OK, put me in the kitchen and I am right at home. The same can not be said for the garden. I have decided that the reason I am 'agriculturally defective' is because I was over-exposed to it as a child.
Mum, Dad, you know what I am talking about! Sara and I were given the job to weed. Some may say this was a fair request, however we had to weed an acre of ploughed ground that was 'mulchless' at that point. Basically we had to prevent grass growing where grass would instinctively grow.
(This was taken by Karen in 1985 after I was told I couldn't come inside until my vege patch was weeded, despite the rain!)
Each Saturday we would start in the morning and did not stop until any green shoot which had dared to poke its head from the moist ground had been ripped by its roots and hurled on the waste pile. To start with, friends would come by and offer to help so we could play with them sooner. Eventually they stopped coming, realising it was a job that had no end!
It is amazing my social skills progressed at all.
I thought all this was behind me, however we were given two Jacaranda trees for Christmas by our lovely neighbours and my inadequacies as a gardener have flooded back to me in a wave of fear. The trees were in pots. They are still in pots four months later. I knew that to water them was a good thing so I put the smaller pots in bigger pots with water in the bottom. I have gradually watched them start to turn a bit brown.
Having an interest in psychology I have wondered if I am rebelling against my childhood and am letting them die on purpose, but I have dismissed this in favour of the 'ignorance theory.'
Knowing I am responsible for them and feeling guilty that our neighbours will ask after them, I read the label to see what I should do. It said to prepare the ground, somewhere moist but well drained?? I decided to drive to the nursery to ask their advice, knowing I am not good with growing things. (I should probably mention that Dad gave me a Bonsai tree for my Christmas present when I was 17, as he knew I loved anything Japanese. The Bonsai tree was about 60years old at that point, and after strictly adhering to the instructions, it died in my care after only 4 months!)
I asked a nice man in the nursery what I should do and what I should put in the hole. Surprisingly, he said to just put the trees in the ground and water them well. I was prepared to buy anything he told me, so I am glad he was honest, but if these trees die, I will be assuming he was negligent and there was some ingredient he should have told me about.
This is so intimidating for me. I have grown a bit attached to my trees in pots and I want something I plant to survive.
This is my goal for the little things.
By the way, thanks Mum and Dad for exposing me to the outdoors... I am sure that my distaste for gardening has contributed to improving my skills in the kitchen, so my family have you guys to thank for that too!
Mum, Dad, you know what I am talking about! Sara and I were given the job to weed. Some may say this was a fair request, however we had to weed an acre of ploughed ground that was 'mulchless' at that point. Basically we had to prevent grass growing where grass would instinctively grow.
(This was taken by Karen in 1985 after I was told I couldn't come inside until my vege patch was weeded, despite the rain!)
Each Saturday we would start in the morning and did not stop until any green shoot which had dared to poke its head from the moist ground had been ripped by its roots and hurled on the waste pile. To start with, friends would come by and offer to help so we could play with them sooner. Eventually they stopped coming, realising it was a job that had no end!
It is amazing my social skills progressed at all.
I thought all this was behind me, however we were given two Jacaranda trees for Christmas by our lovely neighbours and my inadequacies as a gardener have flooded back to me in a wave of fear. The trees were in pots. They are still in pots four months later. I knew that to water them was a good thing so I put the smaller pots in bigger pots with water in the bottom. I have gradually watched them start to turn a bit brown.
Having an interest in psychology I have wondered if I am rebelling against my childhood and am letting them die on purpose, but I have dismissed this in favour of the 'ignorance theory.'
Knowing I am responsible for them and feeling guilty that our neighbours will ask after them, I read the label to see what I should do. It said to prepare the ground, somewhere moist but well drained?? I decided to drive to the nursery to ask their advice, knowing I am not good with growing things. (I should probably mention that Dad gave me a Bonsai tree for my Christmas present when I was 17, as he knew I loved anything Japanese. The Bonsai tree was about 60years old at that point, and after strictly adhering to the instructions, it died in my care after only 4 months!)
I asked a nice man in the nursery what I should do and what I should put in the hole. Surprisingly, he said to just put the trees in the ground and water them well. I was prepared to buy anything he told me, so I am glad he was honest, but if these trees die, I will be assuming he was negligent and there was some ingredient he should have told me about.
This is so intimidating for me. I have grown a bit attached to my trees in pots and I want something I plant to survive.
This is my goal for the little things.
By the way, thanks Mum and Dad for exposing me to the outdoors... I am sure that my distaste for gardening has contributed to improving my skills in the kitchen, so my family have you guys to thank for that too!
12 comments:
Liesa:
I was absolutely doubled up laughing at this. You have such an incredible talent for telling stories! I just read it aloud to Mum and Sara. And I admit it's all true, after a fashion. The picture is a classic.
I should have felt a wave of shame for abusing my lovely daughter with gardening assignments she hated, but I remember some things just a tad differently. As I remember it, the real problem was that you hated dirt under your fingernails. I remember you pleading to trade the gardening for ANY job inside the house.
And I hate to tell you this after all these years, but I think that Bonsai tree was probably plastic. You never had enough gardening talent to tell the difference. The brownish color was probably mildew from overwatering an inanimate object. Knowing your talent for cultivating living things, I wouldn't have trusted you with a real plant even though you did love everything Japanese.
Maybe that's the answer to your challenge. A pair of forty-foot plastic Jacaranda trees in your front garden!
Love,
Dad
I hope the trees live - Jacarandas are my favourite tree. I'm like you with my inability to keep plants alive, despite our childhood, but I do hope to have a nice garden some day.
That was rather funny! I have a way of killing plants too, although I enjoy gardening now that it is my own yard, hated it when it was my parents. Those trees will be gorgeous---if they survive your care, ha ha.
Lies you're so funny! Good luck with the trees....I'm sure they will thrive.
I love that picture of you covered in mud. I was only three when this picture was taken and all I remember hearing when I was a kid was that you refused to do any weeding because you didn't want to get dirty, now I see that you had good reason.
Good luck with the trees - they're my favourite too.
Yeah, thanks Dad! Great idea with the plastic trees.Then we would just have to get some plastic birds to sit in them and I would have solved my bird poop problem too!
Liesa, I'm laughing so hard.
After spending most of last weekend in the garden (and loving every minute of it), I'm working on a post about the benefits of gardening with kids and all the great bonding times I had with Dad working in the garden as a kid.
I do remember you PLEADING to clean anything in the house rather than garden. The picture is the greatest. I love seeing that little old laundry room, and the box of surf on the windowsill - tiny, Mum must have gone through one of those a day!
By the way Lies, I would also try and negotiate inside jobs when it was yard work time becuase I hated being the heat (still do).
I thought I had that photograph! I remember that as though it was yesterday. So funny!
What a great picture of you! This was such a funny post. Good luck with your trees.
Another superb picture of you with your disgusted face on - so funny!
HAAAAA! That is sooo funny. And your dad.....really? was it a plastic bonsai tree? He must be joking with you. You and David must get together. He buys trees and just plants them and hopes for the best. My neighbours have a heart attack as they hate trees and leaves. It just needs water. So get in there and dig girl! love your stories, lyn XX
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