I previously blogged about my concern that I was rambling on about gardens...but not in a good way. It wasn't until I tried to read 'The Diary of a Bookseller' my sister had given me for a Christmas gift that I thought hmm maybe gardening isn't as riveting as I think it is. Because being the owner of a bookshop (secondhand) sure does not make great diarist. It could be the problem of the author though, as he would diary each and every single working day and count up the number of books he looked for and ones he sold, and then bitch and moan about Amazon stealing business and his dwindling customers.
Egads. What if I'm like that. Although some people give him five stars, I couldn't even finish the book, and I'm meant to be mad on books apparently. All librarians/readers love books right? Its not till you've worked in a library for too long that they become just stock to be sorted just like cattle that it kind of wears off.
But to be mad on plants...that doesn't wear off because unlike books plants are always growing. So far, I am careful not to brag on how many plants are in my garden and their latin names. That's in the realm of botanists and I did not major in science, but arts/humanities. However it could be I am boring you right now just like when my Dad excitedly barges in my room while I'm waking up and announces that he's just seen the change of typography in a record label. Say what? Me no comprende.
Anyway to cut a long story short I will do my best to present gardening in such a way that everyone can understand what it's really all about. The thrill of growing a plant that you've not grown before, especially one that is edible could be one of them. Finding plants for free as well, that's something not to be dismissed, especially when you've got next to no income. Looking out your window, to see flowers, birds and bees, and leafy greenness that you had a hand in establishing, well nothing beats that. Walking around your garden, away from pushy parents, breathing in oxygenated air, can't help but lift and free ones spirits rather that be stuck in a house under what could be a suffocating bell jar.
So gardening as therapy? Well it's always a miracle that something dares to live when so much of life is being destroyed. When you see plants fruit and set seed, die and then come back to life again, it gives one hope. Variety is the spice of life which is why I suppose the more plants the better. Why grow just one plant when you could be growing hundreds of different plants?
Today I went down to Woodside and cut back the lemon balm and divided up the clumps of garlic chives. Nobody had been eating them so I offered to take them away. You will always find your niche in a community garden if you're willing to eat what nobody else will. So now those garlic chives are chopped up in the fridge for tomorrows dinner and the ends planted under the olive. I always find that a plant will find a home, either I'm clearing a patch and then somehow a plant will come along to fill it from somewhere else. The fennel was setting seed and catching all the swan plant fluffy seedheads so I put that in Socks bed which now is filling up with plants, like sunflowers and mexican sage, shifted from elsewhere. I cut the seedheads and leaves off and used the fennel stalks as a retaining wall for my raised bed by the garage. All the spider plants babies are finding home in my flaming canna bed. Sheep dags are being used as mulch. To stop Martha from digging up plants, I surround new transplants with twigs from the maple tree. The pineapple sage has been cut down to create a mulch for the tomato plants. Fading creeping violet has been cleared away for lambs ears. And rue cuttings are in Snowy's bed.
Perhaps to you its just sounds just like I'm rearranging the front and backyard to suit myself but you see thats the thing, the garden's not right until its been feng shuied and everything is growing in harmony. And it's not just my own house in the suburbs backyard. I'd like everyone to be involved. That's why the new garden show is not going to be called Rambling Gardeners. Or even Garden Ramblers. Or Gardeners on Air. I'm out for gardening to all four corners of the globe going out north, east, west and south. Listen out for... Garden Planet on Planet FM 104.6. February 27th @2:45pm.
