A Buzz of Fear
Today is the day to do the blog I would normally do tomorrow. Why? The swarm of garden activity that happens at this time of year. Autumn. Trim the olive tree, the citrus trees, the hedges, remove a few things that are over-old or rotten from the over-wet summer, trim, trim and trim some more. Oh, and add some things that are more likely to survive my sojourn to the life inside (due to the dicky hip – a temporary thing, I assure you).
So, where to start? Not where you think. The basic list of things that need to be done, but I have to have help, so getting that list in the right order, being able to distract and refocus the helper in the right direction – it all takes a different (and difficult) strategy. I’m not used to not being able to do these things myself. I want to do it – I try to do it (and fail), so I have no choice.
Ask for help, accept it when it comes. But I can’t accept it not being done up to the standard I’m willing to accept. Seasons wait for no one. When it’s time to do it, it’s time. If I waited until the days were shorter, or ……. [blah, blah, blah is what I hear instead of the excuses], then the plants suffer the consequences. So I have to find ways to make it as important to the helper as it is to the plant.
Do you want to get apricots next summer? Peaches (beautiful, sweet, peaches – which we didn’t get this year due to the spring storm that wiped out all the flowers)? How about the cherries, almonds, loquats (also wiped out by the storm – the bane of early flowering fruit trees)? Some things did okay last season, but that means they need this winter for R&R, to get a feed-up to get into the swing again, to cope with the blastingly hot summers we usually have.
The pears and applies produced a lot of fruit this year (we sacrificed one tree of fruit to the birds – have to share, you know), and they now need fertilising, trimming, tidying up, and mulching. Lots of mulching, because the storms have sucked the life out of the soil. And move a few more worms into the area as well.
The white sapote hasn’t fruited yet, nor has the avocado or the mango – but they have shown signs of flowers, so …. soon? Did you hear the drool? It’s my little bit of heaven, especially the anticipation of enjoying all these things as they come into season (right now, it’s figs – three different types).
For me to enjoy my little bits of heaven, I need to find a way to create the same, similar, or even slight, sense of pleasure in someone else. The helper needs to find the path to the connection to the garden, to the insects that swarm and buzz and do their own part of the job in feeding [my] world (oh, and the neighbours, of course).
I’m a writer, I know words, I should be able to do this – but I can’t seem to do it. Instead, I bully, push, explain too much and too hard.
Two of my neighbours saw us in the garden – and what did they do? They came over to help, the showed the helper the things that matter, they helped him get the buzz for the work being done. They did what was needed. And whose suggestion was it to continue the job tomorrow? Not mine, but I’ll be there, supplying tea and scones (and instructions [grimace] but I’ll try not to; I’ll try to retain the sense of love and mystery my neighbours instilled in the helper for me).
That’s why this blog is today, and not the normal Wednesday. I’ll be on the other side of the glass, ensuring that what I see during the upcoming Winter will be the things I love to see – the garden of anticipation and business and production.
See you Sunday.
Oh, and in case you ask why trim now – I do the stone fruit trim in summer to keep the trees small, the autumn trim for some things (citrus, etc) to keep them small and easy to pick, and in winter I prune for shape (the deciduous things). Easier that way – no tree too big, and all trees produce more than enough for me and mine.
