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Did you know that (with the advent of modern x-ray technology) several famous paintings have been discovered hidden underneath other famous paintings?
These works, deemed ‘not good enough’ by the artists, were obscured for decades by layers of paint and only unearthed when people decided to look a little deeper than the superficial top coat. I dunno if the artists themselves would be very pleased that the less-than-perfect pieces they’d happily painted right over have found their way back out into the public eye, but it was the sort of discovery that made art historians everywhere giddy.
To me, these sorts of discoveries make one thing blatantly obvious: it is ok, it is normal, it is quite possibly even a Very Good Thing to allow yourself to begin and begin again. Scrap a project, call it quits, tear it all apart and create something new from the wreckage.
I think about this every time autumn rolls around.
Autumn makes me a little bit crazy. I’m not sure if it’s the cooler days, the building static in the air from thunderstorms rolling in over the ocean or just the frustration of watching the garden get ever more wild and unkempt over the summer, but every time autumn arrives I get reckless in the garden.
Trees are hacked back to within a limb of their life, pavers are pulled up, new paths are laid, garden beds are reimagined and - for better or worse - I dig up and shift basically every plant I own. It is the most exciting time to be a gardener and it is also the time when we can have the greatest impact in our gardens.
The great shame is that people often start winding things down in their gardens once autumn arrives. Believing, mistakenly, that their garden is about to enter a static period of inactivity. And yes, sure, things grow more slowly over the cooler months; lawn growth stalls out, seeds can refuse to germinate, but the truth is, if you want the most beautiful, flower-filled and productive spring garden possible, autumn is when you need to put in the hard work.
Now is when we need to sow our spring bulbs - some of mine are already shooting. The best and easiest varieties to go for are things like freesias, narcissus, ixias and sparaxis (you can read about my favourite spring bulbs here and here). Now is also the time to sow spring annuals like sweet peas, queen anne’s lace and cornflowers (you can also sow these in spring, but if you sow them in autumn they will tend to grow bigger and produce better, earlier blooms). And oh my gosh if you have even the merest whiff of an urge to add a tree to your garden this winter you absolutely MUST (here’s why).
But I’m getting excited and distracted. The topic for today is: undoing.
It’s easy to get attached to the way our gardens are. To the positions of our paths, our plants, our seating areas. To let several years slide by without taking real stock of the garden, without asking yourself if it’s still doing its job (looking beautiful, being productive, bringing you moments of blissful happiness). I think these questions are important to ask ourselves every autumn. Because autumn is the perfect time to tweak anything that doesn’t feel quite right.
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