Re: [gardeners] Obsessions Portrait of a Maniac
....ed (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 2 Nov 1997 12:07:09 -0500
My obsessions, if i had any, would change like snacking on cashews
one week, popcorn and dill pickles the next. One year i wanted
rocks for a back border of the main flower garden. The initial
rocks came out of the ground as i started converting a pasture
overgrown with sweet fern and burdock in hard heavy clay soil. My
obsessions in the garden, if i had any, would seem to start with a
good idea and the desire to get it done and of course there were
not enough rocks to go the full length of the garden. As a result
i'm off to the nearest gravel pit sizing, lifting, and hauling
rocks all summer until a wall a couple feet high is constructed.
My obsessions in the garden, if i had any, would be akin to being
a perfectionist of sorts and not being analytical enough to get it
right the first time. Well, after the unusual dog days of record
temperatures that year i had enough rocks but they didn't appear
flat enough and it would have been much better (wouldn't it?) if i
had dug down into the ground a foot, lined the bottom with
something to prevent weeds from eventually grow up between the
rocks. So being a student of doing things over again, i did it all
over again. And it is true that it still, some ten years later,
looks acceptable and hardly a weed grow there.
My obsessions in the garden, if i had any, would be internally
transmitted from one idea to another with only the winter left to
arrest them from concept into action. With the wall done wouldn't
it be nice to lighten up this clay a bit so something within the
rock border could actually grow? And after that it moves on and on
and on: wouldn't a vine look great there but to do that you need to
build something for the vine (hey, how about a couple of clematis
there) to grow on? Yeah, that looks fine but wouldn't it balance
out a bit to have a vine over there (maybe a Mandevillas if i could
find one) and on, a bit of sculpture here so bring out the cement,
how about casting a balloon-like piece kids might like , a larger
rock there, there, and there and back to the gravel pit, hey, from
the road you see as much of the fence of the pasture as you do the
rocks, shouldn't there be a few trees or something, which now years
later need trimming and maybe some water (as in small pond) over
there and any body of water should have plants and maybe a Lilly
pad or two and fish, and another sculpture, something that moves in
the wind would be nice up there and on and on....
My impressions of obsession, is that what you are asking well,
i don't think i have any obsessions, just good ideas that need
doing and wouldn't a blue spruce be at home in that little spot
next to the beginning of the driveway, hey i gotta go dig....ed