Sometimes, I wish I could always record life in terms of coinciding botanical events. "It was redbud season when I got that new job," for example; or "Our friends came to visit when the plums were ripe." I DO recall things this way. Redbuds will later remind me of starting that job, and I will have been glad we could share our plums. And I have always admired gardeners who were assiduous record-keepers ("On April 23rd the first of the lilacs opened, and the last Kauffman tulip opened, but last year they opened on the 18th."). I am not that assiduous. Nor am I that concerned.
You see, I am a big-picture kind of person. I have always seen my life and my gardens as being much more a part of a larger whole. Dates, then, are a part of a continuum that I can either recognize, or not. This water lily, for example. It is the second one to bloom, on the second plant. I had my eye on the first, and yes, it bloomed a week ago Tuesday (and that Tuesday was the first day I saw my first lightning bug (firefly)). But this date has only (up to now, anyway) been noted in my mind, not in a book. Would I be a better gardener if I had this charted somewhere? I am not sure.
I just go with the flow.
I try to keep records, but they are not the best, and mostly seem to be about weather and what I did in the garden. I record the first blooms in early spring, but then as things take off, I forget to write down later bloom times! Oh, but I always record the date I harvest my first tomato!
ReplyDeleteThe cool thing about going with the flow is that you're likely to develop your own calendar with primitive ritualistic celebrations and incantations. I hope you will be holding an annual party on Lily Pad Day. Which may or may not occur in the third week of June. Whatever "June" is.
ReplyDeleteI started this garden of mine this year (our first) with the grand aspirations of keeping records of everything. Got a book even. Never recorded the first thing. Yet. So far.
ReplyDeleteMaybe next year.
Yeah, Carol, I hear you about slacking off. Mostly, I make end-of-harvest notes about things, like, don't waste your time next year on those beans because they're awful.
ReplyDeleteCC, I do all types of strange ritualistic dances around here. Don't you know clothing is optional in the country?
Jules, it takes a couple of years before you get enough knowledge to write about anything, IMHO. So maybe next year. Or the year after that.