The difficulty of ageing when you’re a keen gardener
Growing old can be a pain. Literally. And when you have spent most of your time gardening – professionally and recreationally for more than 60 years – you can end up feeling older than the number on your most recent birthday card.
On top of this, when you decide that the style of garden you prefer is the most physically demanding – controlled chaos – it almost verges on downright stupidity.
Getting the balance right between chaos and control requires constant attention, while making it look like it actually requires very little effort.
Too much control and the garden loses its naturalistic feel and too much chaos, and it can be difficult to even get into.
A visitor on a recent garden trail tour told me I had a lot to answer for.
“Why is that?” I asked, worried that someone had tripped or caught themselves on something. “God help us, my wife wants a garden like yours,” he replied.
One of the most common comments I hear is that I probably don’t have to do much weeding since the plants are so close. Very wrong.
Weeds will grow in any vacant ground no matter how small, and if they are perennial ones, it can be difficult to get them out without getting in amongst the over-planted plants.
Fortunately, I have been practising tai chi for about 10 years, where
I’m learning how to walk softly and deliberately like a cat so that not only can I walk amongst the plants without stepping on them, but also without tripping and falling.
Unfortunately, tai chi does not help with the issue of thin skin, caused by too many years of sun exposure, leading to many calls for a paper towel to mop up the blood from scratched legs and arms.
Even when the garden is in a more controlled state, the paths are strictly single lane with no passing bays, except to step on the garden, and so when there are multiple visitors, it is single file only.
I hope this paints a picture of our garden for you, and so on days when it all seems a bit much, and I decide I need to make some changes as I get older, I visit the different scenarios that would make life easier.
The most extreme one is to shift. Sell up and go somewhere where I can’t repeat what I have done here. The problem with this is that Gaile and I love where we are.
The second option is to get in garden help.
Unfortunately I am selfish about our garden. I want to do it!
Almost as severe as shifting is a total revamp.
I am rapidly running out of options, but I think that the last one is the one I will go with and that is “tweaking” our garden style.
I am sure there are plenty of gardeners out there who can relate in various ways to my predicament. I’ll let you know how I get on.