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Time in the Garden Doesn't Count as Time

© Carol Wallace

Time in the garden doesn't count.

I know, there area all kinds of sayings that link time and gardening. Like "Time began in a garden" But I don't think that's true at all. Time began AFTER that garden. While Adam and Eve still lived in Eden there was no time, no such thing as being late or meeting deadlines - best of all, no getting old and crotchety.

So time began after and out of the garden - not in it at all.

I can easily believe this, because time doesn't seem to exist even in such an earthbound garden like my own.

You must understand - I was raised to be prompt. More than prompt - I as raised to get places early. Get there early enough and you don't have to stand in a long line, can always get a good seat, etc. This usually proved to be true, so I became one of those drearily early people early in life.

My mom's next door neighbor disagreed. She believed in being late. She told us it was so we could make a grand entrance, but I understand better now that I'm all grown up. She was a gardener.

In gardening season it is very difficult to get places on time. I can start down the front walk, all dressed up, shoes polished, every hair in place, the manicure fresh - but wait! There is a tuft of weedy oxalis clearly staring me in the face - and it must be removed. I have sworn that I shall never leave even the tiniest oxalis to grow if I see it, since to do so is to be overrun with the stuff. So I set down my purse, stick those polished shoes firmly in the soil, kneel down on a thistle, running my nylons and attack the little devil with resolution.

Now that only took a second - and since I am early, that should leave plenty of time for me to go in and clean my fingernails, wipe off the shoes and change my stockings. But guess what? As soon as the oxalis is uprooted I spot another - and then the start of a bit of bindweed, and a dandelion or three.

You know how it is. You just can't stop.

So in gardening season I inevitable end up opting for the late entrance - only in my somewhat bedraggled state it is scarcely a grand one.

oxalis

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