For me, being “busy” when folks ask me how I am, is no longer the badge of honour that I am seeking. These days being “good busy” sits much better with me.
What does Good Busy mean?
I used to proudly say when asked how I was…”I am so busy” and despite looking at my exhausted face staring back at me in the mirror, that gave me such a sense of pride, letting people know that I was not idle for a single minute, “flat out like a lizard drinking” I used to say or “busier than a one armed fiddler” was another favourite of mine. I think maybe it was a throwback from my corporate life in the nineties and noughties. It was just how it was.
This year, I have chosen a curved garden pathway rather than a straight one, and am navigating my way towards “good busy”. Now, that doesn’t mean I am idle, quite the contrary. It means I am being purposeful with my time and not rushing around and am more consciously taking in the precious moments, especially in my garden.
Work started early in my Spring garden. I took time to consider what my vision was. I sat and read for a while. I studied old photos of my garden and what has worked well in previous years and what has not. I learned from other gardeners, through my work for The Sunday Times. Some days, I just stood in my garden and looked at it, let my mind wander and considered all of the possibilities.
Here are the 7 things I did in August to prepare the garden ahead of Spring/Summer this year.
- Buying better equipment made my rose pruning easier. I invested in Stihl battery powered pruners. I still used other hand pruners for small snips but was able to dispense with the little hand saw and the long handled loppers that always bruised my belly where I inevitably whacked myself using them trying to cut a branch that was too thick to get through.
- Investing in the soil, I added Mature Compost to my entire garden and then added Seasol Plant and Soil Booster which is much like Rooster Booster and very stinky, but by golly it really does improve the soil.
- I made plant choices that matter. Once the garden was pruned and clean and tidy I really thought about the habitat I wanted to encourage into my Spring/Summer garden. So I consciously added lots more blue flowering plants because the little birds are attracted to blue and I want to make them feel super welcome. I added Delphinums and a variety of blue Salvias. I have added WA natives and especially Anigozanthos in containers and garden beds for height and bird attracting qualities.
- Adopting a more chaotic style – I am less worried about planting in rows. I have planted multiples of tube stock (I never plant just one plant) and smaller cottage perennial plants closer together to create a more natural style. This has the added benefit of helping to hold up plants that are taller-they have friends to lean on. I have veggies in garden beds and containers, not in straight lines anymore. I am not in the business of food production, I have a garden where I grow a few things that we eat.
- I have added a wetting agent and mulched the garden thickly in anticipation of a long hot Summer.
- Purchasing a little electric mower so I can mow my small patch of lawn whenever I want to and as often as I like. I don’t have to wait for the day that my mowing man arrives a very three weeks. I find mowing the lawn very therapeutic, up and down, nice straight lines, Good Busy.
- I have reduced the lawn space in our back garden and installed a corten steel circle filled with crushed gravel fines and a fire bowl and placed comfortable chairs to sit, a purposeful space within the space.
It all took time, and that’s OK by me. I did not do any of these things in a day or a week. Accepting that the garden is perfectly imperfect is good with me too.
On reflection, achieving everything in a “busy” day is actually less satisfying than the slow enjoyment of the tasks and taking note of the tiny changes that happen in the garden each week. Those are the things that matter. That’s being Good Busy.
The birds have thanked me for my efforts by keeping control of the aphids, mozzies and other bugs. I haven’t sprayed for years but gee, they have done a great job this year and the blooms are spectacular.
In our garden we have Willy Wagtails, Kookaburras, Yellow Rumped Thornbills, Brown Honeyeaters, Weebills, Carnabys and Red Tailed Cockatoos, White-cheeked Honeyeaters, Rainbow Lorikeets, Laughing Turtle-Doves and Wattlebirds to name just some of our daily visitors. I am not ashamed to admit that watching their antics is part of my “good busy” routine.
So, next time you ask me how I am…don’t be surprised when I tell you…I am great, I am “good busy” and now it’s time for me to sit back and contemplate the next task.
