Lessons from my garden

It started with having enough of an overgrown piece of garden at the back of our house. Something that I never understood when I was growing up, was the absolute obsession that my parents had with working in their garden. I couldn’t imagine anything more boring. 

But, the overgrown weeds in this area were embarrassing. The best, and only way to tackle something like that, is to just start. Just to be clear, and if paragraph one is anything to go by, gardening had up until that point never been a big priority in my life.

When I started, it was incredibly daunting, and a bit overwhelming. But, I started by pulling out the easier weeds and killing the colony of snails that had found a false sense of refuge in this weed infested wonderland.

As I got to the bigger weed bushes, it got more difficult, and I needed to tap into Mark’s toolbox. The bushes and roots were a lot thicker and surprisingly more difficult to extract. All of this time in the garden and hacking away at bushes, gives you a lot of time to think and to philosophise. As I was hacking away, I realised that the weeds symbolise issues. Firstly, we need to recognise that we need to deal with things. Too often, we try and bury things away and hope that they just go away. I think that by doing that it creates a wonderful environment for these weeds (issues) to fester and thrive. The longer we take to deal with them, the more time they will have to establish themselves and the more difficult it gets to eliminate them. The sooner you deal with an issue the better (although, much easier said than done!). 

It also does not help to only cut away the leaves and branches. You need to find the root and extract the whole weed. Otherwise, it will just grow back, often, even bigger and stronger. There is something incredibly satisfying about pulling out a weed, root and all. But on the flip side, very frustrating when it breaks off between the root and stems and come hell or high water, no matter how deep you dig, the roots just will not budge! You then refocus on another area for a bit, and the next time you tackle this stubborn root it pulls out with hardly any effort. 

Getting rid of these weeds and bushes was hard work! But, every day I could feel that I was getting marginally fitter and stronger. And, even more confident at using the tools at my disposal; which made tackling the roots considerably easier. If I had gone in for the massive bushes first without first dealing with the smaller weeds, I think that I would have caused a lot more physical damage (doing any type of exercise when you are not fit is a major risk and may put you out of the game for much longer, cause frustration so much so that you don’t want to even look at the garden (exercise or issue) again. Part of my daily morning routine now incorporates 30 minutes of garden work. There is still a lot of work, and yes, I have now successfully built a massive sandpit in the backyard, but there is something incredibly cathartic to start your day with your fingers and feet in the soil.  

It’s all good and well to clear things away, but, maintenance is just as important, because chancer-weeds (issues) will find a way to sprout again

As I was looking at the sandpit that I had created, I absentmindedly tugged at a piece of ivy that had taken over a tree in the garden. This act caused a full-blown obsession of getting rid of the ivy in the tree for the next couple of weeks.

If you had thought that the weeds were a big project, then ‘Project Ivy’ was next level / higher grade, a word sum puzzle! With this exercise I had to get over my fear of climbing trees and was faced with two snakes. But my obsession with the ivy was so intense that I barely noticed the height!  The snakes in itself was another key lesson for me. One Saturday morning, just as I was about to climb into the tree and put my hand into the fork of the tree, I was greeted by the first snake. I immediately went inside took a few very deep breathes and thought very hard and carefully whether is was actually a good gardening day, and that perhaps staying indoors was ok. (Isn't it crazy how quickly we can come up with excuses not to do things when we are faced with challenges!?). With nerves calmed, I roped in Mark’s help. Snake was still in the tree, and Mark very easily helped to rehome it. The whole relocation took less than three minutes. I know that I would have been incredibly disappointed with myself if I didn’t tackle the snake and ivy. Sometimes the issues we think are way too big to tackle, aren’t issues at all. When I encountered the second snake two weeks later, it was much less of a palaver and I actually worked around the snake for a while before calling Mark for his relocation skills.

Navigating through the tree and wrestling with the stubborn pieces of ivy did make my arms look like I was attacked by a tiger. But it was oh so worth it! If you thought that pulling out a weed by its roots was satisfying, wait until you hack off a massive piece of ivy!

Getting rid of the last piece of ivy (Mark helped with the last two niggly pieces that had grown into the bark of the tree), was incredibly liberating! It felt like I could breath for the first time in ages. And, it was wonderful to see all the sun shining through!

A gardener’s work is never done. The next mission was to now get rid of the dead ivy branches. Called on the local man with a bakkie and trailer, Felix. Two trailer loads full of ivy later, I could start seeing that the bottom part of the garden actually had a shape to it, and may once have been a rock garden!

Project excavation started…I was very worried that this may have been a burial ground for the previous owner’s pets. Fortunately, no remains in sight! I did however find the most magical things; like these beautiful pieces of an old plate, obviously once used for decoration:

A mass amounts of oyster shells. But my favourite was that every now and again the earth spat up a beautiful round pebble:

The other day, my garden gifted me silver ring! [Mark has called it my ‘gardering] 

I also made a new friend… When possible I also work in a 30 minutes garden session at the end of each day to unwind. Every afternoon, the neighbour’s beautiful little canine ‘Jasmine’ peers through the fence squeaks a ‘hello’, we to and fro a few squeaks and then she’s off until the next afternoon.

I must admit that I am very glad that I started taking photos throughout the process. It’s a good reminder of how much has already been done. Because some days it does feel that I’ve not done anything, but with all things, it is so good to just take a minute and reflect and appreciate how far one has come.

The lessons my garden has taught me:

• Start, even a small start is a start
• Make time to deal with your garden (issues)
• Small daily wins, lead to massive excavations
• It’s your choice how you would like to deal with challenges
• Make sure that you have the right equipment
• It’s ok to ask for help
• Stop worrying about things that you have no control over; once you do, you may just find magical experiences! 
• Treasures await the deeper you dig
• Your work is never done, maintenance is just as important
• Take time to reflect, enjoy and celebrate all your hard work!

Media release: Don’t get conned by collaborations

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." ~ Helen Keller

The word “collaboration” has been used almost as much as your favourite pair of tracksuit pants that saw you through the lockdown. The right collaborations, like your trusty track pants, can give you that warm and fuzzy feeling and be quite comforting to know that someone is supporting you and is interested in your business endeavours. With time, these relationships will be faced with challenges, testing hurdles and clashes of values; all of which can wear these partnerships very thin. How do you know when these relationships are so threadbare it is time to part ways and move ahead in other directions?

Why are collaborations so important and how do you select the right strategic alliances, partners, collaborators, sub-contractors for your business?

These alliances can make or break your business, helping you gain access to different markets but, they also play a significant role when it comes to your business’ reputation. If these businesses, and more often than not, their leadership, do something dodgy, then purely by association, you are implicated in their dubious actions too and your reputation will be tarnished.

“Strategic Alliances is one of the ten elements that is measured as a part of our proprietary reputation model, the Repudometer® that we’ve developed to quantify your reputation,” shares Regine le Roux, managing director of Reputation Matters.

Robert Mulder, director and founder of StratNovation, strategic management consultants, has an extensive network of specialist consultants that he has worked with since the inception of his business 25 years ago. “I have two non-negotiable values that I follow when it comes to strategic partnerships. Trust and respect. You must stay true to your values, your brand and yourself when deciding who to do business with,’ shares Mulder.

“It can’t just be a one-way street, all parties need to trust and respect each other throughout all interaction especially those with clients, it must be reciprocal,’ adds Mulder.

“As a leader, you need to take tight control over the project that you are collaborating on. You need to do your due diligence before engaging with someone and be very wary of sweet talkers; do not let their silver tongues con you. I learnt a very dear lesson some years ago when I lost R600 000, a considerable amount of revenue, because of a sweet-talking scammer.  

How can this be avoided and what are the lessons?

·         Stay true to your values and align with people that share and demonstrate the same values.

·         Open and honest channels of communication are key.

·         Respect and safeguard each other’s intellectual property.

·         Have a process in place when selecting who you want to do business with and stick to it! As part of this process, check all the parties’ competencies. Conducting “values and ethics” due diligence is important.

·         As the leader you need to steer any joint client project, have checks and balances in place throughout to make sure that it is on track and on par with your level of service as well as that which is expected by the client.

·         Have clear deliverables and milestones in place against a payment plan so that you don’t get to the end of a project and questions about invoicing and billing only raised then.

George Washington said, “Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company.”

For more information on Reputation Matters visit www.reputationmatters.co.za or research@reputationmatters.co.za.

For more information on StratNovation visit www.stratnovation.co.za or info@stratnovation.co.za

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Book: The Smell of Apples, Mark Behr

Initially when I started reading this book, I thought it was a similar ‘vibe’ to ‘Spud’. But the first publication was in 1993, much earlier than the first Spud book. The reason I thought this, was because the story is narrated from the viewpoint of a twelve year old boy.

Initially, during the first half of the book I thought it’s ‘meh’, it’s ok, and perhaps unnecessary how zoomed into his own genitalia he was. I also found it a bit curious that the book had won several awards. But, it does all tie together rather disturbingly at the end.

Positives, what I did like, the majority of the book plays off in Cape Town, specifically Kalk Bay, St James and Simon’s Town area. Love being able and visualise areas that an author describes in his books, that I know and am familiar with.

Whether I would recommend it, I’m not too sure that I would. The way in which it is written makes it easy to read. It’s a sad, poignant view of the 60’s / 70’s through the eyes of a white twelve year old boy growing up in South Africa at that time, interspersed with his experience in the Angola war.

3/5

Book: Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

Don’t you just love being absorbed by a book? It does however pose quite the conundrum, on the one hand you want to finish it as quickly as possible but at the same time you want to savour the beautiful writing. This tug of war gets even worse as you near the end of the book!

"Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.  Slow-moving creeks wander, carrying the orb of the sun with them to the sea, and long-legged birds lift with unexpected grace – as though not built to fly – against the roar of a thousand snow geese..."

The book had me at this beautifully descriptive opening paragraph. I absolutely enjoy Delia Owens' writing and the way she depicts things.  For example, how delightful is this?:

“Mad as a mule eating bumble bees”

One of my others, which did make me giggle:

“Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”

This one too…

“Murky shafts of light streamed through the tiny window... She stared at dust motes, dancing silently in one direction as though following some dreamy leader. When they hit the shadows, they vanished. Without the sun they were nothing,”

If like me, you’ve had a spate of reading very uninspiring laborious books this one will definitely reignite your faith in the joys and magic of a well written book.

Book: The Story of San Michele, Axel Munthe

What a beautifully written book. Axel Munthe takes you on a journey of his life and has the most wonderful way of sharing his story, especially his interactions with animals. 

After the last couple of books that I spent my mornings with, which felt like they were never ending and incredibly tedious, (Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, and the 5am Club by Robin Sharma, being the most recent ones); the Story of San Michele has been an elixir for the soul. His interaction and description of the reaper is incredibly beautiful.

5/5