Thursday 20 October 2016

All Or Nothing

Clematis Tangutica in October


The phone rang: “Sorry, Mrs. Friko, I have rammed a chisel into my hand. It doesn’t look good, I’d better go to A + E.” So said Paul, aka New Gardener, five weeks ago. He required surgery and a long process of healing.

The phone rang: “Sorry, Mrs. Friko., I can’t come on Thursday, I’ve hurt my back. I’ve an appointment with the Physio.” So said Old Gardener three weeks ago. He was unable to move without pain for two weeks and unable to bend for another week.

The mind of the gardener is, in a way, the mind of the chess player.
He makes a move after having thought out what the ultimate effect
of that move may be. He visualises the end of the game.” *

Late September, early October, after the long hiatus of high summer, when gardeners take a well deserved break and spend a little time glorying in the fruit of their labours and admire the ravishing colours of their borders, it is time to pick up the pieces and continue the game. It’s actually a busy time in the calendar, pruning, tidying, clearing paths, transplanting and planting, clipping rose bushes, dividing overgrown clumps of herbaceous perennials, generally planning the coming spring's changes. 

No help for it, I had to knuckle down myself. Except, I seem to have become strangely feeble, lacking not just energy but also strength enough to dig holes, transplant small shrubs, do serious weeding. It’s hard to get down on my knees and even harder to get up again. As for pruning fruit trees, forget it. How did I ever do all these things myself? What happened to me? 

Sitting down, going for gentle walks, snipping here and setting in the earth there, I forget how old I have become. The disparity between spirit and flesh springs to mind. When I can’t fall asleep I now-a-nights spend a lot of time gardening in my mind. Having Austin and Paul has made a huge difference and I’ve rediscovered my pleasure in creating an outdoor space that’s worth looking at.

Then, last week, the phone rang: Hi Mum, I’ve got a bit of time to spare. Would you like me to come for a couple of days and catch up on jobs round the house? How about from Monday to Wednesday?"

“Yes, please.”

Then Paul rang.: "My hand is much better, would you like me to come back next week? I can make Tuesday."

“Yes, please.”

Then Old Gardener rang: “The Physio has helped, I could come over on Tuesday and give you the morning.”

Goodness me, no. Absolutely not. How would I cope with supervising and ordering about three of them? “No, please. But if you can make it Thursday, that’d be great.”

Which means that between Monday and Thursday my garden has been in intensive care, with operations being carried out at a tremendous pace. Old Gardener left just before lunch today. He’s coming back on Monday, Paul is coming back on Tuesday. At this rate I shall run out of jobs by the end of this month. They know of each other, could they be making themselves indispensable, each in his own way? My son won’t be back for three months, he’s out of the running. It was lovely to have him, even better to have got through a list of tasks which needed urgent attention, but having busy people around makes me want to get out of their way and take a nap. As that was out of the question, it being politic to show willing to chip in occasionally, I feel as tired as if I had done the work myself.

The unmistakable smell of autumn is the smell of decay, shot through with the bitter fumes of smoke. With the help of my son Old  Gardener was deprived of one of his favourite activities, namely lighting bonfires. He is a bit of a pyromaniac, bringing with him a supply of spent oil just on the off- chance. I believe it might even be illegal to use spent oil.  Watching a large pile of prunings, both of trees and shrubs, growing to unmanageable proportions fills me with dread. The last time Austin took it upon himself to set light to such a pile, immediately upon arrival and before I could give explicit permission for the deed, there was a massive fire going in a wooded part of the garden. He badly scorched a branch of the beech tree which is clinging on for dear life anyway, a yew hedge and  one side of a yew pillar. I wasn’t keen on a repetition. When I remonstrated he said: " they’ll grow again, they’ll be back next year.”

Solon, my son, took it upon himself to break up, cut and even saw through each bit of pruning, stuffed what could be stuffed into the green council bin for collection and otherwise filled two huge builders’ bags (the sort they deliver sand and grit in) and took them to the tip. It was a boring and repetitive job, but the stuff is all gone. And I am inordinately pleased. Austin was quite downcast this morning when he saw the empty space where the raw ingredients for a fire had been. “I see you’ve got rid of my bonfire,” he said.


*Richard Wright:  The Practical Book of Outdoor Flowers 1924




39 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are settling in for the cooler weather. I'm glad to hear there is something worthwhile for you to look at. Hopefully, in spring you will see a great reward for all the work that has been put in.

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  2. Ha ha always the way as you say; all or nothing!!! Enjoy your weekend. Diane

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  3. Pyromaniacs should become chemists. Your post is beautifully written, with gardening showing you that you have aged. All sorts of house and yard work have done the same for me.

    Love,
    Janie

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  4. I would really like to do some pruning, but there are persimmons on some trees, I am afraid of stimulating growth before our freezes in a month or so. It seems to early but later it will be too cold!

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  5. Or, when it rains it pours. But ... be careful of those fires.

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  6. How good to have help when you need it!
    Leo is too frail to dig holes for plants any more...so has to supervise those who do.
    My knees do not like contact with the ground...but I can't trust our chaps with weeding - one swing of the machete and bang goes months of patient care...

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  7. I just had 3 moose in the yard, eating my seed heads and "pruning" the bushes. Luckily, they can't also start fires! Glad you had some help putting your garden to bed. Now you can dream of spring blooms through the depth of winter.

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  8. You make some sad discoveries and then it turns out nice again and you get lots of assistance. Keep on moving or you'll get old!

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  9. Dear Friko, as always I admire the way that your fine writing describes within and without what has been going on around your place. Seeing Barb's comment just above, re three moose, has also gotten my attention.

    It's odd that both your alternating gardeners "called out" at the same time, but perhaps their absence having allowed you to re-measure your own gardening strengths was a helpful result. Having your son call in and help is quite wonderful, even if a bonfire ward denied to a certain Gardener.

    I think that I have drifted a bit off my intended comment pathway, but did want to mention I have also discovered some physical revelations in the past months. Nothing serious, but small, incremental changes and challenges have announced themselves. I remain delighted that I am still able to do most of what I most enjoy and remain curious about what each new day will bring. (Today it brought finding out that my cable provider had an "outage" in my neighborhood when I woke at 6 am and wanted to check cable news for reactions to last night's debate. I called the provider, registered my issue, then hung up and went back to sleep for two hours. Power had been restored by then, and I'd only missed the opportunity to react to well-paid media pundits. xo

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  10. Enjoyed your words
    and much of what is going on in your world
    is now a part of my world.
    Missing so much all the gardening in my past.
    No help and then help seems to be my path also.
    I now accept and still enjoy much outside
    but cannot work for hours like in the past.
    Take Care...

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  11. Sending you love and commiseration, as I find it harder every day to kneel on my traitor knees. :-)

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  12. I was going to ask whether Old and New Gardener know of each other, but you answered the question mid-post. Phew! What a relief it must be to see all those jobs done, and to have escaped another of Old Gardener's bonfires...! Guy Fawkes Day must be his favourite day of the year.

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  13. Hi Friko - they all mean well ... but I'm glad they all come back to help and are around for you. Good that the garden has been put to bed, so to speak, and the difficult jobs have been done by your son ... and you still have some control over what's happening. Love that bonfire smell ... and Guy Fawkes is nearly here ... if we're not trickle treated out - which I hope sincerely we're not.

    But you reminded me ... I must put kneeling and getting up into practise ... something I've not done much of since my hip op 20 months ago ...

    Enjoy the autumn mists and mellow fruitfulness and the garden winding itself down - and now without any pyrotechnic happenings ...

    Cheers and thoughts - Hilary

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  14. The words "feast or famine" came to mind as I read this, and I can, indeed, empathize. We are hoping the grandnephew and friends crew will descend on us soon to rake and haul leaves. My beds and fall cleanup will be on hold this year as I managed to break my foot, but, the deer are doing their own type of pruning and what will be, will be.
    I love the seed heads on your Clematis Tangutica. Our own put on quite a show in September, but, are spent and look sad.

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  15. Long time I hadn't been here, time flies by ! I noticed the same I become slow, I had breathing troubles and was breathless when I only pulled out one little weed. Sometimes this Facebook which I don't like is useful, as a member of a page called "Vivre à Waterloo" I found first a young man in spring who planted what was to plant and later in August a young student who cleaned the garden of weeds. Wonderful ! Especially I hate garden work. All my friends are in the same situation and need now help in the house for hammering or whatever, Mr. G. is out of work, he has arthritis and backache, and my gardener only trims the hedge. Meanwhile my breathing problems are treated, but I have asked again for help and it will be done on Thursday ! Besides that everything is OK except that I don't like autumn !

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  16. I added to my own burn pile last Sunday. It will be quite a bonfire when we finally torch it. fortunately, the pile is in an area that is clear all around. but yes, it's finally cooling off enough I can get in the yard and do some of my own fall maintenance.

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  17. I lost quite a bit of strength and flexibility and find it harder and harder to do the work I once did. Fortunately I have a very small garden . You have a way with words that I enjoy. Vielen Dank

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  18. Not having a garden , I can save all my frustration for no longer do-able things like standing on tiptoe at the top of a ladder , changing light bulbs ...

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  19. Fires make me nervous, too. Being housebound in terrible physical shape for over a decade I can't do half what I used to be able to do--and that's not all from the health issues. Age has entered into it now, too--LOL! I am thrilled for you to have gotten all that help when you really needed it! Even if old gardener didn't get his bonfire--LOL! ;)

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  20. I love how the trickle became a deluge of helpers. Well done all including you. I totally get why you can't like down while the help busy-bees. I have to do the same when my wood is being cut and my leaves been raked. Look interested and sorta "help".

    XO
    WWW

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  21. ah the bliss and tranquility of gardening.

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  22. Do what you can do. I only have one little garden and the rest has gone wild...it is just easier that way. I used to spend about 4 hours a day weeding, deadheading...I was a slave to flowers. Now I just enjoy what blooms:)

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  23. Been away for a bit and just catching up with some well written posts. All or Nothing for sure. Same here. One day there's everyone you need and next week???? Same on both sides of the pond. Glad you didn't have to worry about the bonfire. Big changes in and aboot my yard and house these past months, and now all done just in time to enjoy the rest of fall, before old man winter makes his frozen path across our side of the Country. Have a great day Friko.

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  24. Wow, that surely was a treat (for your garden). I loved your description of the smell of autumn. Thanks.

    Greetings from London.

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  25. Your garden is a bit larger than mine, so it's nice you have three helpers. Where indeed is our energy. I am still decompressing from a westward trip last week. I don't fly as well as I did. And my sleep schedule is shot to hell.

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  26. You need a magazine column. Your stories are that good.

    I love hearing about your garden. With love and remorse I say my daughter and son-in-law will never think to help me in my yard.

    And i like I think you now often sit down even with a shovel in my hands :-)

    Love
    kj

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  27. I'll bet your garden looks fabulous! Pail of plenty -- and I'm so glad you had the help. I so understand what you mean about down on the knees and up again -- such an ordeal for me. And I think, "how come? I'm not that old?" But lately have felt more fragile and certainly in the past weeks with lung stuff. So I welcome any helping hand in the garden. And my garden is paltry compared to yours or probably anyone else's. I noticed your banner is missing -- hopefully it's a computer glitch on my end!

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  28. It's feast or famine, it seems, in your garden. Glad you had the help at this time of year. I look at my garden over the breakfast table and keep thinking how it needs a lot of attention and cleaning up, but then I get up and head out the door to school. And on the weekends we've had pouring rain. I'm making excuses, am I not?

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  29. Glad you have your gardening help again. Because of our continuing drought my gardening issues are a bit different than yours.

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  30. Ralph was commenting on aches and pains yesterday after a long day cutting hay, chopping the trash on the garden and other assorted chores. I had to smile because he denies he is getting a few years of age under his belt. Today he has hay to rake but is procrastinating! I just picked 4 gallons of Thai Red Roselle calyx's to make jam. Yes I know I am getting old:). I love your posts, they are so "Real" if that makes sense. Joy filled, maudlin, heartbreaking or ho hum, you live life and make no pretense at anything you are not!
    Thank you!

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  31. How funny that all three were available to help at once. Especially great that your son offered up his gardening services.

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  32. I do love the way you tell a story, and all the more so as it is true. The clematis is a beauty. Autumn does have its charms, doesn't it?

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  33. i just realize that the clematis looks like a shrub and not a vine?

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  34. You have such a wonderful way of describing the stories from your life, my friend :)

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  35. Oh for people near enough to help . . . . . !

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  36. Such a tender resolution...All the people who love you and whom you love surrounding you. Marvelous.

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  37. Lovely writing that makes me wish I could get at my own garden rather than languishing in rehab with a broken ankle...

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  38. A property as special as yours needs upkeep and now help came just at the time before winter heads over the land. We have a tiny garden that just gey two gardener visits a month to keep it tidy and fresh looking. No fires are permitted here. All must go out in special bags for pickup that is biweekly during the growing season. Love your posrs each time I come by.

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  39. A garden is an ongoing piece of work, and like you I do a lot of gardening in my head and when it comes down to doing the task I fulfill not even half of it. And my garden is probably just a quarter of yours if even that. How wonderful that suddenly you had all this help, and your son was wonderful to clean up all the stuff without setting anything on fire. Living in a part of the world where wildfires are a daily threat because of the ongoing drought this fills me with dread. No fire please.

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