There are Three Gardeners Here

There are three gardeners here. 

Past Carol knows all the history of the garden, or most of it. Some of it she can’t really remember anymore.  She often relies on Present Carol to write stuff down as she plants or at least save the tags, but Present Carol doesn’t always do that because she thinks Past Carol will remember.

Future Carol has the ideas for the garden and is the one who comes up with the schemes and plans for what should be planted in the garden, but Future Carol doesn’t do all the work.

Present Carol does all the work! She mows, weeds, edges, plants, harvests, and wonders what Future Carol has planned for the garden. 

Present Carol knows that to avoid too much work, she should tell Future Carol to be quiet when she comes up with a new idea, or she should ask Past Carol to remind Future Carol about some of the trouble she’s caused with her ideas.

Like that time when Future Carol came up with the idea to plant a quince tree in the middle of a bed of perennials. Future Carol thought it would be interesting because not many people grow quince trees these days. It’s a bit old-fashioned. With the help of Past Carol, Future Carol remembered that her grandmother had a quince tree in her back garden, not that she could have picked it out, but she thought she knew about where it used to grow. She recalled that Grandma liked to make jams and jellies with quince because the fruit contained more pectin than other fruits.  Future Carol dreamed of making jams and jellies with her quince, too.

Then Present Carol reminded Future Carol that Past Carol had never really been one to make jams and jellies, but Future Carol thought maybe Present Carol should plant the tree anyway and maybe become someone who made jams and jellies.  Then Present Carol reminded Future Carol that other than strawberries and honeyberries and the rare pawpaw, there really wasn’t other fruit growing in the garden to put with the quince.

This debate when on for a bit. Past Carol sat silently listening and then at just the right moment sprinkled a little nostaglia dust over Present Carol to remind her again about her grandma’s tree, so Present Carol gave in and planted that quince tree.  Future Carol was so happy.

Then one day, Present Carol noticed the quince tree didn’t look too happy.  It seemed to have caught every disease that it could, and since Present Carol doesn’t like to spray to prevent that kind of thing, she had a long conversation with Past Carol and Future Carol about the situation. Finally, they decided that Present Carol would take out the quince tree because Future Carol didn’t want to have to deal with all its problems. Past Carol put a positive spin on it all and said they would just have to remember it as a fun experiment.

And on it goes. Story after story of Future Carol making grand plans, Present Carol sort of implementing those plans, and Past Carol reminding them all how it really turned out.

These three gardeners could spin quite a few more tales about this garden. Maybe someday.

But for now, Present Carol must go out and dig up some perennials for her sister. She hopes Past Carol shows up with all names and that Future Carol has a chance to look over all the gardens where Present Carol is digging to dream up new spots for new perennials.

Do you have three people working in your garden?