What kind of
a person gardens? What attracts them to
gardening? Every year at this time, I get to answer those
questions anew as 70 to 75 gardeners either sign up for or return to the
community garden I help run. There’s no
application to fill out and so there is no line titled ‘occupation’. I’ve certainly never demanded to know what
people do with their time when they’re not gardening. But some people tell me and sometimes their
emails betray an occupation. Others let
the cat out of the bag gradually.
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| The Medfield Community Garden. From the air, it looks quite orderly. |
For example,
we have a surgeon and at least two nurses.
I’ve gotten to know the surgeon fairly well. For him, a few hours in the garden on a
Sunday morning is what he needs to let go of the inevitable stress from his
livelihood. His garden is neat and
orderly; something I like to see in someone who is going to make an incision in
me. Our resident school nurse also runs
a tight ship, though her husband is an engineer, which might skew the results
just a bit. Another medical professional
– an operating room nurse – has a garden so weed-free it’s spooky.
We also have
an elementary school principal. Her
vegetables tended toward the ‘free range’ variety, but the veggies and flowers
are all healthy and growing. ‘Well-nurtured’
is an apt description, and I have a hunch that also describes her educational charges.
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| Our gardener who is an immigration lawyers doesn't want to fences to constrain his vegetables |
The most
inventive and exploratory gardens belong to our horticulturally-inclined
scientists. One is an academician whose
plot runs to things like tomatillos and eye-wateringly hot peppers. Another plot gardened by a chemist grows nine
different types of lettuce and has precise squares of corn planted ten days
apart. I feel as though I am watching
experiments unfolding.
It is my
observation that attorneys do not necessarily make superior gardeners. One of our number specializes in
immigration. His vines conspicuously meander
all over his unfenced garden, as though he is loathe to limit vegetable
mobility. Another is in corporate
law. She’s just expanded from a half
plot to a full one; perhaps the product of a successful takeover.
We’ve had a
veterinarian for two years and are about to get a second one. Our established vet keeps a great garden with
exceptionally healthy plants that are kept free of disease and pests. I can’t wait to see how the second one fares
– especially given that her spouse is a conservation biologist.
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| This gardener has kids in middle school. I think her mind is elsewhere. |
We have one
banker in our midst. And another one
whose email identifies the individual as being a sales manager. The less said about those two gardens, the
better.
Our retirees
fall into two categories. The first is
those for whom gardening forms a significant part of their recreation and
weekly exercise. They are a pleasure to
have as gardening neighbors. The
condition of their plots bespeaks a life well lived, they grow copious amounts
of produce, and they are quick to share their bounty with our local Food
Cupboard. The second group travels frequently
and their gardens are, well, something of an afterthought. They tend to sign up for a plot, plant it all
at once, and water it too heavily and too often. In mid-summer, they become annoyed by my
asking them to weed their aisles. After
a year or perhaps two, they move onto the next retirement time-filler.
The final
category are the stay-at-home moms and dads (and, yes, we have a few of the
latter). I thought there was no
correlation between gardening and full-time parenting until I looked at the
ages of the children accompanying their parents. Those with toddlers and pre-school kids are
terrific gardeners. They use their plots
as educational tools. But, as the
children age, the parental gardening skills decline. By the middle school years, the weeds sprout
with abandon (I have learned to take this into account when sending out
reminders). Equilibrium is miraculously restored
with high school graduations.
I don’t
believe these observations are colored by preconceptions. I like all of my gardeners because they’ve
chosen to garden. In a world of choices,
they’ve elected to get their hands dirty, and to do so among a crowd of
like-minded people. So, what kind of
gardener am I? A satisfied one.
