I had the nice opportunity (read as "it was sunny out") to do some outdoor work, like using the manual push-mower (Hubby is still trying to fix the riding mower, as it was in pretty um, needed lots of work and parts) and planting seeds, and trans-potting chives and weeding, etc.
What is it with metal these days? They don't make it worth anything! Everything bends at the slightest touch, which makes it almost useless for the intended purpose (e.g., Brutus vs. Stainless Steel Sink). Today I was given considerable trouble (again) with the manual mower. The handle keeps bending at a particular part, and interestingly enough, it's on my "weak side"! What's up with that? I can't afford to have this mower break-- we've already got some grass that is at least 16" tall, what with all the rain and a couple of days of sunshine! Oi!
I've slowly been working at getting around the blueberry bushes (trees), which I did the other day. I also weeded around the 'trunks' of the blueberries, only to discover that even the cursed buttercups were coming up fairly easily. Why? Because there's virtually no soil under the shallow grass roots and buttercup roots. This isn't the first time I've noted this phenom-- I noticed something similar last year while watering the pear trees. Common to all our edible bushes/trees is the soil disappearing, under the first little deceptive layer. How does that happen? The moles running from the neighbors? I doubt they can move that much dirt-- we're talking a couple acre spread! It's the strangest thing, and it's ruining our edible plants! Not to mention the grass is sort of "sinking" and moss has decided to take everything in its grip. Excessive moisture and lack of sunlight make for moss-- I get that. But this is becoming alarmingly serious.
One of the other many odd things I noted while doing all this outdoor work, was how much effort it takes to grow what you want, but no effort at all to grow what you don't want. That is, weeds grow without any assistance whatsoever, crowd out the plants you do want, and only allow for the growth of other weeds. Also, while weeding, it's easy to tell if you've accidentally pulled up a plant-- the plant comes up easily where as you can have an all-out tug-of-war with weeds! Roots of weeds are strong, thick, and stubborn!
Writing of roots, today I was transpotting my chives from our 'old house'. I could tell they needed new soil (stunted growth, but what do you expect when they've been left to fend for themselves for a year on an unattended deck?), and figured I'd give them some good stuff and bigger pots. When I tried to carefully remove the chives from the planter pots... a tangled web of roots greeted me. There was almost more roots than soil! I do hope I've done the right thing by: 1) thinning the roots, 2) separating some of the plants, 3) giving them new (and organic!) soil, and getting the moss and who-knows-what else away from them.
All of this gardening stuff has me thinking about my life. My creative brain thinks in terms of imagery and metaphors and patterns. A plant has a hard time getting hardy, deep roots if it's moved all the time. Sometimes the roots need. . . "pruned," getting rid of the excess so that the plant can thrive. Weeds are like bad habits (or is it the other way around?), it's a tug-of-war and the weed usually wins by maintaining a slight bit of root which it will use to regrow itself. Good soil is important-- the right amount of moisture and balance of nutrients allow a plant (or weeds) to thrive. Bad soil grows weeds, but sometimes the weeds are edible (if one likes the bitterness of say, dandelions) or provides a ground cover (such as moss) to keep yucky stuff from kicking up and being spread all over the place (say, dirt).
Today I planted seeds for onions, basil, carrots, mixed lettuces, and. . . oh, I don't remember-- I wasn't paying that much attention! Will any of the seeds I planted produce an edible, or will it expire or wilt or get diseased and prove the labor a waste? I don't know, yet, but decided (as I contemplated these thoughts), that the labor wasn't fully in vain even if I didn't get any produce out of it. It wasn't wasted because I tried new things, I'll gain learning experiences, I was outside in the pleasant weather, and more of the intangible that always occupies me.
Tomorrow most people will start their work week, but Hubby starts his weekend-- for us that means doing a lot more work around the properties. Maybe he'll get the lawn mower fixed, and the rest of the "stuff" out of the 'old house' and who knows. A lot of work needs done around here, and fortunately, Hubby finds working the property to be stress relieving and enjoyable-- something that is very much needed at this time. We still are awaiting more information/news about a big thing happening in our lives, but until we get the confirmation and everything is well on track, it'll just have to remain a mystery. In the mean time, we'll try to keep our sanity.
Maybe we'll also finally get the huge lawn of massively tall grass mowed. I reflected upon when we bought our first house, and lacking a lawn mower because we had lived in an apartment previous to that, I was 'forced' to use scissors because that's all I had for clipping the grass! There is no way scissors will work this time. . . I might have to sharpen the hedge shears. Yup, lots of work to do. Maybe just keeping busy will help the time to pass and thus help us stay sane.
~Cedeham~
p.s.
Last night was a "special" full moon (I can't remember what it's called); it's when the moon is closest to the earth in its orbit around earth. We had the amazing privilege of clear skies last night, and I was able to watch that beautiful orangey-red orb rise. It was quite a sight.
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