Growing Season

Spring is in the air and I have been planning a new garden box and have been thinking about the lessons that are learned from growing a garden. From the planning stage through to harvest, there are successes and failures, but one thing is for sure, you are never in control.

At the beginning we can plan the perfect location, prepare our soil and then sow our seed when the time is just right. Once that seed sprouts we start to nurture, train and protect the plants as they grow to maturity and hopefully, we have a bountiful harvest. Of course, it isn’t that easy. From the time the seed is sown to maturity, there will be a number of challenges and obstacles in the way of that harvest. We are better equipped than ever in dealing with the challenges, but without control there will always be variable results. You can do everything “textbook” and still have a crop failure or you can give up and later find a flourishing plant; sometimes it just doesn’t matter.

A gardener can only create the conditions for growth and as long as those conditions are maintained the growth will continue. As leaders, we need to provide the right conditions and be agile enough to meet the evolving needs and be able to react to the changing environment around us.

Steven Schwartz
Prairie Centre CU