Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Gardening and Immediacy

My little one and my father transplanting a Chinese herb
  
I had a great neighbor who has since moved away.  On day one, he invited us over for empanadas.  He and his wife were perfect neighbors for first time homeowners to have.  Old enough to know the neighborhood stories, young enough to hang out from time to time and share a bottle of wine.  As we settled in and began to make some changes around the house, the well-intentioned nay-saying began, "The city is not going to take those boards away unless you take all the nails out".   "Every piece of tinsel has to be removed or they won't recycle the tree".  "You shouldn't go up on the slope because there is poison ivy there".  "You can't grow vegetables here because the soil is all clay".  It got to the point where I tried to do household tasks at odd hours hoping I wouldn't get caught.

Good thing we're stubborn.  My husband didn't remove the nails nor the tinsel, and I both climbed the slope and grew vegetables in the clay.

This posting is a little late, but I attended the International Master Gardener's Conference back in October of 2011.  The sessions have been largely forgotten, but I did attend a session by speakers Janet Macunovich and Steven Nikkila.  I'm not a handout keeper, and in classes, I prefer to listen rather than take notes, so I probably don't retain as much info as your average attendee, but there are many parts of Janet and Steve's lecture that were so interesting and important and pieces keep coming back to me in my life.

One point they made was about IMMEDIACY.  As a gardener, if someone asks you for help, avoid jargon.  SHOW them how to do what they need to do.  You want to make it doable for the novice gardener - and for them to feel the excitement of it.  She shared an example of an inexperienced gardener friend who was suddenly motivated to move a tree.  And during the worst part of the year to do it!  Despite the chance that the tree might suffer or not even make it, she helped him move it anyway.  There's an excitement that gets into us - you're a gardener - you know this feeling too.  

This makes me think of my neighbor.  It's true there was poison ivy on the slope.  I got a case so bad I went to the hospital (and I'm a tough cookie).  But when I got better, I got back on the slope to do more work up there.  It's true it's VERY difficult to grow vegetables in clay.  But I tried, and then I learned.

This also makes me think of an interaction I recently had at work.  Some of our students held a plant sale - everything was $1!  I bought things like chives, ferns, parsley.  Great deal.  Later, one of my friends (a particularly exuberant friend) bought some seedlings too and was so incredibly delighted about it!  In her box, that she was showing me, she had a lettuce seedling and a beet seedling and was telling me she was going to have fresh salads for her family all summer.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that the lettuce seedling wouldn't provide enough leaves for one salad, that the plant would probably bolt in a couple of weeks, and that the one beet seedling she bought would produce exactly one beet.  A beet she paid a dollar for.  I felt a little badly about not sharing the information, but I thought of my neighbor, and I thought of Janet and Steve.  I figure if she gets her hands dirty and does a little experimenting, she may catch the gardening bug - it's not difficult to.  She may complain that the lettuce didn't produce enough to garnish a sandwich.  She may ask questions.  And that is when I'll show her how to sow her own row of beets, and how to start her own salad bed.  

18 comments:

  1. They say that the greatest revenge is to accomplish what others say you cannot do.:) Love that picture of your father and daughter working together in the garden.

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  2. Beautiful thoughts - so true! I definitely have trouble with that kind of thing - always want to give people WAY more information than they want, or are ready for. :-)

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  3. "There's an excitement that gets into us - you're a gardener - you know this feeling too."

    So true! I know that whenever I decide I'm motivated to do something in the garden, I have to do it NOW. More often than not, it works out...well, often enough, anyway, that I'll continue to operate that way! :)

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  4. I'm glad you persisted! I'm amazed how I can research things about gardening endlessly (I definitely have the gardening bug)...I wish I can have that enthusiasm at work too:)

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  5. When I started gardening I didn't like to hear the tedious parts. Only love to know that the easy ways. So I am sure many around you will catch the gardening bug from you. Way to go Wendy!

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  6. yes Wendy, every personality has her own way of doing things or telling things or accepting things. It is serendipity and magic when two the same people match in one instance. Now i remember my mother who was the one watering my ornamentals and tomato plants at home in the province because i live in the city and go home every other week. It was the height of the dry season and she diligently did her assignment of watering them morning and afternoon. Fruiting time came and she was complaining why my tomatoes are so vigorous and healthy producing a lot of fruits, while hers are sickly and didn't look good. She said she didn't water them differently, but why are mine so different. Hers is just a few meters away from mine! I didn't tell her my magic, but she is as stubborn as I in getting information from others. I wonder if she will ever learn from her mistakes. But i just let her be because telling her what is wrong will not matter at all, she wont follow it anyway. Hahaha.

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  7. Gardening takes much trial and error to get into the depth of your soul. Without such hands on learning experiences, one has head knowledge without the heart of a gardener .. both are needed.

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  8. OMG.. its really true! i had a very negative office colleague who kept mocking me abt gardening as she noted i received parcel contained of flower's seed/plants from everywhere... but at the end of the day when i gave her few (FOC of course), she came back & bragging that how good she is in her gardening.....

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  9. I guess its wisdom not to squash another person's zeal in gardening.
    Sometimes telling too much of information can turn a person discouraged.
    Its best learned by own experience.

    Talking about clay soil.
    I recall that pineapple does best in such soil medium.
    Another would be water based plants such as lotus, Taro and Yam.

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  10. Wonderful post! Looking at the photo of your father and daughter, I'm reminded that my own father never trusted us kids to do anything right in the garden and so I had to learn later on my own.

    What's the herb they're transplanting, if I may ask?

    Your dad and my dad have the same hat, BTW.

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  11. Great post - really enjoyable. I have a neighbour who constantly does things I just know wont work - like growing corn in complete shade and planting out pumpkin plants in mid Autumn and i always struggle with whether or not to tell her that she is doomed to failure. But i suspect the truth is she needs to have these failures along with some successes (of course - she does do a lot that does work) and you never know some of them may actually work....

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  12. Great post - really enjoyable. I have a neighbour who constantly does things I just know wont work - like growing corn in complete shade and planting out pumpkin plants in mid Autumn and i always struggle with whether or not to tell her that she is doomed to failure. But i suspect the truth is she needs to have these failures along with some successes (of course - she does do a lot that does work) and you never know some of them may actually work....

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  13. I like your post.
    I am trying my best to answer question carefully from novice gardeners so they feel more excited and adventurous in the garden. I think each gardener will learn more in their mistakes rather than what other people told them.

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  14. Great post. So true. I am one of those people who has to make a mistake first hand for it to sink in...

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  15. lovely post Wendy - this is true for everything - don't dampen people's enthusiasm. Hopefully people have learned to respect childrens' enthusiasm, now it's time to learn to respect adults' enthusiasm.

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  16. Saved as a favorite, I love your blog!

    My page - web page ()

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