Walk2Write in Florida: Wuthering Heights

Showing posts with label Wuthering Heights. Show all posts

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Wuthering Heights or Depths: Life from a Gardener's Perspective on 2012

Peanut looks back on 2012

No two ways about it: 2012 was a rough year for everyone. At least, that's what a gardener would tell you every time. The sun was too hot, the rain was too much or too little, the transplant didn't take or took too well, the renters made too many changes... Victims abound! There must be a generic form available somewhere that an attorney has prepared for any number of damages done during 2012 or even a couple of years earlier. All you need to do is fill in the complaints, sign on the dotted line, and collect your reward. Alas! It's true!

I couldn't believe my ears and eyes when I recently heard and saw an ad on TV by a group of lawyers in Alabama. BP money is flowing into the area like milk and honey. The Gulf Coast has never had it so good. The long-suffering servant Joseph in Wuthering Heights would certainly have had a case for a lawsuit, if only he'd been around to plead it in 2012:

"Aw mun hev my wage, and Aw mun goa! Aw hed aimed tuh dee, wheare Aw'd sarved fur sixty year; un' Aw thowt Aw'd lug my books up intuh t' garret, un' all my bits uh stuff, un' they sud hev t' kitchen tuh theirseln; fur t' sake uh quietness. It wur hard tuh gie up my awn hearthstun, bud Aw thowt Aw could do that! Bud nah, SHOO'S TAAN MY GARDEN FROUGH ME, un' by th' heart, Maister, Aw cannot stand it! Yah muh bend tuh th' yoak, an ye will--Aw' noan used to't and an ow'd man doesn't sooin get used tuh new barthens. Aw'd rayther arn my bite an' my sup, wi' a hammer in th' road!"

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Burying the Past--A Cardboard Box Base for a Tropical Garden

"We were in April then: the weather was sweet and warm, the grass as green as showers and sun could make it..." (from Nelly's account of Heathcliff's last days above ground in Wuthering Heights)

Life grows sweeter when a difficult past is given a proper burial. We certainly hope that's the case with this new tropical style garden we are constructing in the backyard. Cardboard boxes from many moves over the past several years have been laid to rest as a base. It's a little eco-friendly trick I learned from working with the Gardening Friends of the Big Bend on the Demonstration Garden at NFREC in Quincy, Florida. The cardboard helps prevent or at least slows the growth of weeds, especially when it's covered with pine straw and other mulch. I prefer recycling cardboard to spending a lot of money on expensive ground fabric.

Secret Aging Man did the dirty work of removing the sod so that I could arrange the plants, lay the cardboard, and spread pine straw and cypress mulch to cover the whole bed. The triple-trunk palm was left by the former tenants. I'm not sure what kind of palm it is, but I have learned it's good to keep some distance between it and my skin. Another thorny plant! It serves to replace a large windmill palm that the tenants moved from the front yard and subsequently killed, either by neglect or the shock of moving it. We burned those palm remains along with some other yard debris a couple of nights ago.

Rain is falling as I write this post, washing new ashes and old regrets deep into sandy soil. It nourishes and settles the new plants we've added to our tropical garden here in subtropical Northwest Florida.

Happy Earth Day 2012!