Report From PIA – January 18
I’m about to place my seed orders, and as I look through the catalogs, I come across names of plants that I’ve tried to grow in years past. While I’ve had good success with the majority of my seed sowing, still, there have been many plants that just didn’t germinate. This won’t stop me as I place this year’s orders; like most gardeners, I expect everything will grow.
Gardeners are, by nature, an optimistic group of people. We continue to buy plants even when many we’ve purchased have died in the past. We take chances by placing marginally hardy plants in our gardens, and hope get away with it. We order seeds that require periods of chilling, or warmth and other such fussing, and are sure that no matter what treatment we give them, they’ll sprout and thrive.
This approach isn’t unique to gardeners, of course. When Mine That Bird ran in the 2009 Kentucky Derby he was such a long shot that some sports writers didn’t even bother to research this horse. He was so far behind the pack at one point that many photographs and video don’t even show him being there. But he came back from behind to run ahead on the inside rail and win the race. Interviewed later, jockey Calvin Borel said “I just rode him like he was a good horse.”
This is a good way to live our lives. Just as we give our plants the attention they need and expect them grow, just as Borel rode Mine That Bird as if he was a good horse, we need to approach our pursuits as if they’ll be successful.
If the plant doesn’t grow, the horse doesn’t win, the job doesn’t come through, or the situation work out as we’d hoped, oh well….we’ll adapt and cope. In the meantime, we’ll plant as if they’ll all thrive, and ride as if it’s a good horse.
I've expected all of the plants that I put in the entry garden to grow. Most have, but not all.
