Another return to the intrigue after an absence. Back-and-forth. I am anxious. Autumn is just around the corner. I am concerned about the speed of change.
I’m nervous going up the hill. The day starts slowly and later now. The sun’s decline is undeniable. I turn the key. Howard and Rose are also gone. The site seems almost abandoned. Overgrown with vegetation, returned to a semi-wilderness.
I can see our sunflowers from a distance from the gate. I turn the last corner and that’s it. Plot 29. An important companion in my life – though largely impervious to my absence.
We made the decision at the start of the year to mostly sow flowers. Color and relaxed beauty would be important like never before. And There you go. Completed.
It is a great plantation this season. Sunflowers in red and rust. Imposing branched verbena. Fennel with herbs sprinkled with pollen. Next year’s seed-heavy, self-sown, dark purple tree. Amaranth with Hopi red dye, its shade a dried saffron. Calendulas all over hot oranges and yellows.
But it’s the return of the majestic tagetes that takes my breath away. Colorful like royal velvet, her arms spread wide. The nasturtiums climb and spread out. Constant everywhere I have had a hand.
Colors dance in the slightly cool breeze, the early morning light of early fall.
I cut stalks of spent Sweet Peas, whisper thanks, even though there is no one around. I’ll be back tomorrow and the next day; probably the next one too – to make up for lost time.
I’ll spray the barrels of fermented comfrey that I avoided. I hope Howard will come back and join me. I will also sprinkle generously with seaweed food. There will be beans to pick, flowers to pick, seeds to keep. More memories to download.
Allan Jenkins Plot 29 (4th Estate, £ 9.99) is out now. Order it for £ 8.49 from guardbookshop.com