The Oval Garden
The garden that became a pond. Microcosm of some local effects of an East Coast Low with drainage channels. The idea to make an oval garden came from my fascination with those ‘Lady and the Unicorn’ tapestries. However this aspirational little patch struggles to attain the aesthetic resonance of tapestryhood! Our first spade work revealed buried brick pylons from a demountable, removed when the school was decommissioned. During the summer of 2019 bushfires, we filled the remaining oval shaped hole with piles of tinder dry oak and elm leaves. (Note to self:rake leaves in the brisk chill of winter not the glaring heat of high summer). The leaves composted down and it seemed that at least a ‘sketch’ of an oval garden could be embarked upon. In those months of drought a slightly sunken garden seemed OK… especially as the site had a bit of a slope. My excitement about transplanting herbs before adding gypsum to the heavy clay soil meant that with La Ninia rains, the sage came to grief. Nonetheless the tapestry vision persists, so the oval garden must prevail. When the rain stops I will add fat sand, gypsum and compost, expand and refine the oval and be ready for early spring planting. Sowing and sewing, a continuing conversation.
© Toni Warburton 2022
