Garden Jobs

On a sweltering summer day, the first in a long while, John dug up part of our back vegetable plot that had strawberry plants embedded in it. For this particular area he literally had to lie on the ground to remove some of the masses of tree roots that block the soil underneath. After that wonderful chore he turned the remaining soil over to an adequate depth so that I could then fine tune the removal of the rest of the tiny roots that impair new growth. And after all of that I enriched the small trenches I dug and planted some seedlings of beets, and broccoli with sweet corn on the fence line. Afterwards I put some straw on top and watered it all in. This whole place is already behind some makeshift chicken wire fencing and so our excavation experts, the chickens, don’t bother these plants in the least. The strawberries had done their dash and are being moved to an area that is only for strawberries so they don’t have to compete with lemon balm smothering them, which kept them from fruiting.

John, my esteemed mate, reconstructed this whole enclosed garden that he put together years ago and recently added the seating at the end after moving some wooden fences around it to secure it, after clearing the land to make room for seating and relocating the gate he installed originally. Now the whole section really works better as a growing ground and rest area to admire our bounty. Little by little we’re replanting each particular section as we harvest older plantings.

As if reconfiguring this wasn’t enough, in some sort of Herculean fashion he also moved the throne chairs our friend built for us years ago when we lived on the vineyard. Somehow, he got them up a high step or two without my help and over where the old gate was placed, without breaking his back or wrecking anything else in the garden. After he was done with today’s little projects that took quite a few minutes of hard slog in intense heat, he drank a beer sitting in one of those seats he lugged up there himself, behind the table he built from a log, with his distinctive touches of wry humor… old gumboot feet. Kiwi blokes are awesome. With him in this yard it’s been one surprise after another. He never tells me what he’s planning but works diligently and quietly to create garden spaces that truly enhance our lives with complete originality. Wait till I show you the next ideas he manifested into our second lean-to, still unfinished at this writing.  Again, he moved heaven and earth (just about) to make it from his vision, cutting down tree branches, taking away shrubbery, cutting things back substantially to sculpt the site. But since that one’s still in progress I probably won’t write about it just yet. Just stay tuned.