No one is born a gardener. We all have to learn how and practise, practise, practise. The longer we work at it the more we learn.
I joined the Powell River Garden Club in 1991 as a very novice gardener. There was so much I didn’t know and wanted to learn. New gardeners can read books and magazines, but somehow, information shared through personal interaction is so much easier to understand and use.
The garden club has had many members speak at meetings, and it has been my experience that everyone is most willing to help and share their experience.
At that time the club met at Malaspina College in a small room. I learned to go early in hopes of finding a seat. Then, meetings moved to Max Cameron Secondary School, where we would perch ourselves on the counters of the science lab or on the tables of the art room.
Every month I attended, I learned something new, at least new to me. Then meetings moved to the former Inn at Westview, where there were chairs for everyone. All the while, the club’s membership continued to grow, and I continued to learn.
I thought I was learning how to garden, but what I was learning through the club was how to be a gardener.
It seems gardeners live more in the future than in the present. They are always planning for the next season, looking for the first spring bulbs, anticipating a particular flower’s bloom, starting seeds for next month’s planting, or waiting for crops to ripen. And, always, they are forming ideas of how to improve things next time and what to change for the next season. They are thinking ahead to how their garden will grow and mature over the years.
Gardeners are thrifty people. They will start their own seeds, make compost from scrap and recycle containers into planters. They will grow their own food and coax a maximum yield from their apple trees.
Gardeners will bemoan the waste from insect and animal damage and will save seeds for the next year. They also, however, will generously share plants, cuttings, seeds and harvest, and the benefits of their own experience. Of course, all these economies help to justify the extravagance of some special plants.
Gardeners are people who like to experiment. They like trying something new: plants, techniques, designs, and they will move a plant three times if need be, before they are satisfied.
Gardeners might play with colour combinations, similar to a decorator, or they may randomly sow a mix of wildflower seeds just to see a bare patch of ground transformed.
Gardeners work hard. When they come in from a stint in the garden they are tired, hot, sweaty and probably have a few insect bites. Their hands will be filthy, but that’s not dirt, that’s soil.
Gardeners work hard but they don’t see it as work. Instead, gardening is a continual challenge to create something worthwhile from our earth, to give something back and to add a bit of beauty for all to share.
I am glad to be a gardener.
