward,” once said Ricky Gervais.
I would agree to some extent but also disagree. I would say personally that hard work leads to the reward.
Once that reward comes then embrace it and enjoy it. Don’t feel guilty about enjoying it. You’ve earned it, good for you! What that reward is exactly can only be determined by you.
The reward
My particular version of the coveted ‘reward’ so to speak comes through many fleeting sensory moments.
The overwhelming smell of a gorgeous lilac. The sight of that marvellous pumpkin starting to turn from deep green to fiery orange.
The feel of the fresh mown grass as you sit down in it. The sound of the shivering leaves upon branches of the poplar.
The taste of freshest, sweetest pea straight from the pod. I once attended a head gardeners’ meeting with a lecture from David Mitchell.
Forget about the Peep Show star, I am talking about the gentlemen who is a horticultural guru.
A broadcaster, lecturer, board member, curator: you name it and he’s done it.
His lecture where he described us gardeners as ‘Guardians of Gaia’ (don’t sue please Marvel).
As gardeners it our job to protect mother Earth (Gaia) and therefore up to us to garden responsibly.
In my earlier days I was all about making a garden pristine. Shallow aesthetic gratification.
No weeds, no leaves, bare soil, sprayed paths. Today I see the garden as an ecosystem. I may ‘own’ it but am only a mere part of it.
There are thousands (perhaps tens of thousands or more!) of important pieces of flora and fauna that make it what it is.
We mould a garden to our liking but in order to make it truly great we must serve more than our own selfish needs.
I look around. I’m surrounded by flowers and wildlife. It’s the end of July. I’m in utter heaven.
Any doubts I have about misgivings in a previous life are melted away in the sun-baked heat of the day. I must have been a saint in a previous life.
I am part of the garden.
Take care and happy gardening.
Even potatoes can be bonny!
Fox and cubs light up the wildflowers
Rod and Sue have fun cleaning the pond
Mixed veg plot in full swing
Sweetcorn and gourds loving life
