How rough can gardening students be anyway?

During last night’s organic gardening class, my students brought me down to earth.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to teach. Problem is, I always feel a little nervous at the first class with a new group of students peering at me from their desks with great anticipation. Never mind that I’ve taught the subject a dozen times, or for as many years. (How rough can a group of gardening students be anyway?) That’s just how I am.
Usually after a few minutes my shoulders relax and then I settle down. Here’s where my students came to my rescue…

I gave each person a short questionnaire. It’s a way for me to get to know them, and they use the opportunity to express why they want to learn how to grow stuff. During a break, I reviewed some of their responses. Oh, sure there was the expected be more sustainable, grow more safe, healthy food, and get more exercise, but there were some sweetness, too. Even from the guys:

• Introduce my kids to gardening
• Be around green, growing things
• Grow cut flowers for myself and friends
• Grow beautiful things to photograph

I drove home around 10 o’clock and sat down with a cup of tea. So why do I like to grow stuff? Well, for lots of reasons. But you know, I’d rather hear your thoughts. I mean, surely it’s not for the love of weeding, is it?