So Much Work; So Little Time!

Dear Reader,

I reach a point every spring/summer when I feel simply overwhelmed at all I have to do out in the gardens. I reached that point yesterday, when I was out trying to finish up the "forsythia project," and the "wood chip mountain," and realized I still have three flats of vinca to plant (approximately 54 plants), the entire quince hedge to prune (nearly a block long), the 103rd quince group to prune, the other shrubs in that group to trim up, piles of woodchips to spread, the path to rake, the path along the drive to rake up and sow grass seed along, the pole pruning to be done (later on, in July or August), and general maintenance and cleaning. My work is cut out for me for the rest of the summer!

The upside is that I love the work, it gets me outside every weekend (weather permitting), I get to talk to my "park" friends and their dogs, and I get to see things like the bats flying around, or a pair of bumblebees mating (very still, and I kept my distance).

One of the great things about gardening for me is that with so many different things to be done, I can shift off from one task to the other, without really losing much headway. So, I can go in of an afternoon, pick up trash and sticks along the way, then switch off to weeding, and do some pruning in-between, then go to the big "single" project (in the case of the last few weeks, the forsythia renovation), and the other on-going project, the woodchips. The woodchips are done (until they drop off another load), the forsythia is almost done, so the next big thing is getting the vincas planted and the quinces pruned. And, as I get bored with those, I can switch off to raking or weeding, or pruning other things, until I decide to switch back to the previous task again. It's really great for short attention spans, or those of us who get easily distracted.

And I look forward to every minute of it, even as chiggers are getting on me, mosquitoes are biting me, I'm stepping in dog doo, getting stuck with thorns, having stuff fly into my eyes, whatever. It's all good!

It's hard work, and I get exhausted and hot and when I finish for the day, a lot of my body is in pain. It's not as "cardio" a workout as running or biking or tennis would be, but out of the physical activity, I have the satisfaction of seeing the results of my efforts. I refer to this as "enlightened self-interest." I garden for me; I am not serving the community or the neighborhood, or even the Park or its users. I am serving myself. I am doing something I love to do. As it happens, other people benefit from this. I see them all of the time, walking their dogs, picnicking, sitting in the sun, playing. But I am not out there for them; I'm out there for me. If I were doing the work because of a sense of duty to the Park users or the Park itself, I would burn out. I work out there for me and the garden; the garden needs me to keep it together, and the payback I get is great flowers and shrubs, healthy trees, a green lawn, bats and nesting birds. Oh, yeah, and bumblebees in flagrante delicto! Who'd have thought!

Come out and smell the lindens,
Catbird