Monumental Tasks
In a Forest setting or the Tropical Jungle, even in my own garden from certain angles under proper lighting the scene can look down right gorgeous. I hear accolades all the time from folks who come down to the nursery and are bowled over by the jungle lushness laid out in front of them.
The surface that presents itself to the eye can be deceiving and I know that. Under all that lush green it is often hollow inside due to lack of sun. To the trained eye a lot of that lush green is out of control weeds. I am not fooled by the dramatic colorful floral displays and held captive by them. I can see between the plants. I know what I planted and what planted itself.
But when you look closer another surface may appear. Some where in the top right is a row of fragrant gladiolus. Maybe most folks are too kind to notice the giant patch of weeds when they are looking at the tabasco peppers.
So today I continued chasing amok. It has gotten a good running start in front of me. In the absence of regular help since last December things can begin to pile up. A lack of energy is also part of my dilemma. I wonder how I did this twenty years ago, work all day and come home to work in my garden until dark. Now I work during the day and come home.
There are far too many things that need to be done and I have discovered that to think about it is a major mistake. When I have the energy it is best just to get up and move. It doesn't matter what I do as long as I am moving.
Piles of a different sort begin to form. Some piles were made a long time ago at the ends of the day.
My lovely assistant for the day looked on from his bed of potted Society Garlic. I wonder why the strong garlic scent doesn't bother him.
When the garden and the nursery merge and become one I know amok has gone too far. It is hard to decipher what is planted and what's in a pot. The potted plants themselves merge and begin to get tall and thin. This is not best for sales purposes. Lord this stuff grows fast.
Hidden away in the nursery are plants that have been cleaned and separated, ready to be re-grown to look their best. I propagate very little until I find some more room and sun. The same is true in the garden. As I clean there are no new plantings. The strong and the dominant are allowed to take control. A long process of simplification has began.
Monumental tasks from earlier days may live on. It was a construction using the stones lifted from the ground when the garden was first put in. This new monumental task will most likely go unnoticed. It is a process of removal. Empty space and eventually much more lawn will be all that remains.
It seems I have been discovered by a new search engine wanna-be for shopping that has been placing about four spam comments a day. The last thing I need is another chore to attend to so I turned on the word verification.
5 comments:
Although I'd like to have the chance to learn hands-on about gardening, having an untrained eye right now seems like a good thing, because what I see in those photographs looks gorgeous to me. I imagine the nursery must be a sight to behold for people who are actually standing there in it.
Personally, I like the tall plants -- the ones that rise up to meet you. I seem to have a taste for the ones that reach a maximum height in the range between roughly two and four feet high. When I walk in a garden among plants and flowers of that height range, I feel enveloped in the garden -- as if I am part of it. And at the same time, the plants are still short enough to oversee all of them in every direction.
Just as is the case with music and art, everyone has different tastes. Some like technical perfection, some like it a bit more unusual, and some of us like a balance of both. I'm thinking it's probably the same way with judging a gardener's work. Granted, I'm almost certain only a very few people would actually prefer a "Charlie Brown Christmas tree". But as long as the garden and nursery are kept in reasonably good order, I'm guessing customers will still keep coming back.
That Greyman is the coolest cat (I feel like I'm supposed to say Daddy-O here and click my fingers) -- that little guy knows how to live. Since stuff that smells strong to humans doesn't seem to faze other creatures, I can definitely see why he picked the bed of Society Garlic. It looks awfully comfortable. In fact, if it was a plant with a more pleasant scent, I'd be tempted to take a nap there myself.
As for the stones, maybe you could offer them on Craigslist for free to anyone who'd come and haul them away. People always want stuff for free, and I'm sure someone out there has a use for them.
Your flagging energy might come from occasional bouts of world-weariness. I'll bet when you move to North Carolina, you'll feel the way you did twenty years ago when Maui was new to you. Another thing that usually helps is to have the incentive of a companion to do things for -- or, better yet, to share all those tasks with.
My heiau/pyramid isn't going anywhere. I hope that it will remain for a very long time. It is my mark on this land.
No, I meant the stones in the third picture down from the top -- not the ones from your pyramid. Unless you plan to build a second monument, or plan on adding those stones to the first one?
No stone will be turned again. They all stay put. That smaller round pile o'rocks has its own charm.
I think I recognize that pile o'rocks now... Are those the rocks that Greyman was lounging on in your "Feed Me" post?
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