On Learning and Teaching In The Field.

A tulip in its final day or days. I brought it to the caffe Sunday AM as I was distributing some leftover material. The Tulip is dry and crispy. I found it visually exciting but I don't think my iPhone was the tool to share it. None the less - I have been carrying my DSLR with me more often and so I have fewer images in my phone to go to at moments like this when I want to riff on stuff in a blog post.

We have Caitlin working with us now. She came to us last winter - a horticulture student from NCCC with a previous art degree and grew up in the neighborhood being a City Honors graduate - she came to us during the Christmas Tree market and since has been finishing school, working with Ferncroft Floral here and there, and with me organizing a project with the Elmwood Village Association to improve the neighborhood's container and tree pit gardens.
Now she is in her first days in the field and I find myself doing a poor job teaching her and not being sensitive to how much she needs direction.

When I grew up, I learned the most from just watching others do things - be it spread mulch, lay sod or pavers, or rake and grade soil. When I was finally thrown into the heat, I would get a 10 second primer on the major theoretical points one needed to recognize what they were trying to achieve in the task performed. Then, GO! Learn as you work.
But this was under a structure where you worked on a crew that primarily focused on doing the same thing everyday. My very first day in the field at 12 or 13 years old I was put out on the mowing crew. They put me out on a push mower and said go. If someone new started, they may have started on the paver construction crew, learned a couple basic tasks, and could repeat them over and over for an entire summer.

The difficulty with Buffalo Horticulture is we never do the same thing. We do "custom designed" (this needs elaboration another day - Ferncroft) and the opportunity to work on developing a skill happens with large intervals inbetween. So Caitlin, I'm sorry. But on the horizon in the next month we will be doing site work and grading, building a fence, digging and installing a rain garden, installing 4 different types of paving materials, in addition to doing standard garden work. I imagine its emotionally difficult to keep up. But you're doing great and u work hard. I just need to recognize you have a lot to learn and help you get there so you aren't lost without things to hold onto through the day.