I was frustrated yesterday at how slowly everything moves when it depends on nature, whether human nature or . . . nature. Trees and bushes grow slowly, humans work slowly, at least sometimes. That’s their nature. About the only things that move fast when it comes to a garden or landscaping are weeds.
Generally I don’t mind that the contractor has me at the bottom of his list of priorities. So much of his work is seasonal or comes from county contracts, so I understand those things have to come first. I also understand that workers come and go. When he has a lot of workers, he takes on extra jobs to keep them all busy, and then when his guys take off in the middle of a job, he’s left playing catch-up. I’m also mostly okay with their sporadic work because that way I can keep up with my part of the landscaping, working small areas at a time.
Besides, my yard was never supposed to be a quick project. I’ve always known it would be a life-long endeavor to find plants that will grow under my care and to wait for flowers to spread and bushes, shrubs, and trees to fill out and grow to a pleasing height.
Despite knowing all that, sometimes I find it hard to accept the human nature part of this endeavor. I suppose, of course, I could find someone else to do the work, or rather a lot of “someone else”s. These people do it all, whether home repair, concrete work, building, plumbing, landscaping, whatever. And if I have an emergency, they come immediately, which is important since I’m a first-time homeowner with not a clue how to do anything or even how to find someone to get things done. Still, I get frustrated.
But that was yesterday.
Today I’m back to being patient and waiting for things to work out in their own time, though I do reserve the right to nag when necessary.
I think it also helps that the people I bought the greengage plum trees from were helpful. As it turns out, one tree is doing great. One is mostly dead except for a bit of growth just above the graft site. One is alive but barely. They gave me credit for the dead tree and told me how to deal with the still dormant tree. Mostly it reminded me of the importance of patience when it comes to the nature of nature, because the truth is, when something does finally work out, like the lilac bush pictured below, it’s worth it.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator
Bertram's Blog 
May 6, 2021 at 8:26 pm
It seems to me the nature of nature, and our relationship to it, is complicated. Astronomically, it’s mind-bogglingly huge and counterintuitive. Quantum-mechanically, it’s mind-bogglingly small and counterintuitive. Biologically, it’s mind-bogglingly diverse and counterintuitive.
To get around (or accept) the counterintuitive bit, we develop models of what nature is. The models could be formal, scientific models, such as the standard models of physics – they help make sense of things. They could also be highly personal models (apples always blossom in May, workers do/don’t show up) – they also help make sense of things.
The thing about models is they’re models – a gross simplification of what actually is. None truly represents reality. All are therefore wrong. Some, however, are useful.
I wonder if the lilac bush I neglected last year has a model of me?
May 7, 2021 at 9:23 pm
That’s an interesting concept, that plants might be aware of us, at least as a ‘model’ or a disturbance of energy.
Now that I thing about it, is seems as if that’s what our brains do — develop models of “nature” that allows us to interact with what, after all, is energy or perhaps just the idea of energy.
May 7, 2021 at 3:40 am
Your young Greengage plum tree was beautiful. I like the color combination young green leaves and white flowers. I hope you will get sweet plumps.
By nature plants helps humans to survive and prosper. In return human has the tendency to kill all the plants with global warming and chemicals.
May 7, 2021 at 9:18 pm
Thank you
December 15, 2022 at 12:50 pm
Thanks forr posting this