2026 July 3 Coevolution: Teaching and Horticultural Experience

Humans on this beautiful planet coevolved with plants. It wasn’t that far back in history that horticultural skills were survival skills that everyone had to depend on. Human populations boomed as soon as they started to manipulate plant growth in the Agricultural Revolutions. This symbiosis is still as relevant today as it has always been, but we live in a very strange, disconnected society now. Many people are disconnected from the process of growing our food and living in the natural world. Plant knowledge didn’t always come from a classroom, it came from everyday life.

Growing food in Nicaragua. I taught English teachers and I grew lush gardens in the Peace Corps. Digital photography has come a long way since then, 2009.

The American public education system coevolved with plants, too. Summer breaks weren’t always for baseball practice and vacations to Disneyland. The school calendar was designed so that people could grow food in the summer growing season. The work of growing food included children in its labor force. Everyone had to participate to eat. Teachers were farmers. Even children had horticultural skills.

Growing food and landscaping with perennials in Nicaragua, 2010

I too, coevolved with plants. I too, am a horticulturist.

Even when I lived in a second story double in Lakewood I grew food in containers on the balcony, 2011.

When I bought my house in Lakewood, I started my journey landscaping with native perennials, 2012.

There were two reasons I chose to be a teacher. The first reason was a love of learning. Teachers never stop learning. I wanted to share a love of learning. The second was the summer off. I never wanted to miss the magic of a growing season. 

I started my permaculture journey with asparagus, berries, fruit trees. I always followed sustainable, organic  practices. Harvesting asparagus. Spring, 2016.

Growing food and flowers in Lakewood, 2018.

I worked in schools from 2005-2024. While my teaching career advanced, so did my pull toward plants. During the Covid-19 shutdown and my time off from teaching for brain surgery, I woke up to the reality that my passion for ecology and horticulture needed more space in my life. As I made my exit plan from teaching, I realized that a resume would not show all my work and self-study in the fields I was applying to. All I had to show “officially” was my three years in maintenance for Bay Schools (2005-2007) and a landscaping “side hustle” I have always done for years for various clients. As a teacher, I didn’t have to work for pay in the summer and often didn’t charge people for landscaping work, because I was still teaching. I joined the Sustainable Agriculture program to formalize my studies and I started to apply to horticulture jobs.

I have always been a horticulturist. Thanks for the validation, Merriam Webster. 

Last week, my “professional horticulture experience” came into question. I’m not sure what the magical difference in experience is between getting paid for horticulture or not. I made significantly more money when I did landscaping “on the side” than I make now. I’ve now taken jobs with the Cleveland Metroparks, Kendal at Oberlin and the Sewer District and took a financial hit to make my experience “official”. I charged $25 an hour in 2019-2020, according to my garden records. I turned down jobs back then because I wanted time to work on my own land. 

In my back yard, the trees I planted changed the growing conditions to “partial sun”. The vegetable garden needed more sun, so I’ve been tending a plot at the Madison Community Garden. Showing off my pepper harvest, 2023

For the record, I’ve learned more about ecological horticulture from self-study than through my classes at LCCC. I’m taking classes to get something official on paper about my educational experience in this field. The Sustainable Agriculture program is excellent and any learning experience is what you make of it. Classroom experience is definitely valid; but I had a lifetime of summers to read, attend workshops and cultivate my landscaping practices before this.

Planting the Miawaki Mink Forest at the Zoo, 2024

Do I have 5 years of official professional horticultural experience? Yes. Do I have official educational credentials in a related field? Yes. Do I have a whole lifetime of deeper horticultural experience that goes beyond what is listed as “official”? Absolutely. 

Today in the hot haze of my backyard, surrounded by the plants that continue to inspire me, 2026

I am proud of my career journey in both fields; education and horticulture. I talk about horticulture with science backed opinions and I’m always learning more. I work hard and reflect. I solve problems and strategize plans. I love working on a team with a shared objective. I make mistakes, own up to them, learn and do better. I volunteer. I teach horticulture. I facilitate workshops and collaborate with community partners. I love the work I do, both paid and unpaid. It all counts. It’s human nature to work with plants and I’ve always honored that. There is no line between professionally and personally, paid and unpaid. Work is work. I’ve always done this work.

You can call it personal. You can call it professional. You can call it educational. The fact is, I’ve made the most of every growing season of my life. Horticulture is my life’s work just as much as my teaching career. 

Read more about my early gardening experiences here: link