My Chicago Garden

So Carol over on her blog May Dreams Gardens posed the question…

What Makes a Gardner?

She asked several questions that beg to be answered.

Do you consider yourself a gardener?

I guess I do. I’m not as good a gardener as others, but I guess if you play in the dirt and grow something you can consider yourself a gardener. I prefer to call myself a gentleman farmer instead of a gardener.  Gentleman farmer has a feeling of educational, research and pleasure oriented.  Where gardener seems to be one dimensional.  Could also simply be because I find Thomas Jefferson so fascinating.

How did you decide you were a gardener?
I think I just decided right now

When is the first time you referred to yourself as a gardener?

Uh. Let’s see. About 4 minutes ago. Normally I simply say "I like to grow vegetables". I guess I don’t say "I garden" simply as a way of differentiating what exactly about gardening that I enjoy.  I find no enjoyment in growing plants I can’t eat.

Where and how did you learn to be a gardener?

I figure learning is a process so I never really learned to be a gardener. I got the fascination of seeing something grow when I was a little kid and my mom would have us plant a tomato or something down the fence every year.  For about 5 years during my late elementary early junior high years I can remember talking with my mom about trying a new plant or something different like bell peppers or carrots. Of course that ended in high school when I got into sports and had no time for little green plants.

Has anyone ever introduced you to someone else as a gardener?

No. I can’t recall that they have.  Gardening doesn’t seem to be all that exciting to most people I guess. They’d rather introduce me as a storm chaser or weather nerd or as having an eclectic array of hobbies.

When someone tells you they are a gardener, what image of them does it bring to mind?

I hate to say it but the image that comes to mind is an old lady wearing an apron and wide brimmed hat wandering around the garden with gloves and clippers in her hand.  Oh wow…I just realized I described my grand mother. How interesting.  I had totally forgotten that she was what I would consider a master green thumb. I don’t think she was really a gardener, but she could take a cutting from some strange plant she saw somewhere and make it grow.  My parents have a stag horn fern of hers that she grew from a clipping that is now the size of a small vehicle. I’m not kidding. It had to be custom mounted on a board and two steel bolts were drilled into the wall of my parents house to support it in the patio. Wow…how interesting the image was of my grand mother from when I was probably 8 or 10 years old.

What do you expect of them?

I expect someone who calls themselves a gardener to understand the basics of plant life and how it relates to the earth as far as watering, good dirt, etc. They don’t need to know everything about gardens, but they should have a particular specialty in which they have deeper knowledge.  Hurm…I guess that means I’m not a gardener. ahahaha  That would explain why I never called myself a gardener until 8 minutes ago.

Can a gardener live where there is no place to plant anything, and still remain a gardener?

Permanently? No.  But I think being a gardener, or gardening is more a state of mind or presence or whatever you want to call it.  If you have the urge to go stick a seed in the ground and watch it grow, you have the gardener seed, no pun intended, inside you.  A couple years away from dirt may be painful, but you’re still a gardener at heart.

What about horticulturalists? Are they a subset of “gardeners” or a whole different group?

Subset? Specialist? I don’t know. I guess I expect someone who is a horticulturalist to have a VERY deep understanding of plants or particular species of plants. If I take my failed tomato plant over to friend I consider a gardener and he says "Ohh..that’s not good, what is that plant?" and gives no further advice, I’m not going to be all that suspicious or upset.  Maybe he’s a rose guy not a tomato guy. If I take the same plant to a horticulturalist and he says "Ohh..that’s not good. How did you kill that oak tree?" I’m going to be very suspicious and probably call him names when I get home.

I’m thinking about why some people are gardeners and other aren’t, and how buying a greenhouse won’t suddenly make someone a gardener.

Yeah..but I bet every gardener secretly wants one. I can’t just be me…at least I hope not…no..it can’t be. Please tell me it’s not just me.