I am volunteering at a local certified organic farm once a week.
Yesterday I was working with a young man who was visiting there for a while. He is studying ornamental horticulture at school and quite knowledgeable. In the conversation he asked me an interesting question; what is the most interesting thing I have learned at the farm so far?
It made me think. I used to work in the landscape field for almost 10 years. Thanks to that experience I had a decent horticultural knowledge when I started coming to the farm. What have I been learning since then? What is the most interesting about it?
My answer was that the difference between food production and ornamental gardening.
When you install an ornamental garden, you visualize the final picture of the garden, typically in 3 to 5 years. You space the plant material out to give them just right amount of room to grow and eventually fill up the space. In the meantime the open space is covered with temporary material such as annuals and mulch. You choose the mixture of plant material to provide year round interest.
When you grow vegetables, you need to see a much shorter time span. You want the crop coming consistently. This means, for example, when you are getting the bed ready, you are already nursing the transplants indoor. When you are installing the transplants in the bed, you are seeding the next batch. When you are harvesting the first crop, you already have the transplants ready to be planted next. These goes all within a several months. Intensive!
Using the techniques to fasten or slow down the growth speed, you maintain the garden to produce the right amount of crop at right timing. This is quite new to someone who used to ornamental gardening.
One way or another, you need to have a plan. You visualize what you want in a what kind of timeframe.
You count years to achieve a matured garden with trees and shrubs while for vegetables the growing season is just one year. Annual food production garden requires much more in and out in the same time of period so there will be more work. The goal and the path to achieve it are different, but either way you set a goal and plan for it.
I realized although I am learning totally new techniques to achieve a different goal in a different time range, still the basic idea is the same. As far as we work with plants, we learn about the nature’s rule and tweak it to get a bit more desirable result for human beings.
And, regardless what the goal is, there is always the same principle applied – the big picture first.
The long waited spring (especially this year!) just began but my gardening has already started when it was still snowing. I seeded in February seeing the picture of spring and following summer. I am now transplanting them and seeding new for the later harvest at the same time.
Gardening, business, parenting, etc – nothing comes over night. You need to see the big picture first then think backwards. You make time to do this process and get the confidence to take the first step toward the goal. This is the secret to get a project successfully going. You shouldn’t overlook the productivity your confidence and focus bring to you.
When we are dealing with millions of happenings every day, often we skip the time to think of the big picture. However, it’s worth it. Take a deep breath, think through and clarify why you are doing those things. What is your big picture? What is really important? What do I need to start now for the future goal? Without seeding, no crop comes.
Life is short. The sooner you find your big picture, the sooner you start using the precious time for things truly important to you.
