Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Agriculture vs. Horticulture

My sister asked a detailed question about growing green beans, "I don't know", I said.  "Thought you had a degree", she said, as only an older sister full of disdain/dismissiveness can.  "My degree is in Horticulture, not Agriculture", I replied in the manner of an indignant Katharine Hepburn.

Glastonbury Abbey. - The legend of King Arthur. Glastonbury Abbey is said to be the fabled island of Avalon,and King Arthur's last resting place. A 12th century story tells of the discovery of Arthur's and Queen Guinevere's grave in the Abbey grounds,but there is no archaeological proof. Glastonbury Abbey, Great Britain

"Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey."  John Updike
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What is gardening?
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Gardening is a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.
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Teach you how to dig a hole, proper pruning, how to water and etc?  Not my focus.  Too easy.  Build a garden traveling farther than light particles travel?  Yes.  
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I travel farthest in my garden.  The land of honey, is in your own backyard.  Even before it's planted.  Even if it's never planted, merely anticipated.  Garden anticipation?  It can save your life.
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Better, Providence doesn't separate horticulture/agriculture, stewardship is the gift to us.  If we're lucky we awaken, have the epiphany, it is our stewardship in return, being the greatest gift.  
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Garden & Be Well,    XO T
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Pic via Pinterest, added by, Hak Hee Yeo • 

Glastonbury Abbey. - The legend of King Arthur. Glastonbury Abbey is said to be the fabled island of Avalon,and King Arthur's last resting place. A 12th century story tells of the discovery of Arthur's and Queen Guinevere's grave in the Abbey grounds,but there is no archaeological proof. Glastonbury Abbey, Great Britain
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Decades getting here.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  It's ok.  It's knowledge loved into you from myriad sources, if you're paying attention.  Often, even, when you are not.  Silas McBee - 1914 - ‎
Even apart from them, the sons of the covenant are the happy recipients of grace and privilege, — the unconscious child, and the unawakened adult, among the ...more here.  

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5 comments:

  1. Jean CampbellMarch 24, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    If it's helpful, Mother always planted her beans on Good Friday.

    In the National Collegiate Landscape competition, I noted that our University students scored very well on hands-on Hardscape and hardly knew anything about turf and weeds.

    https://www.studentcareerdays.org/pdfs/2015/uga.pdf

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  2. La ContessaMarch 24, 2015 at 1:41 PM

    THAT IS SO TRUE............LOVE the photograph here......XO

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  3. CWoodyardMarch 24, 2015 at 8:45 PM

    Nicely answered! They are so confused or perhaps just don't think........

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  4. AnonymousMarch 24, 2015 at 11:07 PM

    Lol, I can relate. It's like when people ask me to do graphic arts things. "I'm not that kind of artist. I paint portraits." I love your last comment about your garden, that our stewardship of it is its greatest gift to us. Wonderful post. xo, N.G.

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  5. DewenaMarch 29, 2015 at 3:06 PM

    I've seen garden anticipation extend my own father's life for years longer than the doctors predicted. Often, when I'm reading your posts I feel as if I'm reading for him as well as for myself because he would have so loved you.

    He was a farmer as well as a gardener and I know from reading your posts the support you give to the family farmer. I don't know if you've ever read Charlotte MacLeod's mysteries, but her ones about Balaclava Agricultural College were a favorite of mine. Here's something that the president of the college told his students:

    "Agri isn't a business, it's a culture! As a farmer's highest calling was to serve the earth, but to be merry withal in his labor, so was a hog entitled to its wallow in good, soft mud and a cow to its cud of sweet, fresh grass beneath a shady tree before each fulfilled its ultimate destiny. No fowl went from incubator to coop to stewpot without once ever getting its claws in real dirt to scratch up its own worms."

    (from The Luck Runs Out by Charlotte MacLeod)

    I think college president Thorkjeld Svenson would have liked you too, Tara!

    Now, to go back to that tiny gem you hid at the end of your post on "the unawakened adult."

    And I'm still immersed in The Garden View, discussing it with my husband. At this stage of our lives we won't be doing more major gardening but we see places where we can perk it up, keeping your guide of axes in mind.

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