Thursday 4 July 2013

Early One Morning.





This is a section of my complex garden. Complex, labour-intensive, demanding.
At least once a year, just about now, I think I can't cope with it any more.
Everywhere I look I see weeds. The vine grows visibly, strangling everything it touches. To prune, or rather hack it back, I have to clamber up on a stone wall, and use a stepladder. Ground elder romps through the fence between me and a railway embankment, as do brambles and goose-grass and many other undesirables.

Every day I need to work here. I have to so something to try and keep control.
Some days I'm out here for hours, other days an hour is all I have.

I could be on a cruise.
I could be lolling about on a beach in Cornwall.
I could be on a plane, travelling to visit far-flung family.
But I'm not.
I'm face-down bum-up in the garden, finger-nails that have never known a manicure clogged with earth.

Then, one morning, this morning, I wake early. I make a cup of tea and go outside, still in my nightdress, and am surrounded by magic.
There is dew on the grass and the air is filled with bird-song.
The Crambe Cordifolia (on the left of the picture, by the lamp-post) sends wafts of honey-scent across the lawn. There are glowing jewels of colour in the herbaceous beds and on the rock-garden.
Stipa Giganticae shines golden and shimmers into the slightest breeze.
The sun is warm on my back, and no one except the birds and a visiting kitten can see me in my nightdress.
For half-an-hour I experience perfection.

No pain, no gain.
I wouldn't have it any other way.

5 comments:

  1. You need a minion.

    I have some sense of your satisfaction and awe. D and I sat in front, trailing off of the rain spitting on us, and marveled in our small green place.

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  2. Oh how this resonates. My garden is big, labour intensive, and weed filled. I am never on top of it. And some days, like your magical morning, I know exactly why I expend blood, sweat, tears and money (rather a lot of all of them) on it.
    Your garden looks WONDERFUL. Thank you.

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  3. It's such a lovely garden - it certainly inspires me to keep slogging on with our awkward patch. I can't imagine you reduced to a balcony and window boxes. Keep trying to get round to see you - might try early evening now the weather's good. Can't get out first thing so I shan't catch you in a nightie. :-)

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  4. Zhoen: No, minions are more trouble than they are worth! I'm so glad you've got the rain. Now the green will be even greener. Isn't it wonderful?
    E.C. Oh, we sound so much in agreement. I'm glad I photographed yesterday. This morning I went out to find that the badgers had trashed my strawberry crop in search of a bumble-bee nest. Not such a magical awakening!
    Jee: See above - a window-box would be badger-free and seems quite tempting today!

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  5. Having been lucky enough to have spent time in that garden, I have no trouble imagining how wonderful that half hour must have been.

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