Going Amateur

  It's mid February and I'm getting excited about  the vegetable gardener's equivalent to Baseball's Spring Training-- starting my first seeds. They'll be peppers (which germinate slowly, and so get a couple of week's jump on the tomatoes). I'll plant the  'Jalapeno M' and 'Bulgarian Carrot' hot peppers I grew last year, as well as  'Hungarian Wax' and a sweet pepper called 'Big Red'.

  I'm still amazed that the tiny seeds I start in February will become sturdy plants heavy with peppers by July.  My selection is mostly hot peppers because I'm catering to the quirky and unique needs of just two people.  I have no roadside stand and I don't supply any restaurants. That's what being an amateur means to me as a vegetable gardener, and while it may not produce cash income, it gives me great freedom to garden by whim.

  This wasn't always so. I used to be a professional gardener. I began by weeding fields for minimum wage, got a degree in horticulture, and ended up helping to manage a retail grower of perennial flowers. For most of the years I was a pro I enjoyed it.  I loved being outside, touching the earth, being surrounded by birds, learning to read the needs of plants.  

  Then I became more of a manager, concerned with staffing,  profit and the current trends in shrubs and flowers.  I worked so much during the growing season that I neglected my own plantings, and I lost some of the joy I had found in the garden.

  When an opportunity arose to manage in a different industry, I left the farm and professional gardening.  I knew it was time for many reasons, most of which had nothing to do with my love for plants and the outdoors, and more to do with economics and personalities. 

  I moved on to my new job,  and for several years my home garden was only lightly tended. But soon the joy of gardening returned.  I grew for myself, creating a landscape that reflected my love of birds, native plants, and vegetables. Sure I still read the magazines, but not to anticipate my customer's needs, but to discover my own.

  My pro experience comes in handy sometimes.  I can dig, prune and divide perennials easily, having done each task thousands of times.  But vegetables are mostly annuals, and they grow at an amazing rate compared to perennials.  I'm still very much an amateur with vegetables, and enjoying every minute.