When fate gives you a good slap and the obvious is ...obvious

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Rambling - beware.

This has been a torrid summer - started badly with self-inflicted spray destruction...and went downhill from there. An infected abscess (Mr.Campanula's) refused to heal, culminating in emergency surgery, total tooth removal (and bits of jawbone) and 2 months of seeping (literally) horribleness. Needless to say, having wrecked my home garden, I somehow managed to entirely miss the annual allotment highlight - rose month - and also the culmination of spring planting at the woods. And if I was struggling to manage running 3 gardens while still attempting to earn a (meagre) living before illness struck, I have now ground to a sorry halt altogether.

However, this woeful tale has its roots back in 2012 when we bought a small patch of glorious woodland, but 60 miles away from where we live (and I don't drive). Apologies to those who feel deprived with only a tiny patch of garden while I am whining about owning 3 but, as I tell my customers with tedious regularity, less is more. Ho ho, but this truism does not apply to me, I complacently think...except it very clearly does since I have ended up with 3 unhappy, unsatisfying and burdensome chores instead of a patch of personal paradise.

Now, since I only rent/lease my house and allotment, but actually own the woods (the only thing of any substance I have ever owned in my life), I assumed that all my efforts would be henceforth directed towards the woods...somehow overlooking the 60mile distance. I know Americans will drive this far to nip out and get a pizza but it is an epic pilgrimage in the UK...and it very soon became apparent that I would be doing precious little 'gardening'. I had just redesigned and built my tiny home garden in 2011 so it continued to look good with very little input from me (until the spray catastrophe)...while the allotment just got progressively overgrown but in a charming (?) manner while I did the minimum required to keep it looking decent...until I couldn't. In just 2 months, it has quite literally run amok. Bindweed has become rapacious, virus has claimed some of the fruits, the plum has still not got a decent pollinator, every single dahlia was decimated by snails, the cherries went unnetted (and robbed), the strawbs rotted and the roses are gigantic, semi-collapsed sleeping beauty type briar forests where children and small animals could vanish forever.

Looking through old photos (pre 2012), I was horrified to see how badly it has deteriorated (over years, not just a couple of months)...hence my new resolution - to concentrate on redoing the allotment this year (a 2minute bike ride)..while the woods, which managed with 50 years of utter neglect, can do its own thing - I have opened a lid on diversity - adding many foxgloves, lunaria, columbines, solomon's seal, anemones, martagons, celandines etc.etc...and even a prairie and primrose eastern edge. And so, my bulb order this year is a true favourite - a genus I (reluctantly) cast aside but am about to embrace in all its brilliant lushness - species tulips and a fully renovated scree garden. Oh unspellable, unpronounceable, uncommon lovelies such as orphanidea, schrenkii, whittallii and humilis albo- coerulea - be still my fluttering heart. And yes, after destroying my almost flowering seedlings - sprengeri bulbs too.

I promise photos (as I have embarassingly had nothing worth commemorating for years).

Always next year - the gardener's motto.

Mr Campanula came home from his second hospital stay today having, we sincerely hope, finally beaten the hateful streptococcus (he has a normal white blood count for the first time in 2 months).

Featured Answer

peaceofmind

6 years ago

I hate it when gardening goes from one of life's greatest pleasures to just another chore. I turned seventy this year and started downsizing my gardens a few years ago by planting more shrubs in the flower beds. Last year I let the veggie garden go back to grass and weeds (which took about a minute). I'm still mourning that but it was the right thing to do. My flower beds are getting smaller instead of bigger every year. I thought it would be easier to do this slowly over the years but sometimes it seems like cutting off a finger every year. I still love to garden and hope to always be able to have a container of something growing. I didn't mean this to be such a downer, just wanted to say that our gardens have to change as our circumstances change.

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Comments (8)

woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
6 years ago
The last paragraph puts everything else in its proper place.....!

It is a bit scary how fast thing can run amok. I am useless in heat and this summer has been outrageously hot and dry. Maintenance is not happening out there :-(. When I do venture out, the amount of work piling up is depressing. So, in a very minor way compared to your situation, I understand the stress caused by the garden deteriorating as a result of unplanned events and/ or events beyond your control! Chin up; carry on - and all that.... :-)
Campanula UK Z8 thanked woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
6 years ago
Agree with Woody! So glad Mr. C is home and that it looks like he is on the mend.

My yard is a disaster. Has been for a couple of years now, so I can empathize with you. My excuse is much less valid-never have energy during the school year and then by the time we get out, it is almost July and the heat is on! This week, temps in the range of 100 degrees all week. Yikes. I have decided to attack things in the fall (trying to encourage myself to do this) in small pieces. One section this fall, then another in early spring, another next fall, etc. By the time I am 80, I should be in good shape. Well, that is, if I am in good shape, then the yard should be, too. Ha.

Hang in there.
Campanula UK Z8 thanked cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
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mxk3 z5b_MI
6 years ago
Glad Mr. Camp is home and healing. :0)

Y'know, it's okay to let the woods be...woods. Let the woods do their thing - wooded areas are beautiful how they are, especially when you consider the flora and fauna residing there.

Glad you are getting excited about the bulbs. Sometimes all it takes is a little spark to get us going again...
Campanula UK Z8 thanked mxk3 z5b_MI
rouge21_gw (CDN Z6a)
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Of course everyone's situation is different but I think I understand very much of what you are thinking and experiencing. It will get better. You and yours are still in our thoughts.
Campanula UK Z8 thanked rouge21_gw (CDN Z6a)
sunnyborders
6 years ago
Great that Mr Camp's on the mend. Sure he's the most important flower in the garden (metaphorically speaking).

Camp, know you'll be sorting all the rest out.
Campanula UK Z8 thanked sunnyborders
moliep
6 years ago
It was impossible to hit "Like" after reading your post, Campanula. Hearing about Mr. Campanula's situation did put the gardens in perspective. "Let the woods be woods" is sane advice. I often think that if my dh & I were so lucky as to be able to travel around the world for a year seeing all the sites and gardens I've always longed to see and if there were no one here to water, prune, weed, etc., we would return to woods.... especially considering the way tulip and maple tree seedings take hold in the yard.

There's much truth in mxk3's post. A little spark does help us bounce back. Like all of you who have battled droughts and water rationing, this year's garden has become survival of the fittest. I don't expect much from my roses until the fall. And so I've also begun thinking about bulbs and looking again at my John Scheepers and Van Engelen catalogues. Campanula, your mention of T. humilis alba coerulea oculata made me smile. I've circled that one, too! I think its brilliant whiteness will sparkle in the gardens. And that blue center is luscious.
Campanula UK Z8 thanked moliep
katob Z6ish, NE Pa
6 years ago
So Glad to hear the health issues are finally easing up. What a mess!

Youre right, the woods will still be exciting come springtime but a quick mowing and strimming all the mess back in the autumn will surely make all the difference when the first snowdrops begin to arrive!

my garden looks as if I've had my own herbicide disaster as the grass is completely brown and anything not watered is yellowing and wilted. But it's finally raining and I actually can't wait to get out and weed!

When fate gives you a good slap and the obvious is ...obvious

peaceofmind

Comments (8)

woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

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