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 that, but in any case in Guyana one can overcome that little problem by calling a spade a shovel. Call it what you will it still means 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, etc. Success doesn’t come by sitting back and doing nothing. As they say in Yorkshire, ‘You get nowt for nowt.’ There has to be a bit of perspiration. In temperate countries the gardener’s year begins in autumn which is a time for getting on with work before the ground becomes like iron. It is a time for planting for the spring display, propagating for the summer displays, buying seeds and so on.
In Guyana the seasons are not so well defined – just two more or less dry, and two more or less wet. One can generally 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 do away with hard work but it does help to spread it out so you don’t kill yourself in the process. 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. It helps identify the priorities more effectively.
Routine in the garden
One of the most important routines is the daily walk. It helps you to see problems and to think out the solutions to them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 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 compost them. It gives you the time to actually look at your plants and take an offending (diseased, infested or deformed) branch off here and there – and it’s not bad exercise either.
One of the 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.
A weekly task is getting the grass looking its best close towards the end of the week, so that it looks good for the weekend. All clippings should be raked up and composted. If you have some special function in the garden then the grass is cut the day before it, no matter what day of the week it is. Grass and weeds make good compost, and should be spread over the compost heap evenly. The day of the party give the area a spray with a mosquitocide, and then your evening will not be purgatory.
Until next week may your God go with you wherever you may be.
