As ever, my workplace is full of contradictions in ways that are completely frustrating for me. I seem to end up in some drama wherever I go at the minute. It isn’t quite the same drama wherever I go and a lot of it is down to the politics of people that I am surrounded by for whatever reason. When this happens, I got into horticulture because people are often a nightmare to deal with-the past few months have continued to prove this to be the case-especially when they are using me as a scapegoat for the background issues that aren’t my fault! A few points that I have probably raised before but will say again because, if these were followed more often, then such dramas would be less frequent and dramatic.

There is one thing in gardening that is important more than most others. This is consistent work. Without it, you struggle. Whether this is weeding, hedging, mowing, watering or any other task it needs to be a constant effort to do these things. Such gardening jobs as these, and many more, are about getting out there and getting it done. Depending on the job, and time of year, it could be a yearly, monthly, weekly or daily job-just get it done. I raise this as I was on leave recently and when I got back the weeds had gone crazy, as they do. No one thought to do any of my weeding work (the fact that that’s the only thing I do at the moment apart from a tiny bit of hedging is a joke, but that’s a whole other story), even if only ten minutes each a day.

Again, planting choices are an issue here. It’s not that the plants chosen are invasive, or ugly or anything like that. The needs of the site on which I work are quite specific in some areas, which is not a problem by itself. There are various ground covers planted around the site that are required to be kept to very specific boundaries in the garden beds where they live. The trouble with ground covers is that they spread as they grow, so don’t stay within the confines of what is wanted-muggins here has to dig up the ‘excess’ every now and then-this is so wasteful and hard to do as ground covers tend to have strong root systems and, as the name suggests, grow on the ground! In this instance, I would have suggested to have no plants in this situation. General maintenance is a good thing, but making extra work is unnecessary.

Annuals are a thing where I work too. In moderation, they can be good. When the snail population is the largest I’ve ever seen along with the strong summer Australian sun and heat, the European plants chosen don’t look the best! Think English bedding display and you have it. Great in England, but the gardening of the English motherland is completely inappropriate. Thankfully, I do see things changing in some places, but not everywhere.

I have to be honest and say that the past eight months or so has lead me to question whether horticulture is the right industry for me or not-it is the people that I have had to deal with recently that have made my working life so miserable. It is not the company I work for, or the people in it, either-it is a company of good people trying to do their jobs. While with this company, I have worked with many great people and technically still do even though I don’t see them much.

On thinking this issue through, horticulture is the industry for me, just not how I’m working now. It’s hard work to know exactly what i could do because we plan on leaving Sydney within the next two years, once my son has left school. We aren’t sure where yet, so I can’t quite say what work it will be exactly, but it will be for myself in some form.