Getting my hands dirty
After an extended absence from the garden, it is very easy to procrastinate. The biggest obstacle is the sheer enormity of what needs to be done. Weeds don’t just pop up in isolated places. Wherever there is bare earth there is an opportunity for something undesirable to make itself at home. Standing at the garden gate, observing a garden with a green fuzzy layer across every surface can be overwhelming. It makes it hard to know where to start, to the point that starting becomes challenging.
The other thing at this time of year that stands in the way of a solid productive day of hard work in the garden is the weather. With each passing day it is increasingly cold, and after a spell in tropical climes it feels even colder while I reacclimatise to what should be my normal environment. Fortunately, right now we are in the midst a blue sky bubble that is said to stretch far into the coming week and once the chill of the morning burns off, it is actually quite pleasant.
Knowing this situation won’t last, I have had to push past my procrastination and just get out there and do as much as I can while the sun shines. Once I manage to get myself out there each day, I’ve actually been quite productive, weeding frantically while looking over my shoulder as if the soon to be impending wintery weather is chasing me.
I decided to start at the beginning, at the entrance of the garden, working steadily and methodically across the garden beds and paths, weeding out the interlopers, pruning, trimming and deadheading where needed and harvesting any lingering crops from the previous season – taking care of all the needs. As I enter the garden each day I am able to pass by parts of the garden in control, before encountering the out of control. It is encouraging to see what has been achieved and if I keep the momentum up, tomorrow it will take even more steps to get to the coal face.
There is nothing more satisfying than a good before and after photo to remind you of your efforts. But not only that, the before and after images are a quick snapshot – in lieu of extensive journaling and note taking. Time and time again I have promised myself I’ll be a good note taker and document everything, but in the heat of the moment, never do, with a million excuses like my hands are too dirty to weld a pen over the clean note paper, or I’m too tired, or I’ll remember. Whatever excuse I convince myself to believe, the information is in danger of being lost.
However, a quick snap over my shoulder at the work I have achieved as I trudge wearily back to the house gives a record of what I’ve been doing with date and time stamps, and in the modern photo storage, becomes searchable. Gone are the days of endlessly rifling through galleries and files looking for that photo of a pumpkin you know you took a few years ago. It doesn’t even need to be composed carefully within the golden triangle with perfect lighting and focus – just something that will tell you on the 17 May 2026 I pruned my fruit trees.
Although it is good to have some nice photos, taken with care, not just of what you have done but of the garden in the soft low light of late autumn, or to show the beauty in the ugliness of celeriac, or whatever catches your eye, because you never know when you’ll need a nice example of a weedy garden, or a praying mantis relocated from weeds to a crop that could do with the help of a pest munching predator.
It does all feel a bit like a race at the moment. Once the weeds have gone I can see the garden clearly and can put plans in place for change, but it isn’t just the weeds. The fruit trees were on my mind, they should have been pruned in the late summer after fruiting to avoid Silverleaf disease – not that I’ve had it, but I don’t want it. Pruning in the midst of the blue sky bubble should make up for it, but now giving them a preventative spray is on the top of the to do list while the conditions are idea. Pruning the rosemary hedge is also overdue, and I’m hoping there is forgiveness within these still conditions of late autumn, before it gets really cold and wintery.
There is also replanting. I haven’t planted any cool season crops due to the travel and I feel a little lost without having done it. I’m hoping that my frost free coastal condition will be forgiving if I do decide to plant things before the autumn officially comes to an end – I’ve got two weeks to get my act together.
And in the face of a bizarre deadline-less urgency I will continue to throw myself into the garden until I feel like I can cross this restoration stage off the to do list and embrace something more exciting and adventurous.
Come again soon – I’ll be done weeding soon enough.
Sarah the Gardener : o)