h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've had two bouts of gardening so far today, there's another one planned for the late afternoon once the sun's off that part of the garden, and there are a few things I'll have to plant out during the week because I simply won't have the energy to finish everything today. This is what I get for buying plants in bulk yesterday and only deciding where to put them today.

In fossicking about I've found out exactly how the previous owner prepared this place for sale. I've found ivy poking itself back out from underneath the decaying mulch in the lower part of the garden. Clearly she just hacked it all back to ground level and mulched over the top. I'll have to poison that. So much for organic gardening, in the short term at least.

I also dug out a bit of some unexpected root system; the roots went for quite a distance. I lost patience with digging it out and just pulled on one root until it whiplashed out of the ground. As a result I fell backwards into a heap of earth and showered myself with dirt. To add insult to injury, a cockatoo came and jeered at me while I was sprawled there.

It's a strange form of relaxation I've adopted, gardening. But I did have an interesting time getting dirt out of my eyes, nose, ears and various other improbable places.

Ivan.

Pah, that kind of dirt...

False advertising is everywhere.

I have no garden, just a balcony I can't get to unless I wrestle out the insect screen and step through the window . It does however have a nice table and chairs and a fake plant of some sort

- classic slapstick!

I particularly like the bit about the Cockatoo

Deb

Me too, those cockatoos are so damn judgemental

*wonders how many hits this journal gets today*

My favorite bit was about the cockatoo, too. Stuff like that adds just the right amount of insult to injury.

I don't have access to a yard to plant a garden in, and we don't have a balcony, either. Someday soon I hope to have one or the other.

Of course it helps that the sulphur-crested cockatoo is probably the most sardonic of all the parrots. They don't just look at people, they judge them. It's uncanny.

Gardening, strange relaxation? Surely not?

I've just spent all of today out in mine: potting on, planting out, filling containers with compost and manure, watering, mowing ... and then sitting with a large glass of lemon squash to admire my labours.

It's the best relaxation I know

I'm glad you're one of us, Ivan

Fb

Fb, you know what you're doing in the garden. By contrast I'm just blundering about and getting mocked by wildfowl. But maybe one day I'll achieve some degree of competence. One day...

Ivan, do you think those are the same cockatoos who used to mock you at your old house?

Oh, definitely. Both houses are in their territory.

At least they are consistant