A Gardener’s Diary

It is claimed that it all began in the Bible with a man and a woman in a garden, and ended up with the kind of revelation with which we are all only too familiar. We gardeners are only too familiar with this kind of thing – a garden too full of optimists. Oscar Wilde is reported to have said that the man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one, for it is the only thing for which he is fitted. I am not at all sure I agree with this viewpoint; but in any case in Guyana we overcome that little problem by calling a spade a shovel. Call it what you will, it still means a lot of very hard work. Digging, double digging, forking over compacted ground, hoeing and raking are all essential operations, resulting in backache and sometimes worse. However, all of us hope it will be worth the trouble and will result in some pretty spectacular revelations of our own. Hope springs eternal.

Here in Guyana the seasons are not so well defined as in Europe. We have just two more or less ‘dry,’ and two more or less ‘wet.’ We are fortunate insofar as we can garden all the year round, but like our temperate cousins some kind of planning is required to help us organise our work. Good gardening; like studying depends on good planning. It doesn’t abolish hard work, but it does help to spread it out so you don’t kill yourself in the process. I try to convince my wife that the time I spend in the garden in a reclining chair with my eyes half closed should be classed as planning sessions, which are generally helped along by generous helpings of local anti-freeze. Time spent planning is time well spent. A properly thought-out work programme helps to plan the routine, and forces you to think ahead to any alterations and developments you need to do. It helps identify the priorities more effectively.

Routine in the garden

One of the most important of my daily routines is the daily walk. It helps me to see problems and to think out the solutions to them. It doesn’t matter whether its done in the morning before setting off to do less important things (like working for a living), or done in the afternoon with a cooling drink in one hand and pencil and paper in the other. The daily walk makes you confront things. Like weeds which are using up precious water and fertilizer that your regular plants require. When seeing a weed you will be able to take out the hand fork (which you just happen to have in your belt) and ease the weeds out of their comfortable home. Squatters you can do without. Dig them up and put them onto the compost heap. It also gives you the time to actually look at your plants – and to take an offending (diseased, infested or deformed) branch off here and there, and it’s not bad exercise either. One of the important daily routines is keeping the pathways clean and swept, which adds such a lot to a garden and helps to set off the beauty of your plants to the casual passers-by, as well as to your visitors. All dead or dying leaves should be removed from plants and picked up from the lawns and flower beds. Stones must be picked up. Keep a look out for stones especially. It’s surprising how many get onto the grass and they’re lethal to glass windows, pets, and people when spun off at high speed by the brush-cutters. Probably the most important weekly task is getting the grass looking its best. Mine is normally cut on Thursdays, so that it looks its very best for the weekend. All clippings are raked up and composted. If you have some special function in the garden then the grass is cut the day before, no matter what day of the week it is. Grass and weeds make good compost, and should be spread over the compost heap evenly. On an important day give the area a spray with an insecticide and then your evening will not be purgatory, and whatever you do burn old, dead or diseased rose leaves and may your God go with you.