Sow It 'Til You Grow It

Hello. I'm Sara.

I'm a 36 year old high school Geography teacher living in Orangeville, Ontario (Zone 5A) with a passion for growing things; young minds, obviously, but when I'm not doing that, it's plants.

To begin, begin.

In 2011 I bought my first home.  In 2012, I bought three tomato plants (no idea what kind), and tenderly stuffed them in a crowded, shaded corner of my backyard flower bed.  I was so excited to try and grow something - especially something I could eat.

Here's a list of things I knew about gardening at that time:

1. Nothing

Miraculously, six small, ripe tomatoes manifested that summer.  To me, that was a massive win, since I assumed that must be how many tomatoes a plant ought to produce.  I didn't know any different (see above list of things I knew about gardening).

But that was enough to get me started; I was hooked.  I tucked that win under my belt, waited out the winter, and tried again.  By then we had a different house with a sunnier yard and more options for where to house our plants.

I bought a gardening book and read it cover to cover.

I bought a small raised bed and put it in the sunniest part of the yard.  I grabbed a few large pots.

I planted chard, kale, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, and radishes, among other things.

My radishes were spectacular!  By June that year it was obvious...I was a gardening wizard.

And then my zucchini got powdery mildew.

And then my chard got leaf miners.

And then my lettuce got aphids.

Gardening wizard I was not.  The only thing I got out of my effort was a handful of radishes a great big humble pie.

But that's the thing about gardening - especially in Canada - everything is on a cycle; grow, learn, try again, grow, learn try again.

I've come to realize over the years that gardening is an exercise in problem solving that requires nothing but a bit of natural curiosity.  It's not about growing the most tomatoes or the longest carrots.  The joy I get from gardening comes from being a participant in the natural systems and environmental interactions taking place all the time.  There's no set of rules that will create a banner harvest; so the more you strive to understand the soil, the climate, the pollinators, and the plants themselves, the more enjoyable the problem solving becomes.  Because there will always be problems, and there's always next year.

And so here I am, eight summers later, exploring ways to share my passion and humble advice with others.  I'm not here because I've perfected gardening.  I'm here because I love learning about gardening.  Every question I'm asked gives me a chance to either share what I've learned, or to pick up a book and learn something new.

When I first started tossing around the idea of creating some social media content and running workshops, I agonized over branding.  What do I want to share?  Who do I want this online persona to be?  Why should anyone listen to me?  I was paralyzed by the options.  Finally, my media savvy  best friend challenged me to get started and gave me a deadline.

Her advice?  Fake it 'til you make it.

Which is exactly the advice I've been giving to beginner gardeners for years!  Just get a seed in the ground and see what happens!  Watch it and learn.  Over-water it and learn.  Overcrowd it and learn. Go away on vacation and forget to ask the neighbour to care for it, but LEARN.  Be curious.  Be adventurous. Be resilient.  And sow it 'til you grow it!