Obsessive and Compulsive
August 27th, 2007 by Kristin Green
Weekends seem so narrow to me that, although I truly love my job (and feel my luck for loving it), I still get slightly whiney Sunday evenings about having to get up the next day (already? so soon?!) and go back to work. What can cut my blues off at the knees though is thinking ahead to how I get to spend my Monday mornings. My friends rib me a little about having slight O.C.D. but I say, yeah-who doesn’t? Good news is, I don’t have to do things like spin around 4 times before leaving the house or wash the skin off my hands. But easing into the work week is easier when I get to do one of my very favorite mindless and obsessive tasks first thing. 
While Monday volunteer, Diane deadheads and de-beetles the Rose Garden, I compulsively de-leaf blackspotty roses and rake up the debris. I don’t know why I have to do it. Operative words here are “have to”. It’s true that removing diseased foliage from the plant (I knock off loose leaves by shaking and wacking the plants) and raking up around the base of the plant is supposed to keep the roses healthier. (Black spot spreads by a rainsplash release of spores). 
Whether it really slows the fungal spread or not – and it should – the garden just looks better to me when it’s done. 
So I guess that’s why I have to do it — it’s for my own personal gratification on a Monday morning (the house is closed Mondays and Tuesdays and there are fewer visitors on the grounds so it really is for mostly me!) I’m not alone in having a favorite obsessive garden chore am I? Care to confess a compulsion? What do you “have to” do in your garden?
August 27th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Interesting question. I don’t know that I have any compulsions in the garden, other than when I got outside, even to water, I like to clip on my holster with Felco pruners, just in case. Then sometimes after I’ve been back in the house for awhile, I realize I still have the pruners clipped to my front pocket. I think most of my jeans have a worn spot on the right pocket where the holster clips on.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
August 28th, 2007 at 7:22 am
That is an interesting question. I have to admit to less than obsessive behavior on almost everything(must check this out with loved ones) but whenever I am showing the garden to anyone I always have to stop and pull out a weed or two. They just seem to pop out when I am showing the garden and I cannot walk by them. As you know, the gardener sees the weeds first and the plantings second.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Ah, confession time – well, my thing is to wander around the garden deadheading early every evening. It is a compulsion I freely admit to. It usually leads to my next compulsion, which is to remove all dead leaves (of which there are, sadly, many at this time of year) that have fallen to the ground during the day. By the time I’ve completed both, I go and sit for a spell. Mission accomplished … oh and then there’s my nightly thing of going to chat with the pond fish right before bed. I need to wish them a good sleep too.
I’m sure there are others that I haven’t really noticed …
August 29th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Carol, Having Felcos handy just makes good sense! (I think of them as a fashion accessory)
and Layanee, I’ll bet we ALL do that! I always try to be sort of sneaky about it though and point out something in the tree tops while I bend, tug and fill up pant pockets.
Thank you Kate for ‘fessing up! What you are compelled to do sounds like a lovely daily ritual (rather than a pesky compulsion) – a perfect cap on the day!