Every garden is a garden of ideas. Whether you start from scratch or inherit someone else’s inspirations we all get out and into it because we’re inspired by trees, flowers, veges or perhaps our architecture.
I live on a bush block surrounded by big gums and look out onto mountains and into a green gully full of tree ferns and today in the mail we’ve just received a red CFA envelope that reminds us that the fire season is coming and we need to be prepared.
How do I turn this threat into an inspiration? I know that given the severity of the bushfires in 2009, the deaths, the greater possibility of more extreme weather conditions that this fear is every year now. Instead of looking forward to walking down and swimming in the river on really hot days, I understand that if its a code red day we need to have the car packed and most likely have left the night before. Damn! There is nothing better than our river on a seriously hot day…..
So do we get into the garden and feel the fear and start clearing and cutting as much as we can? Of course we do. But in the end it all feels so futile as you realise that if a big enough fire comes through it wont matter a toss how much clearing you’ve done, but we all need to give our homes and gardens the best chance of survival so we do it. It’s all a bit grim but we do it.
As someone who has been to community fireguard meetings, has the neighbourhood telephone tree at hand and has experienced the call to leave the house on three different occasions, I have had the experience of having to leave my home and garden understanding that it might not be there when I get back.
Many of my friends and family have shared experiences of stupid things that they did on Black Saturday and thank our lucky stars that the fire didn’t reach us. I have had a number of experiences of going into shock due to fire threat – once when I should have left the house I was madly cleaning it instead and luckily had friends ringing me reminding me to leave - who kept interrupting my work - but it was only when a friend turned up in his ute and insisted, that I got in the car with not a lot and left – my partner was at work and my son at school at the time.
I remember in 2009 being up all night semi sleeping and listening to the radio and hearing ‘Marysville has gone’ and going into shock ‘how can it be gone’…. I kept thinking. I remember hearing someone reporting from the Kinglake Fire Station saying how everybody was just running off the street and into the station for safety and not knowing what was happening. For some reason I cried the most of all weeks later on hearing the call for second hand suits for the men of Marysville as they wanted something decent to wear to funerals.
Having been through the 1983 bushfire I was always encouraging people to leave at our community fireguard meetings. I realised that getting organised to go is no mean feat. Firstly you’re pretty lucky if you and partner agree on the go or stay strategy – generally someone feels the need to stay and defend and this is the first challenge. Secondly if you have animals this can prove a major logistic challenge. Thirdly is the encouraging of other people you care for to leave too. There is nothing worse that driving out of your street and out of your town knowing that there are people who have decided to stay. I know that if I came back to funerals it would profoundly impact on my ability to start again. I remember after weeks of fires burning all around us having the final discussion with my partner saying that I realised that I could not convince him to leave but I was choosing to take our son and go – I hope we never have to go though that again – that’s why I’m grateful for the red envelope.
So how do I stay inspired about my home and garden given that I’ve accepted that it could all go? I’ve accepted the transience of it all. I call it my grateful garden. I’m grateful for the life I have here and the wonderful experiences and memories I always take with me. I’m grateful to the friends and family who make constant offers of a place to stay. Our insurance is up to date always, and while we now drive away with our important stuff and our camping gear, I believe we’ll invest in a small caravan just to enhance our ability to take away some of the smaller precious things that anchor us to home – a bit more nana crockery than I can presently take. Any renovations we do to our house now consider fire resistance and I’m trying to get rid of as much plastic as I can – if we have to come back to a smoking mound I’d like to be as non toxic as possible so I can start my garden again.
That’s what being a gardener gives you – an understanding that there are cycles in growth and death and in every season you have the opportunity to grow something again. We’re also planning a few weekends in Marysville and day trips in the Yarra Valley because we know about hope and the fragility of small local towns, and that’s the least we can do for the people who have gone through the experience and have bravely decided to start again.
ruby jane stormer
wild gardener in warburton, victoria
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