Cleaning Up The Garden

Pope Gregory XIII must have lived in Durban at some point when he invented the modern day calendar and assigned only 28 days to February. In Durban its the hottest, most humid month and thankfully there are only 28 days to get through! Unfortunately, for obvious reasons its also the busiest time of the year for us gardeners - the combination of the heat and rain means that you can almost literally watch the plants grow. Its also the time of the year when I appreciate how important good garden maintenance is to the success of any landscape project.

Sometimes a little wildness is good - a garden we did about 12 years ago reflecting off the pool

Its quite demoralizing coming back to a garden years later to find that the basic garden care hasn't been done and even in some cases finding that weeds have totally usurped the planting. Often, branches have grown out further than they should have, and the grass below has died. Regular composting has been neglected. The real value of the garden has all but been lost.

Garden Care has been on my mind a lot lately because we are in the process of turning over a new leaf in our business (please excuse the lame but apt pun).
For years, my focus has been on the landscaping aspect of our business. Creating gardens has always been my real passion and unfortunately, like a garden that's been left untended, the Garden Care aspect of the business hasn't had the attention it deserves.

For the last few months, I've been trying to revitalize the Garden Care component of our business. Like a real garden though, its been a difficult process. There have been some things we have had to prune right back, and still other areas we've had to replant entirely. I've been confronted with my limitations and insecurities - all good but painful realisations.

I have finally appointed a Manager to oversee all the maintenance functions of the business - someone who has all the skills and abilities I don't. Who'd have thought cleaning up, and letting go of the things you don't do well would be such a hard thing to do? Or maybe I'm just dense...

Its amazing though, how much better you feel when you clean things up. I'm looking forward to being more focused on the things I do well, and letting go of the things I don't. It's time to wear less hats around here. Talking of which, I better put my hat on and get back into the heat...