There is nothing we can do to stop death. We can try to stay healthy, we can seek medical help but in the end it comes to us all. With the news of my friend’s death from the cancer, just in her forties, I needed the comfort of my garden. I needed to dig in the soil, feed the plants and help them grow. I needed to walk around and see the new life bursting around me and forget about death for a while.
Slowly our garden is becoming a productive one – we currently have the remains of brocolli, kale, two different kinds of beans and tomatoes. We have a fruiting lily pily, a recovering blueberry and a mysterious, self-seeded stone fruit that is looking more like being a peach tree. We have an orange tree and two dwarf apples – pink lady and a granny smith.
The orange and apple trees have only been in the ground for two seasons. This year they are smothered in flowers. The orange tree has a multitude of small proto-oranges on the go. This was the time to add manure, blood and bone, compost and straw to mulch. The two potted dwarf apples also had a top up of potting mix. I was determined that they will live, grow and thrive.
I also rescued one of our standard roses that appears to have been sat on, possibly by one of the feral cats in the area (the possums are no longer around). It was leaning at a dangerous angle. It is now in a pot of twice the size and mulched with decorative stones.
Death has been balanced by life. This year my fruit trees are dedicated to my Sandy.
