In this our anniversary month I am posting an appreciation of my husband.
The words are related. I consulted the Oxford Dictionary of English to confirm that husband derives from 'master of a house'; an 'occupier and tiller of the soil', and husbandry from a similar route - the Middle English acquiring the meaning of farming.
To husband is to use resources economically. This is second nature to my spouse. Last weekend we emptied one of his front garden raised beds, which he made from a discarded pallet passed on by friends. Others have been constructed from used decking and children's bunks. The decking will soon find a place in the wood skip at the tip. The soil is destined for our other raised beds, or to top up our compost bins, where some very energetic worms passed on by my family are doing good work.
Be it wood or metal, it will find a home. Recently he reinforced a low place in our bottom hedge with several pieces of an old fireguard and a small ornamental metal gate. Sheets of conservatory roofing plastic passed on by our neighbour find a new life as windbreaks and blackbird deterrents around emerging crops.
In his role as a husbandman, my man takes his responsibilities seriously. We live in a home with shared boundaries. He makes sure they are secure from incursion and cuts our hedges in collaboration with our neighbours, resolving the differences of opinion that will from time to time arise.
When it comes to growing things he is the more gentle and the more decisive. He spent many months nurturing some winter squash. These two feeble little plants have now repaid us with an enormous yellow fruit each for Christmas. He takes great pains with tomatoes and runner beans and has learned how to freeze the latter. He takes time over soil preparation and weeding where I am impulsive and quick. When he prunes roses, another skill he learned as a very young man, he is ruthless against blackspot. He cut our red rose right back, as I posted earlier, but now both it and our smaller pink one are growing strongly.
I may or may not get a new rose for our anniversary, but I am delighted to live with the good husbandry of my husband.
