lessons from the nursery
This spring, I started a plant nursery as part of my farm operation. Starting seeds, monitoring greenhouse temperatures, doing math to count the numbers of trays and seedlings I’d need for wholesale orders—all of this became woven into the texture of my days. As the end of the season draws close, I’ve been reflected on what I learned from nursery work this year. Below are five lessons I’m integrating from a season of coaxing seeds to grow.
The neighborhood is an essential unit of measurement. Local gardeners have invaluable knowledge about weather patterns, pests, and regional soil quality. They’ll tell you a lot about the deers and squirrels that hound their plants, the changes in the climate that made their peppers come in later this year, their predictions for the coming winter, and you should listen.
Nurturing new life involves monotony; it’s inescapable. Counting, seeding, watering, repotting, repeat.
Nurturing new life involves loss; it’s inescapable. Heat stress, disease, pests, repeat.
Relatedly, it’s often unhelpful to romanticize young living things just because they’re adorable. From the moment of their emergence, they are also involved in the fraught and messy struggle of survival. We all have dirt on our hands and leaves.
Cultivation is a responsibility. In a tightly controlled environment like a greenhouse, small temperature shifts can cause big changes in quality of life for those within it. When the weather is fluctuating and unforgiving, the responsibility is to be attentive.