THE GROUND IS BOUND

Last week we did what so many agrarians before us have done: we bound ground.  We drew up the boundary, set out the posts and put up a fence.  I’m sure it was more to keep the veggies in than people out.  After all, you know how  onions do wander.  It was pegged with precision, placed with care, and crafted with more precision than you may think reasonable for a community garden fence; in this case however this regular rhythmic form creates a sensational function.  Taut horizontal lines have a lovely twang when plucked, and though i was unable to play ‘For Elise’ it was music to my dusty, ringing ears.

The purpose of the fence was threefold:  to keep out the diggers, the jumpers, and the climbers.  The bandicoots and rabbits can go under typical fencelines and take out an entire crop overnight.  Similarly kangaroos and wallabies will jump a fair height for tasty young greens.  Once they get in i imagine they can destroy as much as they ate again trying desperately to get out, using their seemingly poor grasp of reason.  There is only one species however that digs, jumps, and climbs and they’re certainly the most cunning.  Keeping out humans is the hardest task of all.

The humanitarian in me thinks we shouldn’t have a fence, but without one there is little point as the rabbits, bandicoots, wallabies and kangaroos do just fine with shoots, leaves and grass on the fertile vernal wetland that surrounds us.  As for the humans, i have no issue if they take the occasional or even regular piece of fruit and tomato.  But when the humans raid your entire crop the night before harvest, you know, they know, it’s wrong and unnecessary.

And so, we build a fence.  May it stand tall and strong, protecting our hard work against the opportunist mammals and marsupials alike, and may it come out of the ground easily, leaving little trace, ready for the next intrepid pioneers.