Mr. Peasant On Garden Speed

Emile Claus - The Old Gardener 1885

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, 

everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. 

Gardening is an instrument of grace.

MAY SARTON

I don't move fast anymore. I am a traumatic brain injury survivor which has diminished my energy to levels seen only in centenarians. I have tested my work limit, and it is 1 hour and 40 minutes. I don't go to that level because it will cost me a couple of days trying to recover. I have learned to keep it at one hour per day. This allows me to do another hour the next day. I have learned from the brain injury websites and forums to always remain under your threshold. The brain grows and recovers from repetition like practicing scales on the piano not like lifting weights at the gym.

For some reason, we have an internal taskmaster driving us to be more productive. I have had this taskmaster my whole life, and I would obsess on getting things done. Speed and quantity are what mattered most. I don't see anything wrong with this because productivity is the seed bed for prosperity. The problems come when you are no longer as productive as you were in your prime. Everyone slows down. Slowing down is not the same as stopping.

Hermann Kern, Old Man Shelling Peas 1880

Garden speed is the speed old people have as they putter in their plots. The work is never finished, but things get done at a leisurely pace. There is no clock to punch. The nature of gardening forces this leisurely pace of labor. If you are someone used to city and corporate life, this downshifting of the gears is a difficult adjustment.

What happens when you apply city speed to the garden? You rapidly become exhausted and end up accomplishing very little. This is true if you are able bodied and not suffering from old age and injury. Ultimately, gardening is a cooperative effort between God, you, and Mother Nature. Your part of the partnership is to put together the conditions for garden success. The rest is waiting to see what comes out of the ground.

The biggest fruit that the garden produces is patience. A lot of time passes between the sowing of the seed and the harvest. It isn't a factory turning out X number of widgets each hour. Garden speed forces you to calm down and live with the seasons. Do a little bit each day, and you end up with something good.

Thank you for reading.

An older man with two children and a dog, sitting in a garden. 1890 Canada