So said Mother Teresa. And she is spot on. Maybe its being older and wiser, but I wish I had lived this when I was younger. It's the privilege of the young to dream big, to have the luxury of time stretching out in front of them that they can have big, expansive ideals.
This saying first resonated with me in my gardens. I used to plan Sissinghurst style gardens in my mind. A Rose Garden leading into The White Garden and down into The Lime Walk. An avenue of Silver Birch, a pond with water lillies and surrounded by iris. A Dovecote and a Nuttery. Of course living on 870sqm in suburbia with most of the block taken up by a modern house that looks nothing like a castle, never entered my mind or dampened my desires.
Starting off with a white theme soon was diluted with a pink climbing rose that I fell in love with and having limited space meant there was only one place to plant this beauty. So the white garden became a pink, blue and white narrow garden bed along a fence line. Very limited space, and therefore dirt, facilitated the use of pots - and lots and lots of them. Potted citrus, olives, palms, a bay tree jostle for light and sun and water. Raised troughs of herbs hug the side fence, its all of 1.5m wide. They need to be raised up to stop the boy dog from lifting his leg on them and adding his own flavour.
Each visit to Bunnings, a nursery, or into the pages of gardening magazines brings an inspiration and subsequent purchase. I can't count how many bags of potting mix I have dragged back here. It would be tonnes at a guess. I have never counted the number of pots, but I there are terracotta ones, ceramic, plastic, tin and baskets.
Mr Kirsa laments and reminds me that "we will be moving soon, stop buying more pots". But this is my way of ensuring that he moves all that earth and heaven to get me to my beloved Wattle Grove, the longer he takes, the more pots he has to move!!
One day I will have my Sissinghurst, but in the meantime there are still spaces to fill and new plants to discover.
And all the while I am practising the creed ...
...to do small things with great love.
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