It was hard to keep my garden alive last summer. Water restrictions, a dreadful heat wave and a broken foot made a bad combination. The weeds seemed to thrive though, sans attention, sans water, sans just about everything.
Somehow my precious plants survived – stunted, to be sure, and probably miserable. Then the wettest winter/spring I’ve ever known since moving to Canberra brought everything to life again.
Water is an amazing thing… Especially when it’s free and comes out of the sky, rather than out of a garden hose.
Now I have to mow the lawn – regularly! This is not a chore that bothers me. At the moment it’s a novelty, as the ‘lawn’ has been dead for 5 years – I think I mowed it twice in 5 years, and I’ve had to mow it 5 times in the last couple of months!
Sticky weed (cleavers) needs bugger-all encouragement, water or food to grow, thrive, take over the universe. Horrible stuff – it comes out easily, but puts up one helluva fight against your skin…
Wandering out there, tweaking out the odd weed and surveying the good things that are growing got me to thinking that a lot of other things in life are like my garden. If they’re not tended they get overgrown. Noxious weeds take over and strangle the struggling flowers.And if you don’t water the garden, the good stuff won’t grow.
6 comments:
Gardening is so therapeutic, and the marvel of watching Nature heal after fire, drought or flood has to be one of the most rewarding minor miracles we can witness.
The analogy is also apt...
I've recently purchased a ride on mower for my 'farm' up in the hills - at the moment the grass is about waist high. Oops. Fire season is coming...
Your poppies look glorious!
Yep, the poppies are gorgeous aren't they?
A ride-on mower? Wheeeeeeee! Love the mental image of Farmer Jules chugging up the hill on the ride-on mower. BTH let me ride his a couple of years ago, and when I looked at the crooked path I'd made coming down the hill (I thought I was going in a straight line!) I cracked up.
I'm still tossing up between straw hat (with straw to chew on) and the bike helmet... ;-)
Love those poppies!!!
Love the flowers, especially the poppies. Hope that this week of heat doesn't do them in (as it has for my veggies...well, and the bugs).
I'm a little nervous about what the next few days will do to my poor flowers - I'll be off on the bike for the weekend, and Boomerang Boy wouldn't know one end of a garden hose from the other.....
Have lost a tomato plant already, and one of my planted-out agapanthuses (agapanthi?)is not going to make it - but they're the only casualties so far. Oh, and a potted geranium :-(
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