No, not that AA! I'm talking Allan Armitage, author of 11 gardening books, 450 articles and lots more to warrant his receipt yesterday of the Scott Medal at Swarthmore College's Scott Arboretum for his huge contribution to the art and science of horticulture. Wanted to share some insights from his rollicking talk. (Now there's an adjective that doesn't often describe horticulture talks!)
One is that we can come to gardening by any route, at any age. Armitage kind of fell into it, or rolled slowly into it. He was not a straight trajectory, and unlike many folks he's met over the years, he didn't start out with a father who loved it or a grandmother with a greenhouse. In fact, as a kid, he saw hedges as something to kick field goals over and honeysuckle berries as ammo for pea-shooters. No one, in other words, is ordained to become a gardening guru. The field is wide open!
A second thought that came while listening to Armitage is that you can enjoy gardening on any level. That's good news for the many people I hear from who say they feel swamped by all the information out there, intimidated by experts and the Latin names of plants and conclude that they have no "green thumb" and will never get it. Not so!
There's no such thing as a "green thumb." You learn about plants the way you learn about anything. Do you think Julia Child whipped up her special ragout of chicken and onions in red wine right out of the gate?
This next nugget was a bit of a surprise, but Armitage is nothing if not blunt. (And let me say, if anyone has a right to feel superior, he does.) This expert's expert hates gardening snobs. "They rot my socks," he says. "There are all sorts of different ways to go." He suggests a place to start: "Grow it. Love it. If it dies, it dies."
Armitage seems to have taken the love part to heart. Gardening, he says, is exhausting. It's frustrating. It can suck up a lot of money. But you'll never be bored. You'll feel happy. "And it's impossible to grow old when you're always looking forward to the future," he says.
Speaking of future ... No matter the rain, the snow, the sleet blanket that recently squashed us. Spring's coming Wednesday! Say hallelujah.
