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Thanksgiving in My Garden

© Mary Henry

I'm celebrating Thanksgiving this week. Not the kind with turkey and family, but thankfulness for my involvement in gardening and association with the other gardeners in this world.

Did you know that what sets all of us who are gardeners apart from those who are not is our attitude toward plants? I have been wrestling with this concept for some time now, and it has been while trying to help customers deal with the effects of the coming winter that the light has finally dawned.

We are aware of our plants and their needs in the same way that we are aware of our children. We are careful to try and provide for those needs. We may not know everything we should about those needs, but we are aware that they exist. We are aware of our plants as living things.

Many of the people I deal with seem to view plants much like they view furniture. They want them to fill some particular niche in their lives, but have not the slightest idea of what it takes for them to successfully fill that niche. This is always most apparent when we are facing the coming Minnesota winter. Those of us who are gardeners watch for the signs that dormancy is developing on schedule and that the tender things have their needs met to ensure their survival. If we cannot meet those needs we know we have to let go and find this one a new home or thank that one and compost it.

Non-gardeners seem to have no real understanding that they are dealing with living things. They choose a shrub for their landscape and plant it based on the size it happens to be at that moment. Then they are completely surprised to find out that it grows and gets too large for the spot. Others that have bought tender, tropical plants for summer decoration on their patios are not prepared to go to the lengths it requires to bring them to the patio again next summer. I understand not knowing how to do it, I'm learning all the time myself. What astounds me is that they don't even want to know why.

My garden is full of beings (I hesitate to say children, because non-gardeners always accuse me of anthropomorphising) who compete and cooperate, are robust or shy, model members of the community or bullies, but all growing, respiring, reproducing etc. like all living things on earth. I try to know enough to plan cooperative groups and separate warring factions and that's part of the fun. The biggest difference between my plants and myself is that they have evolved to meet their own needs while anchored in one place. When I put them in a place where they would not have naturally developed, I have to meet the missing needs.