As the owner of a seasonal business, I am often asked “What do you do in the winter?”
For many years, my stock answer was “I change diapers.” When you have three children all within three years and three months, you change a lot of diapers.
These days, the answers to that simple question are a bit more complicated. They might include “I say yes to every volunteer opportunity at my children’s schools,” “I bake a lot,” and “I prepare and plan for the next year for our business.”
This weekend’s activities included organizing a pizza party for 25 pit-band members, baking peanut butter cookies for a piano recital, and reviewing plant orders. I covered all three categories in two days.
As to the part about planning and preparing for next year, I recently attended a Spring Preview Day hosted by one of our nurseries. The preview day is designed to debut new plant introductions, let us interact with other garden center and landscape owners, and give us some insight into the green industry as a whole.
One simple question that was posed to all of us was perhaps the hardest to answer: “Why do you garden?”
My immediate instinct was to say “I don’t.” Simply because at the end of my day, after I have had the honor to walk through some absolutely beautiful gardens, I go home and treasure a few hours indoors. After thinking that question through and realizing that assisting homeowners create gardens, fielding gardening questions, and working at our garden center truly is gardening, I then started to then think of the answer to that question. Why do I garden?
I garden, first and foremost, because I like helping people. One of my favorite television shows as a child was Real People. It was a show that aired in the late 1970’s and spotlighted people who had an interesting hobby or occupation. By assisting people with gardening, I get to meet them and learn a bit about their life story.
This, to me, is incredibly interesting and rewarding. I also like to garden because it involves being outside. The sun is incredibly nourishing, the wind refreshing, and the sounds invigorating. I do struggle to remember this when it is cold, windy, and rainy, but overall, the outdoors is a great component to gardening.
I also garden because it reminds me of my childhood. My family certainly didn’t have elaborate landscaping, but all the little memories add up. I’ll never forget the refreshing coolness of cowpies between my toes, buying flats and flats of annuals each Mother’s Day weekend, and my grandmother bending down and gardening for hours while I would sneak into the house to rest.
Additionally, I garden because the end result is that of beauty. Flowers just have a way of cheering us up.
So, I pose this question to you. “Why do you garden?”
I would love to read your answers! Please submit them via email at kathleen@thegrowingscene.com or through the mail at The Growing Scene, Inc. 17015 Harmony Road, Marengo, IL 60152. At the end of many columns this year, I will include your responses.
Sun City gardener Ceil Rieker starts us off with this wonderful response. “Simply, I love it! It’s exciting when spring comes to see the green tips of tulips, irises, hyacinths pushing themselves up and out towards the warm sun after a cold, hard winter. As I do my morning “walk about,” I can see the trees budding, the bushes getting new growth, and all my perennials coming back from their long winter’s nap, and we can’t forget the birds singing their songs. It’s like seeing old friends once again. There are so many reasons one can give for gardening. But all who garden will surely agree there is a great feeling of accomplishment to see your hard work and efforts ‘take root,’ not to mention the therapy you get, both mental and physical. A garden is a peaceful place…for meditation and reflection, and, oh…all that beauty!”
Kathleen Carr is the owner of The Growing Scene, Inc., a garden center and landscaping company. She can be reached by calling 815-923-7322 or tgsinc12@msn.com. Have a gardening question? Please contact her. She may address it in an upcoming column.
