As a self employed gardener, you quickly learn to avoid two types of client. Firstly, those who evidently believe that paying for your services is discretionary. (Squeeze payment out of them by all reasonable means, then ditch the buggers – there are plenty of lovely people to work for, and no-one needs that kind of entitled malarkey.) And secondly, those who never offer you tea.
The cup of tea is critical to the relationship between gardener and garden owner. Not only does the arrival of the hot beverage demonstrate that the employer is capable of behaving with a degree of both decency and consideration towards the soily artisan, but it marks a key moment in the ongoing development of the garden – a pause in the proceedings, a space for conversations to happen and ideas to be communicated, discussed, built upon. If you’re not making tea for your gardener, then – firstly, shame on you, but more to the point – you’re probably not getting the garden you could have. Through no fault of the gardener.
Except, you can’t make tea for your gardener just now. Well you can but, like as not, you’ll be met with a polite refusal. Because it’s hard to socially distance when you’re passing refreshments about willy nilly. As things stand, we each have to work out exactly what form this separation takes – I have a few clients in isolation just now, but the gardening goes on, and I can wave at them from the other side of the window or hold loud and cheery conversation from several metres away.
I’ll let you into a secret. I always carry hot water in a flask, loose leaf tea and plant milk when I’m working. I can rustle up a pretty damn good cup of tea at a moment’s notice, one that satisfies both my thirst and my frankly over-demanding standards for the perfect brew. It won’t, however, be any kind of substitute for the kind of good chat that builds relationships and makes gardens great.
By necessity, I’m a tea refuser for now. But there’s more at stake than just a cuppa.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, blogger, podcaster, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking the image above.
