I want to tell you about one of my first and favourite customers - HB.
He passed away last Saturday.
In the short time that I knew him - I came to love him. He was unhurried. He was unstoppable. He was my friend.
He taught me the unforced art of pottering - I caught it through osmosis!! HB & I spent time pottering. He did it brilliantly (years of practice) and I apprenticed myself to him - without knowing it I was learning how to Potter.
We must make time to potter. To slow down and smell the roses.....
Definition Pottering (Cambridge Dictionary) :
To move around without hurrying, and in a relaxed and pleasant way
Isn't that wonderful!
Pottering is an essentual skill. It includes wandering about the garden with no fixed agenda. Deadheading here. Or teasing the soil there. Or lining up tools. Basically doing a whole lot of nothing. Pottering allows time and space. It is where the best ideas come from. While pottering - we adjust, order (in our minds), rest (throw brain into neutral), think (gently find first gear), ponder (maybe engage first gear, maybe not) , disengage ( & switch off the engine for while). We allow ourselves time apart to go nowhere and do nothing of any consequence. Not outwardly productive but inwardly regenerative.... Good for the mind and soul!
With HB - Cups of tea - took on a whole new light. They offered time to take it in - he didn't hurry me on looking at the clock - and I loved him for that. But Pottering is not laziness. There was time for hard work - and I worked harder for HB than any of my customers - building up my stamina and a fine sweat in the process!
So - the humble cup of tea and the bench - they are the cornerstone of a good potterer - along with rich tea biscuits (or chocolate - I'm not fussy!). I would sit with him and quietly spend some of the best moments of my life. Nothing unusual. Just allowing me time and space to sit. He had time - and he shared it with me and it meant the world to me.
I was honoured to know HB - I spent my first season and his last season together in his beloved garden. He taught me a few things in his unhurried way. Like how to enjoy a tomato - with a little salt of course. Or how to use his mattock to dig over ground - a revelation to his young follower. We would joke about how I would inherit it - how ironic!
He showed me how to use a fork properly. To get out every trace of bramble roots. Simple skills - but skills he patiently showed a young upstart nobody, wanabe gardener. He didn't expect the earth from me and he was willing to teach me - and I loved him for it.
His energy and enthusiasm for the tasks I had been given rivaled mine at times. He had get up and go. He did helpfully slow my pace - as I kept him out and about.
If we want to go on long in life (HB Had!) we must keep at it. Keep doing. And dreaming and making. HB Did. We must have a go. Turn our hand to the impossible job (H.B. Built his own conservatory - along with many other structural projects). He was building a little wall - when he barely had the strength to lift the stones. What an example for me. Or anyone.
Cups of tea. Bags of sweet tomatos. His amazing blueberry collection. They are wonderful momentos of his generous nature.
In honour of our friendship and his support for me and my gardening venture - I hauled a bench into his garden towards the end of Autumn. The one in the above picture. I would have liked to sit and share the bench with him. To enjoy his enjoyment of it - but it was not to be. I know he was chuffed with it. But I definatedly wanted more time with him.
So this coming season - I will be building the wall he started. And drinking the tea and taking time to Potter and to be with him - in his beloved garden. You always had more work for me to do in your garden........how you managed that I will not know!!
You are bloody missed!!!
Thank you.
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Kingdom Plants - is a small gardening and plant propagation enterprise. This coming season looks to be building up to a busy one. Thank you to my loyal customers, and I look forward to working in your gardens - to slowly change and transform them. Without you and your support I would not have been able to get to my second year.
Thankyou. And happy gardening.
Sage. X
