Winter sun

time in the garden

It’s Sunday, almost mid day. I’m in the garden for the second day in a row. What a luxury for this time of year. I had a sudden urge to tidy and plan the garden after months of just letting it be. I am not sure why I suddenly feel this way. Perhaps it is knowing that the new gardening year is coming in the form of Matariki and the shortest day. For me these are things that mark the seasonal shift from short days to long. It is sunny and I am in a t shirt. Atlas is on the lawn near me, lying flat, absorbing all the sun. He often parks near me when I work and I think we both are secretly delighted to resume this habit of garden time together after months of not really. Eos is on the lawn close to the fence, watching the activities on the street. If someone walks past she sneaks across the lawn and peers at them through a gap in the fence, mostly unnoticed.

I work the garden around the bee hive. The hives, like me, are active, taking advantage of the sunny weather. I wonder what they will find on a day like this. I wonder what is still flowering. I watch a bee in the bird feeder, crawling over fallen leaves and stones. It’s amber body glowing in the weak sunlight. I’m working this part of the garden because I can. In summer I tend to leave this part of the garden alone as I find gardening around a busy hive requires more concentration than I wish to exert. It’s not about the bees, our bees are friendly bees, polite bees. It’s more the number of bees in summer and the traffic they create. In summer we both tend to get in each others way. I start by pruning back the wisteria whose octopus like arms are failing about everywhere. It needs some shaping so I haphazardly trim branches with the view it is a start and finesse can come later. I want to chop back more but I am too short and will request assistance from the taller bee keeper to help. He does like a good chop back of things.

I spend time as I work thinking of what I can do with this space to make it more low maintenance. There is a woody Lavender that I suspect may need to be removed. A few foxgloves, delphiniums and lots of catnip. The catnip has grown over the lawn making a path that I kinda like. I think I will plant more catnip here and perhaps add some thyme and lavenders. Together they can create a forest with the odd something else popping up randomly. My kinda of gardening. There is not much to weed here as the flower bed benefits from the self mulch of fallen wisteria leaves. It doesn’t take long before the space is cleared and I can see where I can plant news things.

I move to the flower bed opposite the one I just worked. Together they from a circle around the beehives, with the hives and lawn central. A path is the entrance. I ignore the twitches of hunger that are starting to roar in my belly. Just a bit more I tell myself. I want to make the most of the sun before it falls behind the hills. This bed while only a few steps away from the other is different. There are echoes in the plantings. The catnip. The delphiniums. The foxgloves. Here there is more grass, more clover and more mistakes from early days of when I was learning to garden. I listen to the garden to see what it has to teach me. The presence of clover tells me the soil needs more nutrients. The difference in absence of mulch is noticeable. I need to plant more intensely so there are less gaps for the grass to grow. I remove the bee friendly plant whose name I have forgotten that I planted and it is spread like crazy. It has a solid root system that speeds along under the surface. The only satisfaction I get from it now is it provides a moment of delight when you pull at the root, revealing itself as it ripples away from the soil And then the pennyroyal. Another bee friendly plant that needs to be managed. It is a self seeding queen and so any spied are removed. It takes more real estate then it deserves.

Eventually the desire to eat wins out. I pick up my tools. Shuffle off inside, feeling a gentle ache in my body. A reminder of muscles not used in a while. Dogs slop off in different directions. There will be another hour of warmth before the sun finally falls behind the hills. I will eat my lunch, perhaps read and have a tea, enjoying the simple joy of a day of winter sun.