Tag Archives: gardening

Roses and the lesson of preparedness

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For the amount of times I seem to write a post about gardening, you’d think I was the owner and sustainer of a prize winning garden! Those of you who have ever come to my house, know this to be quite opposite to the truth.

My husband and I have a rather bad habit when it comes to plants.

Conversations go like this:

(At home)

Me: I really like those ‘such and such’ plants.

Him: Yes, they’re nice. Where would we put it?

Me: Mmmmm, not sure.

(At the nursery)

Him: Oh these are lovely!

Me: Yes, lets get them and some of the other ones and some veggies and….

And so that’s how we end up bringing home a heap of plants.

Now the problem is we haven’t prepared. We have no idea where they are going to go, what position they need, whether the soil is right or how big they will grow. Sure, we read the label when we’re at the nursery but, at the nursery, we are invincible garden wizards with not just green thumbs, but green hands!

We have killed more plants through lack of planning that I care to remember.

And so what did my lovely husband bring home the other day? Two rose plants. Where are we putting those, I asked. Yeah, dunno, he replied. That was about a week ago and they are still sitting on the outside table in their bag. We are so keen to have lovely flowers or fresh veggies that we put the cart before the horse, or in this case, the plants before the prep!

Made me think about how often we do that in life.

Are you trying to hurry up something because you know it’s going to be great and you just can’t wait?

I know I am. I complained to the same rose-buying husband about one area in particular and this is what he said (nicely of course).

“Just because you have swum one lap of a backyard pool does not mean you are ready for the Olympics.”

Yes, sometimes I just have to admit he knows some stuff and take it on the chin.

There is much to be said about preparing and doing the hard yards of checking soil ph levels, and positions in the garden. Less plants, and dreams, die that way.

Snowpeas and strawberries

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I am sooooo glad all that rain is finally over but one thing it has been good for is the garden. Our veggie patch is currently empty, with lots of lovely fertilizer that has been getting very soggy and breaking down nicely due to the copious amount of water.

Last year we had two of my favourite things growing – snowpeas and strawberries. Both these plants could be picked by anyone at will and eaten right there in the garden.

When I looked out my kitchen window, I could often see a lovely red strawberry, bright against the deep green leaves, just waiting to be plucked and consumed. It was so easy to see the fruit that they often didn’t last long!

Snowpeas, on the other hand, we had to search for, being the same colour as the leaves and stems of the vine. Often I found this frustrating, and sometimes, a snowpea would grow huge and fat because we had missed seeing it for quite awhile.

It’s a bit like people and situations, isn’t it? Some people are like strawberries, bright and flashy and hard to miss. Others are like snowpeas, blending in amongst their circumstances, people who have to be sought to be enjoyed.

Both strawberries and snowpeas are good to eat, just as the bright, colourful person and the shyer, more reserved person are both of equal value.

It’s easy to see the goodness of a strawberry, not so easy with the snowpea. We need to remember to actively look for the goodness in people too. It won’t always be on show, like the vibrant colour of a strawberry, sometimes it’s hidden and camoflauged and we have to really look hard to see the goodness. It’s usually there though, hidden amongst the leaves, it just requires a bit of effort on our part to find it.

We can be easily fooled by a quick glance out our kitchen window. It’s easy to not spend any time actively looking for the good in others, it’s easy to give them a quick glance and make a judgement based on the lack of ‘goodness’ we see.

If we took some time to really look for the snowpeas in life and search out their goodness, we might just find that our world is a better place.

Ten fantastic things about the rain.

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Normally, I love the rain but even a diehard nature loving, optimistic, romantic has their limits.

The Great Southeast has been pummelled lately, and quite frankly, I think I can speak for everyone and say we’ve had enough.

Everything feels damp. The sky is dull. Mud keeps getting tracked through the house. Tempers are frayed with too much ‘inside’ time (and that’s just us parents!). The dogs won’t pee outside lest their little puds get wet and muddy, which means lots of *beeped out* cries from unsuspecting family members who unwittingly step in a warm puddle.

Ah, yes. I am quite ready for the sun to come out, thank you very much.

But, because I do always try to look on the bright side, here are ten FANTASTIC things about unending rain:

  1. Drying clothes via the dryer becomes a necessity rather than a luxury ie I save time by not having to hang the clothes out PLUS they don’t need ironing. Double bonus.Dryer
  2. My newly fertilized veggie patches are getting a nice soaking.Veggie boxes
  3. The grass is growing. (This might be a downside for those who have to mow it, but for me, I like seeing the lush green carpet outside.)grass
  4. Catching up on blog reading.catch up
  5. Sunday morning sleep-ins are nice and cosy.bed
  6. Copious amounts of hot tea and coffee are pretty much obligatory in this weather.coffee
  7. Children get creative and make ‘stuff’.craft
  8. Games get dusted off and played.UNO
  9. Blog posts get written :) blog
  10. Books get read. (and snacks are allowed to be eaten in the lounge room!)reading

This was surprisingly hard…I thought once I started I would get on a roll and be fine. I couldn’t get past number two for about half an hour.

What’s your favourite thing about the rain? I clearly need some help!

 

Are you weeding?

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Before we moved to the house we are in now, we had a large veggie patch, herb garden and chooks. And we loved it. Every twilight was spent pottering in the garden, each weekend we would make renovations to the chook house, my husband and I often laughing that their house received more attention than ours!

The house we are in now, while we love it, does not have a great spot for a veggie patch, or chooks, so we have not really much of a garden to play around with. One day, we tell ourselves, we will have more finances to make what is currently unusable, usable. And more time to do it, too.

What we do have – some herbs, various roses and other plants – is often sadly neglected as we are also much busier now (owning your own business will do that to your life!) and have significant health issues that we didn’t have a few years ago.

Yesterday, though, we bought some new herbs which obviously needed planting, so we were out and about pottering in the garden.

Because I am not out there much, there was a definite increase in weeds. Everywhere. As I pulled the nasty things out, I reprimanded myself for letting it get to the state it was in. If you just come out for half an hour each day, or even every couple of days, you wouldn’t have this situation, I told myself. What beauty there is out here, is being marred by these unsightly weeds, that if I just stayed on top of, wouldn’t be such an issue. Going outside and seeing areas that are totally overrun with weeds can be overwhelming and something I am then tempted to put off. Whereas, if I just do a little each day, the task doesn’t seem anywhere near as daunting.

As I continued to tug the weeds out, I reflected on how like life gardening is, not a new analogy, I know, but it really hit me afresh.

If I tended to those things within me that are unsightly with regularity, the task is cut down considerably. Conversely, if I continue in bad habits and attitudes, any good there is in me and my character can easily be overshadowed. And the task to ‘weed’ my life becomes that much more difficult.

We also know that weeds grow prolifically without us planting them, needing no encouragement from us to thrive. On the other hand, the roses, the herbs, the plants, require intentionality and nuturing. Just like our good and bad character traits.

We need to keep short accounts with ourselves and not let the weeds get out of control. Sometimes, it’s hard for others to see our beauty when the weeds are in abundance and taking over.

Do you need to do some weeding in your life? I know I do.