Growing Pains By Justin Bentley
With a smirk, I slide on my boots and step outside. The vernal equinox has just arrived and my excitement to escape outside and get dirty is overwhelming. A wooden garden gate hangs at its usual tired angle but still slides open with a creaky sigh. I walk into the wooden mulch-covered vestibule of the vegetable “classroom” and begin walking through the rows of rich, dark soil. I’ve cheated (again) and already planted snow peas several days ago — St. Patrick’s day is the “real” first day of spring! Ideas and lists of chores run amok through my already overburdened brain. Every single day there is something to be done out in the garden — old leaves and plant material to be discarded, soil to be turned over, overwintered plants to be checked upon (hello, garlic bulbs!), fertilizer to be added (thank you, chickens!), tools to be sharpened, fences to be mended. Cross off one task and add three new must-dos to the bottom. Gardening and teaching are two peas in a pod (see what I did there?) — both are truly one long, never ending, always changing list of chores.
As I begin turning over last year’s black dirt, I cannot help but ponder the parallels between classroom teaching and gardening. The tasks and work never end; the planning is continual and year round, problems always arise, and both pursuits are toil and trouble — but at least they do yield pleasures and fruits! A huge amount of effort and time goes into both, but for what? I must continually monitor my “crops” to ensure they are growing properly, receiving everything they need in carefully controlled amounts. Gardeners and educators must remain ever vigilant for pests and problems that inhibit growth and yields. It’s humorous to me that administrative directives, apathetic students, and RIDE initiatives really aren’t that different from cabbage worms, fungal blight, and hot droughts. Luckily, we are compensated for both recreations — education with biweekly electronic deposits, gardening with nutritious fruits and vegetables.
I lean over to mix in bucketfuls of composted material, sprinkling it in as needed. How much is too much? How much is not enough? I know I need to provide a supportive environment now, but how often do I supplement? At any rate, I’m sure I need to be doing it so growth will be rampant throughout the season. Thankfully — at least in the garden — I am not asked by my superiors to “guess” how my vegetables and flowers will perform over the year and where they will be in the fall and then scramble to get every single one of them to this approved point.
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Imagine the sheer lunacy of such an idea — grow all of my genetically different seedlings to the same production ability by the same arbitrary date, despite a slew of other factors such as illness, different preferences and needs — all while “growing them” from the same scripted set of instructions, steps, and conditions. I have to do these identical yet differentiated methods all in the same growing window as the other “master gardeners” in my area who are attempting to grow the same things. Better yet, I have to make sure I meet two to three times per week with other growers to commiserate about my failures and frustrations, all while pretending that everything is sunshine and ripe fruits! How can I get more yield? Why aren’t all of my plants growing at the exact same rates? What am I, the caretaker, doing wrong? What will the public think of my apparent failures as an agriculturalist (educator)?
It’s enough to make me scream in helpless frustration! Who would ever want to do this?
Yet, I continue to dig and plant and fertilize and and pull problematic weeds, all while humming a nearly inaudible tune under my breath, day after day, season after season, year after year. Somehow, in a strange way, this exhaustion and fatigue is still pleasurable. I just want growth.
With dirt under my nails and tired wrinkles around my eyes, I wonder — how many more seasons do I have left?
Justin Bentley is a 23 year science educator in high school and middle school, a runner, a gardener. (We are so grateful to have him as our guest blogger this week!)
