Not dirty enough. April 6, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in chickens, gardening, homesteading, pets, wit and wisdom.Tags: garden humor, gardening, spring gardening chores
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Silence Dogood here. Today was a real spring day here at Hawk’s Haven, the cottage home our friend Ben and I share in the precise middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. It was not freezing. It wasn’t hailing. We weren’t enduring torrential rains or days of 50 mph winds. It was sunny, mild, and beautiful, and the little bulbs were blooming everywhere. It was time to get out in the garden.
While OFB circled the trunks of each of our fruit trees with a liberal application of wood ashes from our fire pit, I set out our vintage metal lawn furniture, gazing balls, and huge Vietnamese mustard-yellow urn. We then spent a good hour on one of our most frequent yard chores, pick-up sticks (hardly a surprise given the number of trees on our property and those 50 mph winds).
I cleaned out and watered the greenhouse while OFB hauled our huge container fig plants to the deck and laboriously refilled each of the bazillion milk jugs we use to water the greenhouse, then hauled them all back across 2/3 of an acre from the hose to the greenhouse. We replaced a fluorescent and an incandescent bulb in the greenhouse, opened windows and doors, moved plants around, composted a few that hadn’t made it through the winter. I brought out the herbs I’d bought yesterday at Jim Weaver’s Meadow View Farm in nearby Bowers, PA—another bay tree, ‘Arp’ and prostrate rosemaries, an orange scented geranium, a pot of cilantro, a medicinal aloe—and cleared space for them on the greenhouse bench while OFB planted the ‘Crimson Cherry’ rhubarb we’d bought, also at Meadow View, next to the venerable rhubarb we’d inherited with the house (probably ‘Victoria’).
I weeded and tidied one of our raised veggie beds, cursing invading grass and admiring our thick stands of garlic and bunching onions, while OFB visited with the chickens and collected five more eggs. I filled the birdfeeders and OFB secured the tarps over our woodpiles and henhouse (hail had smashed through the aged and brittle corrugated plastic roof). I put peat moss around our blueberries to acidify the soil, planted a primrose a friend had given us by the creek, and replanted some bulbs that had been washed out by the torrential rains, while OFB tidied our three compost bins and did a little pruning.
Then we got down to serious fun: Walking over the property admiring every single plant; watching our dog Molly enjoying a day in the sun; watching our outdoor cats playing and sleeping; taking a puppy treat over to the neighbors’ four-month old pup Oliver. Listening to our little brook, Hawk Run, burble under our bridge as we sat on the deck with celebratory margaritas.
I’d have said we’d put in a decent day’s work, until I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and clean my nails. To my surprise, the dirt came out from under them. My nails looked, gasp, clean. None of them had even broken.
I don’t know about you, but dirty nails are my criteria for real gardening. Yes, my back is a bit sore as I write this. Yes, my fingertips are cracking and I got a splinter. Yes, my neck is stiff, and yes, I’m looking forward to bed and a night of repairs and restoration. But clean nails? Nope, it just doesn’t cut it. Clearly I need to work harder next gardening day!
‘Til next time,
Silence
“gardening” + “clean nails” = “IMPOSSIBLE”. Consider the bits of dirt behind your nails as a badge of time well spent
My feeling exactly, Krys!
Even when I wear gloves .. there are times my hands (and feet .. garden clogs slip off once in a while) get dirty ! .. It isn’t a vanity thing about the gloves though .. it is a precaution because of health issues. But I agree .. a good gardener has to be dirty and ache from the majority of their muscles ! LOL
Great post : ) hehehehe
Thanks, Joy! And yes, I’ve known several very passionate gardeners who had to wear gloves because of health issues. At least they make strong but very thin gloves now so hopefully you can feel the soil through them!
Yesterday I played pick up sticks too. I started the day with my gloves but ended it without. I have a hard time picking things up with gloves, even thin gloves. It is just so much easier without. So my nails got fairly dirty, but they washed up fine after a shower. Sadly I did break a couple of nails. So I cut them all down. Tis the season for bad looking nails.
Ha! Yes, my nails break all the time in gardening season. My only hope is that they’ll do a bit better in winter, but then it’s so dry they get brittle and break, too! Aaagghhh. At least they’re naturally long (even when the white part is short) so my fingers look balanced. I guess things could be worse!
I once showed up at a parent/teacher conference with nails full of dirt from gardening. I kept them under the table the whole time.
Ah, yes. I remember the good old days (before freelancing) when I often had to give presentations to rooms full of bigwigs with my short, garden-dirty nails. I always figured if even one of them looked askance at my hands they were going to get an earful from me! Fortunately, I guess my mouth was so big it distracted them from my appearance…
Just reading your post made me tired!
Oh, no, Victoria! Trust me, this is nothing! When I read and see photos of what various folks like Alan of Roberts’ Roost, the Shibaguyz, and, say, Daphne of Daphne’s Dandelions or Heather of Idaho Goat Farm are doing, I could die of shame. I know the same is true of our friends Nan, Delilah and Chaz, Carolyn and Gary, and Rudy, too. Not to mention reading what Jackie Clay, her partner Will, and her son David have been up to on their homestead on her Backwoods Home blog. Gack! I’m not worthy…
I agree it should really be caked in, after a good day’s gardening there is at least a few days worth of dirt under my nails. I really love with the dirt is ground into my skin so I have to scrub it off. Can’t stand gloves. I start out wearing them, but ALWAYS take them off. I lost my wedding in a pair of gardening gloves. I was frantic. DH asked if I had checked my gloves, so I did but I didn’t find them until a few days later when I was gardening with the same gloves on, and suddenly the ring was back on the finger. Naturally I bought another one in the mean time. But it was only 39 for 2. LOL!
Yikes, lzyjo!!! I ditch the rings before I head out to garden and only wear gloves—thornproof, of course—if I’m dealing with roses or brambles. (Though I do wear those disposable latex gloves when pulling poison ivy. Ugh!) I got married in my grandma’s plain 22k wedding band, and assumed it would be easy to replace until I tried to order a match for my husband! Guess 10 or 14k is about it these days!