John stepped in to help me with the gardens a few weekends ago here at Struan Farm, ahead of the Waitara Garden Circle visit. The weather has been such that I was way behind where I needed to be. He's continued to help me with the next round of the gardens up top, finishing the recycled brick edges and weeding those new beds at the same time.
In my experience there are pluses and minuses to receiving assistance. Advice can be offered and instructions given, even when you might not particularly want or need it. I was advised that there was a "proper Robertson way to weed," a methodology I clearly had not adopted despite my professional weeding status, filling trailer loads annually. According to John my assistant, a trowel must be used to dig up the soil. I use a Japanese gardening tool called a Niwashi, without which I would be completely lost. I do dig up the soil with it when I weed, but apparently my technique is different to that of my assistant.
This debate prompted a somewhat tongue-in-cheek family survey. For privacy reasons I am not at liberty to report who said what, but I will say that all of the women contacted said they used Niwashis primarily. One man said he used a fork and also his hands. So it seems in practice there isn't a "proper Robertson way to weed." A bluff had been called.
The moral of the story is to do whatever works for you, and only ask for help when you really, really need it. I do both!
Comments