To live is to garden

Viktoria Sears: Mpls Garden Tutor, 2002. Co-op Member 2007Gardening takes—and gives—time. Time spent, invested, and enjoyed. Like a house, a garden is meant to be inhabited. Hours savored, not minutes; weeks satisfied, not days; years fulfilled, not months. To garden is to live. The origin of the word, “season”, is “the time to sow seeds”, from which the meaning led to a general period of time within a year.

Gardening is both taught and learned: no one is born gardening. However, the basics require only a year to learn—one complete two-to-four season gardening cycle. Since “all gardening is local”, to paraphrase Tip O’Neill, learning from one's neighbors, family and friends makes the most sense. You get out of gardening what you put into it. It’s an active hobby—you have to “do it”. Like with a pet, don’t start a garden without careful consideration of the duties involved. To live is to garden.

We are, after all, a nation of gardens. Gardening is goodThe Great American Garden stretches from sea to sea, made up of gardens big and bold, or modest and demure—and some as small as a window box. In the garden contradictory points of view converge. For in the garden, extremes and imbalance of any kind will reap a bitter harvest.

Here are the essential traits of the successful gardener:

Down to earth – Gardeners must first of all be pragmatic, squarely focused on facts and events rather than abstract ideas. In the garden, experience shows, and grows.

Planning – A skillful gardener is a good planner. I have rarely seen a beautiful or productive garden that was not thought out well in advance. Gardeners take the long view.

Love of nature – Gardeners share an abiding love of plants and nature. They are exquisitely attuned to the climate and soil conditions.

Expediency – Decisiveness is second nature to a gardener. Gardeners know when to drop everything else and tend to the problem at hand. Knowing what to do is useless if you fail to respond at the right moment.

Observant – The best gardener keeps a very close eye on plants, soil, temperature, sky, tools, children, bugs, pets – and predators.

Adaptable – Flexibility is the essence of diplomacy, and indispensable to a successful, experienced gardener. It requires a lot of careful trial and error before you arrive at the solution.

Resourceful – In the garden, we often lack the tools we need, forcing us to improvise.

Humility – The word “humility” derives from “humus”. As a gardener, you can’t do it all by yourself. Knowledgeable, experienced people will help you just for the asking. Gardening is a humbling experience; awareness of one’s limits is key to long-term survival.

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