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Gardening Tip: Use Bribery & Flattery — Still Not There Yet pg185
Colorful companion to my memoir The Incompetent Psychic
1994
Nine months into sobriety I was on the step about saying I’m sorry to actual people instead of just stewing about it. An apology is only effective when each ugly, behavioral lump of gunk is dragged out into the sun and tossed on a fire with a witness while praying, so there were some profound life changes going on. — From Chapter 10
I don’t feel like writing about early sobriety, so let’s talk about gardening instead, shall we?
My mother was taught how to grow food by her Norwegian father, how to can it by her Scottish mother, and passed on the basics to me. Tending to the needs of people isn’t one of my more notable life skills, but caring for plants and dogs is. Even during the dark times I was pruning roses and turning compost, but I’m no master.
My best attention deficit gardening tip: When planning a garden, set up the sprinkler first and run it for a while. Then plant only in the wet spot so you don’t have to move it again. But I was willing to haul hoses around for roses. There were nineteen bushes of fragrant hybrid teas in my Benicia yard — most of them ordered from Jackson Perkins.
