Watering the garden

involves much bouncing up and down and shifting of the hoses and filling of watering cans and.... 

The garden is not my garden. It is the Senior Cat's garden. He may not be able to care for it any longer but it was his pride and joy - his untidy, messy pride and joy.  

The Senior Cat is a believer in "organic" gardening. He liked to grow vegetables and fruit - things he considers "useful". He left the flowers to our mother. We kittens knew to keep well out of the way of her orchids and her African violets. Mum was the one who was given great sheaths of gladioli by the old man who lived over the back fence. The Senior Cat thought they were "nice" but could not understand why the old man wanted to have the entire back garden filled with gladioli - "a bit like a Monet painting". 

Now I am simply trying to keep the garden alive - and I have flung in some tomato plants, some parsley and coriander. The mint and rosemary don't need any help from me - apart from some water now and then.

There are the fruit trees - requiring varying amounts of water according to whether they are apple, stone or citrus. I guess I'll sort that out. There is the front lawn...that helps to keep the house cool in summer and, because of the structure of the soil all houses around here are built on, that is essential to keep the foundations from shifting or cracking. When we can't use tap water in a drought it is a matter of carting buckets of water - and I already use the rinse water from the washing.

I am no gardener. I just don't have the time. There is too much I don't know. The Senior Cat on the other hand was President of the Soil Association for some years. He also worked with a man who wrote "the book" about organic gardening. That man is long since deceased but the Senior Cat has not stopped teaching other people about how to do it - except that he didn't teach me. It was his garden, his hobby - I did not want to interfere in that.

The residence he has now "retired" to has some raised garden beds at the back.  They were full of dead plants. Nobody had done anything about them for a long time. The "maintenance man" does not believe it has anything to do with him. The Senior Cat shook his head. His paws have been itching to garden. 

And so he has put a proposal to them. He will do something about those beds. He will? Please!They would be absolutely delighted! So Middle Cat, who gardens more than I do, is getting the necessary and will help get the initial heavier work done and then the Senior Cat will grow, at the request of the person who cooks their meals, parsley and chives, rosemary and mint.

He gave me a contented purr and added, "I might even put in some lavender - will that be a flower enough for you?"

This is what makes for contented cats.