Wednesday 4 July 2012

Friko's Solitary Alphabet Game - G is for .. .. .. ..


The two Gs which are nearest to my heart are GUILT and GARDENING; there are times when the two mesh effortlessly, i.e., when I feel guilty about neglecting the garden. I never feel guilty about neglecting housework, but as that doesn't start with a G, I shall leave that thought aside for now. In fact, I'll do away with guilt for the purposes of this post altogether and stick to gardening.


Allium Head


It's July, the one month in the year when the gardener sits back in a comfortable garden chair in the shade of the old plum tree, enjoying the balmy summer air, glass of Pimm's in hand (or whatever summery drink lights your candle), the sound of a drowsy bumble bee ferrying its heavy load of nectar from blossom to welcoming blossom,  the only discordant note being gardener pushing the mower across the daisy strewn lawn. He is, however, soon finished, and the pretty stripes he leaves behind make up for the temporary disturbance.

Look, missis, one hand!


Yes well, you wish.

This is England, where it has rained almost non-stop for months now, where the colour palette of the heavens goes from dirty grey to dark grey and black and back again. When Beloved spies a crack in the clouds and for a few seconds the gloom brightens to let a ray of light through, he shouts for me to come and bear witness. "Look, sunshine," he says, pointing to the apparition in the sky. He is still trying to persuade me that they have sunshine in the UK, "honest, we do".


Valley's End and fields under their usual cloud cover



The rain makes for a green landscape and abundant growth, but it is rather hard on fruit and crops, as well as flower producing plants in the garden. Even the shrub roses daren't open their buds, those that do, find those beautiful big, heavy, double blooms simply rot away at the end of their stems. Everything is late. Instead of sitting back and enjoying the fruits of my labour, I rush out at every opportunity and cut back, prune, rip out, dig up and eradicate unwanted growth; in other words, I destroy rather than create. That's gardening too - it's not all dead-heading, snipping flowers for the house and picking sun-kissed berries to eat straight from the bush. Gardener and I anxiously watch the weather reports,  hoping for a dry hour or two on our designated working day. The garden police in the shape of Ms Prufrock is coming to inspect things; just my luck (after many a post bragging about the beauties of my garden) that she should appear in a summer as unsuitable for gardening as the current one. Heigh-ho.
She'll have to make do with the beauties of the landscape, what she can see of it under the permanent cloud cover.

Gardening is never dull, unless you give it up as a bad job. One is constantly battling nature and rarely, if ever, wins. I am going to create a new series of posts, A Year In The Life Of A Lady Gardener, perhaps once or twice a month, where I will tell it like it is, worms and caterpillars and pernicious weeds and all. There might even be the odd pleasant moment.

In the meantime, this is what I found written on a coaster sitting under a mug of tea in a friend's house:

If you want to be happy for a short time, get drunk,
happy for a long time, fall in love,
happy for ever, take up gardening.




55 comments:

  1. I am thankful that you have a great camera Friko and by way of pics share this beautiful part of the world with the rest of us! - including your lovely garden :)

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  2. Love this post. You have touched my gardener's heart. This year has been so hard here with the hot temperatures fighting my efforts to keep things alive; the three rabbits that had to be moved; and the the three ground hogs, one of which has now met his maker. All of my zinnias have been eaten and most of my sunflowers. Our broccoli is non existent and hubby is now replanting beans! Roses fight the Japanese beetles and the fungus. I need to start gardening in your area in the rain!

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  3. Gardening is synonymous with optimism for me. Thanks for sharing your green landscapes. We're on fire watch here. There are idiots who will not be able to resist shooting off fireworks for Independence Day.

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  4. It's either sweltering or storming here and my gardens have gone from "The Place of a Thousand Butterflies," to The Meadows. I've accepted that this is not a good year for gardens and that's that. I also have accepted that I have no inclination to weed under these conditions. I am now wishing for a gardener, or a lover who is also a gardener, or a lover who has enough money to hire a gardener. To quote you, "There might even be the odd pleasant moment."

    I really enjoyed this post. Many good laughs and a nod or two in recognition.

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  5. Thank goodness for gardening. It has kept me relatively sane over the years.

    We are supposed to be having the 'little summer' and the schools have broken up for the holidays...so what do we have?
    Unseasonal torrential rain and coastal villages underwater.

    Oblivious to all this the leaf cutter ants have been wreaking havoc on the roses so tomorrow it's out with a spray of dilute carbolic for them....if it's not raining.

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  6. Whoever wrote that saying obviously never met me. I try, Friko, I swear. I try very hard because I love flowers and seeing things grow and am completely sold on picking herbs and fruits and veggies from my backyard but nature is against me. My plants die even when they get watered, fertilised, repotted, pruned, weeded, moved around to sunny spots and loved. Aside from some hardy natives and lush weeds, I am a failed gardener and so I guess, I'll be following your new series and cursing along with it.

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  7. Wunderschoen sind Deine Fotos wieder. Trotzdem wuensche ich Dir ein besseres Wetter, vor allem viel Sonnenschein.

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  8. My interludes in your company and landscape seem very real and important as I recall them while falling asleep. . .


    Aloha from Waikiki
    Comfort Spiral
    > < } } ( ° >

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  9. We're having the same sort of summer - all grey sky and misty rain. Never enough rain to relieve us of watering under the trees, but enough to ensure that weeding is always required. Why is it that it is too cold and damp for the roses to open, but the weeds are growing and (if I'm not quick) flowering madly?
    I'll look forward to this series.

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  10. seriously you have one of the most amazing views...i may never tire of it...i dunno would not mind the rain to break the heat here...sweltering...no need to cut the grass here, its dead...

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  11. oh and that allium head is awesome!

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  12. Gardening has made you forever happy? Doesn't sound like it--LOL! Although the mowing gardener looks quite happy, I must say. The countryside is beautiful under the dark skies, but the constant rain...I imagine squishy grass and fungi and mosquitoes. I always thought gardening was hard work. I don't think my opinion has changed any on that score...even in your neck of the woods it looks like hard work. ;)

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  13. And in spite of everything - that first photo of your garden looks like a little paradise!

    Gardening here is hard too, we are constantly missing water! - but we have plenty of sunshine! :-)

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  14. Gardener looks hale and hearty after his health scare last year. Give him our greetings in return!

    Today was sunny, after days of cloud and rain, as Pondside has mentioned. The weeds are easier to pull out of the soggy ground, at least. Black spot abounds on my roses, but the hydrangeas are happy, if pale.

    Your gardening posts, rants and all, will be something to look forward to. I hope the sun shines soon.

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  15. I wish I had the knack and interest for gardening. I don't. I love to admire the results of a good gardener's labour and I remember well how wonderful your garden has been. I hope you get some much needed sunshine soon, Friko. Your Gardener is looking well.

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  16. No matter what colour the sky sports, those green fields look beautiful.
    But of course I understand that it can really get to one if there is nothing but rain for weeks (or months) on end; most of my friends and relatives in the UK say pretty much the same.

    Your "Year in the Life of a Lady Gardener" sounds interesting - I am not a gardener myself (I leave that to my Dad and rather wash all the dishes and sweep the patio when we all gather at my parents' allotment), but I like knowing about such things.

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  17. The one compensation for the rain, is the wonderful green-shaded countryside around us. So lush, and alive.

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  18. My tomatoes , all five of them , are still pea-sized and the pansies died .
    So I'll ignore the last third of that advice on the coaster and devote myself to the first two recommendations .

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  19. Frico, I'm always happy to read your posts, I like your sense of humor! The photo of the valley is very peaceful!

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  20. We sit in the same boat (that's really the case) it rains and rains, apparently we reached a record in June with rain here in Belgium. Fortunately I had my 12 days of heat and sunshine in Tunisia !! I don't like gardening at all ! I prefer to sit in it and look on a nice garden :)!

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  21. I know, enough rain already!
    You may have to rethink your "Lady Gardener" title as this will bring some unwanted (probably) visitors to you blog with its connotations :-)

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  22. Well, the garden looks lovely nevertheless. Is that foxglove? Too damn hot here to do anything in the garden.

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  23. Such a neat garden you have there, Friko and the foxgloves perfectly punctuate that lovely, rain-washed green.
    Also, such stunning photographs of the quintessential rolling English countryside; they made me fall in love with all things English (well, except the weather of course) all over again!

    P.S. The allium head is an absolute classic!

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  24. A day or two of your rain would be welcome here. Preferably before our well runs dry.
    Thank you for your consideration.

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  25. The photos of the landscape alone would have made for a great post but I also love your way with words ! Send in the worms, the caterpillars and the pernicious weeds, I'm sure the new series will be great too !x

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  26. Friko, let me send you a G for "grateful." I am very grateful for your generous gift of words and photographs.

    It's good to see Gardener in action, and to learn that you will be starting the new gardening series. I am so looking forward to your in depth reporting.

    Let me also say how much I particularly like the second landscape photo with the tilted axis. It is a gem.

    xo

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  27. As a neophyte gardener, first time this year, I can relate to that coaster's message. We share one thing in common with you, and that's the ubiquitous rain. Ours seems to have stopped for a while, though, as of yesterday... I can only hope the same for you soon.

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  28. In my experience, people who write garden books are almost never honest about the downside. Henry Mitchell, a local garden columnist was the exception. Still we garden. I think it must be like childbirth. The joys outweigh the pains. Dianne

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  29. Your garden is so beautiful, I’d like to walk along that path in person. No matter what color of the sky, the landscape of Valley’s End always looks beautiful.

    I don’t like dirt, mud, and earthworms and slugs and don’t have a green thumb but I’ve worked in my modest plot of garden mostly out of duty. However, I’ve come to understand gradually how the earth works and learned the art of waiting through trials and errors. Will I be happy forever?

    Now we are in one-month long rainy season. It has been overcast, otherwise raining softly or violently. I wouldn't let mold grow in my brain. Have happy days ahead, Friko.

    Yoko

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  30. That's a cute thing to read when one lifts up one's teacup. Since I love sunlight, I would go crazy living in England! But was Germany better? I lived in Munich Dec-Feb 1970 and remember the dreadful, icy winters. Nothing like Hawaii, where the sun shines most of the time. Love it here.

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  31. You have probably heard the news reports about the heat in the US. They don't tell you about our weather here in the Pacific Northwest where it has rained almost every day through June. Now, in the first week of July we finally have some sun, the the nighttime temps are still in the 40's and we have to use heat in the house. The garden is as you describe. The roses that have bloomed are mushy. The delphiniums and other tall flowers fell over. The petunias in hanging baskets crumple. But cauliflower flourishes.

    Your landscape is so gorgeous. Great pictures.

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  32. Great photos, Friko, and perhaps all of that rain is what makes your verdant landscape so exceptionally beautiful. As for the gardening, I enjoy it but never feel guilt for my neglect, perhaps because my wife, who is more dedicated to the garden, comes to the rescue before the garden totally returns to a wild state. I love the quote you found. Perhaps gardening, or at least the love of gardens, is more enduring than either alcohol or love.

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  33. also ehrlich, ich finde Deinen Garten wunderschön und ich verstehe nicht recht, wie das mit diesem Wetter noch möglich ist. "Gardener" scheint ja wieder o.k. zu sein, man merkt, wie wichtig er Dir ist. Und diese Blume "Allium Head" ist doch wirklich erstaunlich, ja sehr beeindruckend!
    Ich wünsche Dir sonnige Tage (in jeder Hinsicht)!
    Bis bald!
    Renée

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  34. I once had a gardening book that explained what gardening jobs should be done each month - it only taught me that you can't garden by the calendar, not in Britain anyway!

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  35. I don't know a yard around here anything like that, so if that is the amount of rain it takes to look like that, well, just paint sunbeams on the windows.

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  36. Please send us some of your rain. Your garden grows so beautifully and you have grass! Just to have some flowers alive but struggling, I drag a hose around every night and now that it has reached 101 Fahrenheit several days in a row, sometimes I'm out twice a day as the plants actually start to fry. I live in Wisconsin which is referred to as the land of frozen tundra. Climate change? I think so. You asked just lately about people who seem to have no problems. Thought you might like to know about ours here in the middle part of the US.

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  37. It may be damp, but it's really beautiful.

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  38. Dear Friko, like Kathy, I wish you could send us some of your rain. We have drought here in the Mid-West of the United States as well as in the West where many wildfires are destroying stands of timber.

    I hope to begin gardening again next summer--either here or in MInnesota. It's time. My knees are better and the Meniere's seems to be in abeyance. So soil here I come!!! Peace.

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  39. It is very beautiful where you live.

    We have green hills here in the Pacific Northwest too. And yesterday the sun came to visit for a week. Otherwise your skies and ours are buddies.

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  40. It seems this season is one of extremes - if only you could send me a bit of rain I'd be glad to ship you some sunshine! Everything is early in my garden because the snow didn't lay on the ground long enough and now it is so dry that if I don't supply water, nothing would survive. We will no doubt soon be restricted with water and I suppose the perennials will have to show how hardy they are. Wildfire is a constant worry. I could do with a bit of your lush landscape!

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  41. I love the quote. I guess we all have our battles when we decide we want to garden. It some ways it is ironic that we fight such things as too little rain, too much rain, weeds, and insects while we garden and call it all sheer joy. Gardening is not an easy job, but it is one that satisfies. I wish we could have a bit more balance. We need some of your rain. In exchange, we will send you a whole lot of sunshine.

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  42. Written like the true gardener you are. How I wish we could do an exchange for a bit, Friko. Some of our heat and sun for some of your rain and cooler weather. We have things blooming here that usually are at their peak in August and are watering only those things we must lest we lose them, yet I squealed with childish glee today as a hummingbird drank from the fuschia and the prairie plants are starting to reach for the sun. I'll look forward to A Year In The Life Of A Lady Gardener.

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  43. You've had nothing but rain, it seems, while we have had nothing but temperatures hover around 100 for -- well, forever -- and it's all we can do to keep our plants alive in this heat.

    Poor things.

    Pearl

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  44. Ah yes, gardening sounds so easy when one only reads about it. And photos of worms and bugs are merely gross instead of screech and shudder-worthy. If only we could trade weather as easily as we trade thoughts, I'd send you some of our blistering sunshine and you could send some gray cloud cover. We'll have to work on that!

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  45. From what I've read and seen on TV this morning during the British GP qualifying, you had better soon begin searching for a guy who's building a BIG boat.

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  46. Everything about this post is near and dear to my own heart...and the landscape photos are all that I envision England to be...touched by the artist's brush. Looking forward to your new postings about being The Lady Gardener...

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  47. I await your monthlies, gardening that is. You inspire, Friko, I'm afraid my Leo (who has now mowed strawberries, rhubarb and roses) is no match for your Gardener.
    XO
    WWW

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  48. I now know firsthand of the rain which pours in England, but, the landscape is lush, and your photos are witness to that lushness. It rained every day that we were in your lovely country, (poured more accurately) and I found myself drenched, but refusing to stay in out of the downpour. (I didn't want to waste a minute!)

    Your garden looks lovely to me. It reminds me of my mom's garden, back when they had a well. She watered religiously, probably every day, and her yard was an oasis for us all. I sadly don't have the green thumb, or even the desire to do what needs to be done to have a lush garden. I heartily commend those such as yourself who garden.

    Sending sun wishes your way!

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  49. Apartment dwelling does limit the gardening. I see these books and such that suggest with only the slightest effort I could transform my balcony into a marvelous, lush retreat. I believe the "effort" part, but doubt the "slightest", and limit myself to trying to water the poor things that are out there.

    The good news is that we've had some rain - not so much of a total, but enough to lower the temperatures and keep the ground moist. The Oak Tree seems to be smiling.

    Your garden is smiling, for sure - and I'll bet the Good Prufrock smiles to see it. What a delight - I just discovered the travel plans, but didn't have a clue she was going to be so lucky as to see you and your valley.

    The Lady Gardener sounds like a lovely path to travel.

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  50. Your gardening posts always speak to me, as I spent an hour at sundown last night, mowing...after spending 10 minutes alternately plucking at weeds and admiring my delphinium. I don't know if you heard (it was on int'l news), but our city of Duluth flooded a few weeks ago, so I know whereof you type when you bemoan too much rain!

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  51. Such beautiful colours and shots - even in the grey.

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  52. Just the same in Normandy, Friko, dashing out to do things between the showers and watching the grass grow knee-high because it's too wet to cut. Sigh....

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  53. I've missed being away from the Internet and I realize what rich posts I have missed from you! My Rick had a bike accident on Thursday and because traveling is uncomfortable for him this week, we stayed home from the lake. It's going to be 97 -- overly hot for Michigan -- and unlike you, we've not had rain in weeks, or maybe even a month or more. The fruit crop was considerably less and now the farmers fear for the corn crop as well. Which means higher prices, too. The grass is brown like a wheatfield, crunching under my feet, and the earth so hard that one can't pull weeds without them breaking. So, I will join you in the world of hapless gardeners, doing their best to "dig out" from the weather conditions, whatever they may be.

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  54. Ah but you are going to get summer and we in the north are to get the rain. Jet Stream coming back our way. Enjoy it and please keep writing, even when the sunshine lures you outside.

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  55. What a delightful post.
    My garden looked beautiful
    but now
    with heat, rain, beetles
    and a storm it is not looking very good.
    But it will recover
    that I know.
    Thank you for a look at your world...

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