journal

content/journal/2024-07-06-i-am-a-gardener.md

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
++++
+title = "I am a gardener"
+description = "I am a gardener by choice, not a horticulturalist…"
+date = 2024-07-06
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["life"]
++++
+
+I had a call the other day. It was a lady, a posh one at that. (Whether she deserves the moniker, ‘lady’, is another matter entirely.) I should stress that she called and I couldn’t answer it, so I called her back. Our convo went something like this…
+
+Posh lady: “Hello.”
+
+Me: "Hello, I’m the gardener. Sorry, I missed your call." (It was a local number so I guessed she was calling about my ad in the local rag.)
+
+Posh lady: “Ah, yes. What kind of things to you do?”
+
+I felt, at this point, of saying what I always say to my wife: ‘I garden’. But I thought better of it. I decided to play along, and said:
+
+“I prune, cut lawns, trim hedges, deadhead flowers, dig…”
+
+Posh lady: “And do you know the names of plants?”
+
+Me: “Well, not all of them…”
+
+Posy lady: “Well you wouldn’t be suitable for my garden, then. Goodbye.”
+
+And, with that, she put the phone down. Well, I guess she did. Maybe she had a manservant to do that kind of thing.
+
+End of conversation. Interview over.
+
+Now, I don’t know about you but I don’t know anyone who would claim to know every plant in the world. (Many plants remain undiscovered, anyway, so how the fuck could they?) Ditto entomologists and their insects? Or scientologists and anything remotely to do with science. In just the same way, I don’t know any journalist who would claim to know every subject. Nor every designer who knows every medium. They happen to be – some of them at least – just good at what they do. 
+
+I am a production editor, a sub editor, an editor in my current role. I just happened to have worked at Garden Answers for a time in the 1990s, and I enjoyed my time there. It was my job to ensure the magazine went to press while adhering to the highest standards, both in terms of production and editorial quality. And, along the way, as it happened, I picked up some knowledge of gardening. I learned from the experts in other words.
+
+Nowadays, I am an editor, a designer, a developer (I designed and developed this site if that counts). I learned from the experts. Just I don’t know those experts. They are far away in their ivory towers in San Francisco, LA, Portland or, even, rural Wales.  
+
+But I am also a gardener, I know that much.