A key. That's it, yet it is a key that will lead to so much! My college campus has a beautiful greenhouse attached to the back of the science building. Every day I walk past it as I go to and from my car. Not a lot of plants are in it; some bromeliads, some ferns, and some geraniums. There are some random other plants - perhaps from faculty offices, trying to stay alive over winter? I never see anyone in this greenhouse, which has had the benches removed some time in the past due to asbestos, and never replaced. Hence the lack of activity. Still, it is light and warm and has windows that open, and water. And I now have a key. I have permission to use this greenhouse for my research, and I am thrilled. Giddy, one might say.
There is more to this than just growing some plants. Years ago, we lived in a beautiful house in Baltimore next to a not so beautiful house that had a GORGEOUS, yet abandoned, greenhouse on its property. I longed to get into that greenhouse. We even discussed buying the lot next door (the not so beautiful house was situated on a double lot) so we might have the extra land, and the greenhouse. Alas this was not to be. So, like a kid with their nose pressed against the toy store window, I would watch the greenhouse sit there with no one entering it, nor loving it. I watched its slow decay: ivy breaking through the windows and letting water to rot the floor, birds and rodents nesting in the office above the growing rooms, the furnace turning red with rust, the pipes green with patina...
Now, I work on a campus with an under-used greenhouse - there was a budget crunch after the renovations were begun on it, so they came to a halt. Since some of my research has to do with plants, I thought I would ask if I might have a small corner of the greenhouse to use. After all, what's the worst that could happen? A no? I'd be no worse off than before. I asked and got a yes! I am finally going to have a greenhouse. Not mine, shared with others, not perfect, but a greenhouse.
The other cool thing was the Chair of the Biology Department, with whom I have not had interaction since the first week of school, when my mind was reeling with dozens of new names and faces, remembered my name. It is a little thing, but it made me feel good. It is nice to be working on a small campus again.
So I am off to plant my indigo and woad, calendula and madder, lady's bedstraw and others. Expect to see me with dirt under my nails and a goofy smile on my face!
There is more to this than just growing some plants. Years ago, we lived in a beautiful house in Baltimore next to a not so beautiful house that had a GORGEOUS, yet abandoned, greenhouse on its property. I longed to get into that greenhouse. We even discussed buying the lot next door (the not so beautiful house was situated on a double lot) so we might have the extra land, and the greenhouse. Alas this was not to be. So, like a kid with their nose pressed against the toy store window, I would watch the greenhouse sit there with no one entering it, nor loving it. I watched its slow decay: ivy breaking through the windows and letting water to rot the floor, birds and rodents nesting in the office above the growing rooms, the furnace turning red with rust, the pipes green with patina...
Now, I work on a campus with an under-used greenhouse - there was a budget crunch after the renovations were begun on it, so they came to a halt. Since some of my research has to do with plants, I thought I would ask if I might have a small corner of the greenhouse to use. After all, what's the worst that could happen? A no? I'd be no worse off than before. I asked and got a yes! I am finally going to have a greenhouse. Not mine, shared with others, not perfect, but a greenhouse.
The other cool thing was the Chair of the Biology Department, with whom I have not had interaction since the first week of school, when my mind was reeling with dozens of new names and faces, remembered my name. It is a little thing, but it made me feel good. It is nice to be working on a small campus again.
So I am off to plant my indigo and woad, calendula and madder, lady's bedstraw and others. Expect to see me with dirt under my nails and a goofy smile on my face!
