Dr. Grow: Growing a garden is like growing children

Each year my wife and I receive an invitation to attend the awards assembly at Cape Central Junior High School. On May 21, I stood in the back of the auditorium and listened as name after name was announced. I was in awe as I realized that I was in the presence of so much potential.

The statistic that impressed me the most was that about 90 percent of the class was recognized in some way or another for the students' efforts. It was unbelievable, in light of today's headlines, that so many kids were recognized as achievers at school.

After the awards assembly, I began to wonder if there was some significant reason why so many kids were recognized. I concluded that there were some parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, church workers, neighbors and teachers in the Heartland who were spending time with these kids. The fruit of their efforts was so evident at the awards assembly.

I think growing kids is like growing a good garden. I remember John, who was the groundskeeper at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He was responsible for not only the football stadium but also seven practice fields and the baseball stadium. The grass on his fields was always topnotch.

John was not formally trained in horticulture, but he could grow grass. He went to each field every morning and looked at it. He knew what each field should look like at each season of the year. He anticipated potential problems. When he found something that didn't look just right, he called in an expert to help him figure out what was wrong.

Because John anticipated problems and took corrective action before the problems became major problems, his playing fields always looked great. What was John's secret? He spent time in his garden. He got to know his turf and was able to tell when something was just not right.

Most of you know Dortha Strack through Sunny Hill, church, Sunday School, Homemakers Club or 4-H. She likes to putter in her garden each evening. She snips a branch here, pulls a weed there. She fertilizes, waters and occasionally sprays a pesticide, but most importantly she spends time in her garden. She knows the plants in her garden. She knows when they are growing well and when they are not.

Daily I look at samples that are brought to me for diagnosis. Quite often I am told that the problem just appeared overnight. I usually have to bite my tongue because most of the problems I see are ones that take weeks to develop. These gardeners are not spending time in their garden.

So many people approach gardening as a weekend or a monthly activity. "Let's work in the yard on Saturday, so we won't have to bother with it for another week or two." During that week or two, problems may begin to develop in their landscape. Because they are not spending time in their yard, nothing is noticed until the problem has gotten out of hand.

Do you think rearing kids is like growing a garden? You don't have to be a fertilizer chemist, a weed control specialist or an entomologist to be a good gardener. You don't have to be a child psychologist, a nurse or a doctor to nurture a child. In both cases you must be willing to spend time with them, know them intimately, recognize changes in growth or behavior and be willing to call in the experts when needed.

P.S. Mom and Dad, keep spending time with the kids. Maybe next year 100 percent of the students at CJHS will be recognized at the awards assembly.