"You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think." - Dorothy Parker Also from Dorothy Parker: If, with the literate, I am Impelled to try an epigram, I never seek to take the credit; We all assume that Oscar said it. I took a distance course in gardening and landscaping about 3-4 years ago. Good to have, but not "interactive," where you get your fingers on real plants and dirt. The knowledge was worthwhile, but 40-50 years of doing the real thing -- now that's the ticket! J.
Johann, have we chatted about gardening in the past? I think we did - years ago maybe? We relocated across the country 5 years ago, so my current garden, flower beds, and landscaping are only 4 seasons long. Very young - but I'm a huge gardener! What do you grow?? Besides the normal stuff, I collect hostas - especially Hosta of the Year varieties.
What a coincidence (or dare I say, kismet?), as I was researching some online horticulture courses for my niece just last night. Avid gardener, she wants to get into the professional side of it and wanted a certificate (or two, or three) to help boost her chances of getting into a top horticulture B.S. program. Some other things to consider... Cornell has some online permaculture courses https://hort.cals.cornell.edu/extension-outreach/distance-learning Open Polytechnic (NZ) has a level III qualification that is fully online, though it isn't fully clear to me if it is available to international students. https://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/qualifications-and-courses/horticulture/ Open Colleges (Australia, appears to be a Penn Foster-like operation) Agriculture and Horticulture Courses Online As an aside, this research also gave me a deeper appreciation for the NZ/Aus qualification framework. In the US a "certificate" or a "diploma" can mean almost anything. Having a certificate in accounting can mean you took a MOOC, took undergrad courses, took graduate courses or completed some non credit program. The qualification framework looks like it would be a much more sensible way of doing things. Though admittedly I don't know how well it works in practice, I can't help but notice that in checking just a few job postings in Australia the academic qualifications appear to make more sense than they do in the US. Also want to thank Johann for nearly causing me to spit coffee all over my iPhone this morning.
Quick note on Open Colleges, apparently they used to be part of Thompson Education. So that "Penn Foster feel" wasn't coincidental. Small world.
Since I sold my house ...virtually nothing. I miss the garden and the workshop - the house itself they can keep. My present apartment doesn't even have a balcony. I got a small jade plant from my daughter-in-law about 8 years ago and thanks to it, I now have 3 biggish ones. I bought a small ivy plant, with a view to propagating it and using it in a garden (or garden-room) when I move. I've got four sizeable ones now, as they're incredibly easy to propagate. You just have to look at it! When I had a house, I liked hostas, too. I was a vegetable garden freak - and I will be again, you can be sure. I grew all the normal stuff, like carrots, tomatoes, peppers etc. - plus garlic, oregano, eggplant - anything remotely Italian. I used to make sauce that I grew all the ingredients for. Oh yeah, I had a couple of grape vines too. They get huge after a few years! After I sold the house, I managed to grow a few things outside my old apartment -tomatoes, zucchini and about a fifty-foot flower border. I remember putting some gaillardia in there. I liked the flowers and the name, which reminded me of one of my musical favourites - this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Gaillard I wasn't much of a flower-gardener, but I liked zinnias and grew a fair amount of other annuals. I have a better appreciation of perennials now - and once I move ... lots of them! And I'd like to try some dwarf berry trees and maybe an ornamental pea-shrub. I'd better get busy on the move - things are very good right now, but at 75, who knows how many good gardening years I've got left! I hope there are a few - or more than a few. I've got a lot of work left to do... J.
More on my much-missed garden. I remember another flower I liked to grow - black/brown-eyed Susans. They're pretty and sometimes make me think of brown/black-eyed women, many of whom can reduce me to a babbling idiot in 3 seconds flat. There were three things I used to grow that I liked because they were so dependable, you couldn't kill them with a blowtorch: mint, chives and horseradish. Oh yeah, rhubarb too. You'll have it till you die and (I think) you get it transplanted to your grave. :smile: I also had blackcurrant bushes - the smell is amazing! When my sons were little pre-school nippers, they used to snack in the backyard, coming in purple with black-currants and garlicky-breath from the chives... J.
Back then, I lived in a town that was 50% French-Canadian and 50% English. The third 50% was Italian, Hungarian, Polish and Ukrainian. The Italians and Hungarians were far and away the best gardeners. I found there was only one way to spot the difference: count the peppers and tomato plants. More peppers - it's Hungarian. More tomatoes - Italian. Worked every time. :smile: J.
