Give me dirt. Lots of dirt. Deep lumpy clumps of dirt; hard dry glumps of peat moss; rich black heaps of manure and/or sea compost; bags bursting with vermiculite and/or perlite (and I do mean bursting) and a working hose, and I will happily make soil; And, then, give me the necessary ingredients and I will make fertilizer—food to feed the hungry. . .
Yep—it’s garden time again and this year I firmly told myself I was not going to garden without gloves. No. Nope. No way. Because nothing sucks the moisture out of hands like soil.
Yeah, I don’t listen to myself any better than anyone else does. .
But mostly, because, as any lover of the earth’s loam knows, the act of plunging fingers deep into soil, of gently coaxing tender curly masses of roots loose before bedding them into the soil is an act of pure satisfaction. It’s also a way of learning. Temperature, moisture levels and general health of the soil all need bare fingers.
I get the connection and I understand why many people spend hours playing and creating in their gardens.
However, my gardening does come in spurts thanks to a couple of arthritic joints puffing themselves into cranky knots when they’ve had enough bending kneeling, twisting and squatting. At first, they just give me a few pokes along with a whispering of the word ‘enough’. If I fail to heed those soft nudges, the pokes morph into barbwire fences around the joints.
Which means, after cajoling Man-Wonder into doing most of the heavy grunt work, I’m learning to spend more time chatting with the worms and giving the plants a serious heads up on what’s expected from them.
And, for the record, I want to say—there is nothing like watching a man work up a sweat—just for you!
Cheryle Said:
on May 29, 2015 at 10:12 am
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my
comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say fantastic blog!
LikeLike
caymayowrites Said:
on June 3, 2015 at 10:51 am
Thanks!
LikeLike