The Anxious Gardener
Is it just me? Or maybe it’s gardening in a new bioregion, a different climate — not even a predictable climate any more? Somehow I have become an Anxious Gardener. Being a peakista (and on a remote out-island and an uncertain pension too) makes gardening a serious undertaking, not the frivolous hobby it used to be when I was a fully-employed City Person. I feel suddenly the importance of actually making it work, of Not Failing. I feel stage fright.
I find myself fretting over basic decisions like what to plant in which bed. Sun exposure, companion planting likes and dislikes, crop succession all simmer in my head: the potatoes don’t want to be near the alliums, the lettuce gets along with everyone, the collards probably need more sun, spinach will need shade later on… gee, it’s like planning the seating for a family reunion that includes the Sackville-Bagginses…. and it’s probably too early to be sowing direct anyway, what am I thinking? but there is genuine warmth in the sun lately, and the air temperature has risen enough to make me want to have my fingers in the dirt. I think — well, I hope — that “all danger of frost is past”… Read the rest of this entry »
