“Madam, This is MY Job”
I had all kinds of ideas for my new garden – new climate, new challenges. Yes, I had been told that the climate was too hot for orange trees, but I want to give it a try. Yes, my gardening friends haven’t had much luck with lavendar, but maybe I will have better luck. I toted huge pots and bags of fertilizer, clipped bougainvillia and started more plants, wanting that half/half color, rising early to work in the cool of the day. Rosemary! Basil! Lemon trees! As soon as the weather began to cool, I planted my seeds to see what would sprout, what I could transplant, what would thrive. I’m willing to risk a little failure, but I was hoping for some spectacular results.
Inside once the sun had risen, having a glass of water, my front doorbell rang. Who could it be at this hour of the morning? I checked the security peephole, and it was the compound’s chief gardener. With him was the man assigned to take care of our house. He really didn’t know a lot about gardening.
“Madam,” the chief gardener started, with a wave of his hand indicating all the new potted flowers on my entry stairs, “this is MY job.”
I stood there, looking stupid.
“Madam, your job is to tell us what you want. You don’t want to take our work from us.”
I was stunned. People who garden, all over the world, share a sheer love of getting our hands dirty and watching gardens grow and thrive, we love the patterns, we love the floozies who get all the attention, we love the characters who give depth and texture, and we create the backgrounds, the stage, on which they dance.
Slowly, slowly, we worked out an arrangement. I would bring in pots and plants, the gardener would actually pot them – but I would show him exactly how I wanted it done. From time to time, I would pot one up myself, late at night when no gardeners were around, and he would pretend not to notice. I would do the starts from seeds, he would tend them. On a hot afternoon, he would occasionally drop by and take a rest in the garden, and I would pretend not to notice.
I didn’t achieve spectacular. I had some failures – lavendar and orange trees. I sometimes wonder whether we form the garden, or the garden forms us? My results were not what I had envisioned, but it had its’ own beauty.
Working together, the gardener and I created a lush paradise, a backyard retreat where my husband and I would sit in privacy and enjoy the bougainvillia, and the lemon trees, the pots of rosemary and basil and jasmine, making the garden aromatic as well as beautiful. The Qateri cat would enjoy the marvellous smells, and track the occasional bird who dropped by.
With the cooling temperatures in Kuwait, my hands are just itching to get dirty. 🙂
P.S. Those are illustrations, not my real garden.
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Well that’s a great thing to do, Watch them babies grow.. I was gonna comment on the pics ;)- I feel that some people here fear losing jobs, it’s silly of them thinking that, it’s all in the hands of God
We have a couple of orange, lemon and fig trees. Gardeners here aren’t gardeners. They just hoe up everything then re-plant everything again every season.
Do it on your own & don’t mind him. Oh and they LOVE to plant palm trees all over the place.
lol, The pretending part was creative! 🙂
It takes a real sense of unity with earth to be able to plant something and watch it grow. When I was a kid I would spend hours on end in my grandpa’s little garden at the back of their house and I would just do random stuff but it felt serene.
Do what you feel like doing. Every flower pot is a small piece of yourself outside of your body and soul. To watch something you’ve planted grow is one of the little joys in life that are not matched by any other.
To hell with the gardner, it’s YOUR job! 😀
Chika – I put the pics in because I had a walled garden, covered with bougainvillia, grape vines, jasmine and honeysuckle – oooohhh, it smelled so good!
You hit the nail on the head, Я – the man assigned to my house wasn’t a real gardener. But we worked together on watering – enough, not too much – and potting, and I knew he needed the job.
Joel – We just had to find a way to make this relationship work! 😉
Kinan – you are so wise, and when you write about being in your grandfather’s garden, I feel like I have been there myself. You have a real gift. As for watching things grow – oh Kinan, just wait ’till you have children! 🙂
I love gardens, I just wish I knew how to garden. It would be such a nice hobby, tried to take it up in the US by taking a horticulture class, but I hated getting my hands dirty 😉
LLLLOOOOOLLLLL, Chirp! There are garden gloves! What I think is so cool is that you took a horticulture class! You probably know ten times what I know!
I can’t wait to start my own. Back in the States we had our garden in the backyard, we’d spend hours playing in the mud. We loved the texture on our feet.
Gardening is so beautiful! I dream a lot, and plan to have a great garden one day once I settle in my own place. The vision I have is for a more Japanese garden. Maybe with a little pond and some Koi fish as well.
hahaha no no no its definitely not your garden – there’s no Cat Containment Center 😀 😀 😀
Thanks, Little Diamond, for an idea for this morning’s posting! ROFLLLLLLLLLL!