gardening and planning
Mar. 27th, 2004 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trocheeA. and I spent two or three hours today digging over our little (10'x5') patch of garden in the local P-Patch. We added organic fertilizer and compost, and I did a bunch of weeding.
I find that I am much less interested in planning a garden than I am in finding things to do with my hands, so I was happy to do the digging and to weed out dandelions from our own (and neighbors') patches.
I wonder if my feeling on avoiding planning has to do with doing enough planning every day as a student and researcher. Right now, it feels like all my programming and 90% of science is careful planning: what experiments will I do, in what order, when will I find time to write them up, and how will I fit in homework and classes, not to mention cooking dinner for/with A? With all that on the plate, planning is crucial and I find planning a garden to be a burden rather than a pleasant activity.
I really don't mind the digging or weeding, or planting the seeds, but the planning --browsing the seed selections in the garden store, deciding what the right fertilizer is, etcetera -- is fun for A but not for me. It makes me into something of a wet blanket, I'm afraid.
I find that I am much less interested in planning a garden than I am in finding things to do with my hands, so I was happy to do the digging and to weed out dandelions from our own (and neighbors') patches.
I wonder if my feeling on avoiding planning has to do with doing enough planning every day as a student and researcher. Right now, it feels like all my programming and 90% of science is careful planning: what experiments will I do, in what order, when will I find time to write them up, and how will I fit in homework and classes, not to mention cooking dinner for/with A? With all that on the plate, planning is crucial and I find planning a garden to be a burden rather than a pleasant activity.
I really don't mind the digging or weeding, or planting the seeds, but the planning --browsing the seed selections in the garden store, deciding what the right fertilizer is, etcetera -- is fun for A but not for me. It makes me into something of a wet blanket, I'm afraid.
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Date: 2004-03-29 05:05 pm (UTC)But I used to love planning gardens. I spent hours doing it in high school...part of my escape from the world of my parents (I made so many drawings and charts and schedules, pored over garden books and catalogs, sent soil samples away for testing). I was imagining a microcosm of the world which would be my own, where I got to make all the decisions, something beautiful and useful that I could take care of. And I did grow a lot of things, in spite of the odd combination of conditions in our yard: clay-like soil, lots of shade, and extreme Houston heat. I did it again my sophomore year in college--designed and planted the herb garden at the environmental center there.
I like the work, too. Although I hate dealing with thistle infestations.