Quality in life seems to be determined by choices.

Do you choose to garden? How purposeful are your choices in gardening? Are you primarily growing plants for beauty and nourishment or for profit?

That last question is valid here today but would be irrelevant and confusing to someone in other locations or other epochs in our world history. The basis for making decisions is subconsciously formed by the influence of our selected society. With education and exposure to others’ situations, a person’s basis can expand, becoming less provincial and selfish.

A person’s basis can expand if their mind can accept and use information that adds to their knowledge base. It requires someone who can try to do things differently. It requires someone who makes choices in their actions. Education and research will equip them with intellectual tools to select the desired result. The person also needs confidence to change, improve or try different actions. Finally, decisions are influenced by personal beliefs and preferences. Choices. Results are always the product of choices.

Projects, including growing plants, have results based on choices selected. How purposeful are your choices in gardening? Gardening can be mundane or can make a statement. Are you making short- or long-term decisions? Are you following marketed products and techniques? Have you embraced the past and returned to pre-WWII techniques? Are your choices a blend of both?

Every action in the garden reflects the wisdom of Newton’s third law: that every action has an equal or greater reaction. When you cut the grass, do the clippings go back into the soil or become a contribution to the trash heap? When adding plants to the landscape, are you selecting a native plant which adds value to the non-human life which depends on the outside environment to live and thrive or are you adding a plant which can live and often thrive in this area but offers nothing to the existing interconnectedness of life that exists here? Can this plant get out of control and invade the existing environment?

Here, in Middle Tennessee, we are halfway through this year’s growing season. Flowers can bloom through the first frost in October. Vegetables produce at least through the first frost and, with environmental protections, can go into the winter. There is more than enough time in this season to affect and influence your piece of our world.

Actionables
Classes at the Lane Agri-Park on John R. Rice Boulevard are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 9 a.m. and last approximately one hour. More details are available at rutherford.tennessee.edu.

Market Events for August:
Aug. 2: Backyard Rain Gardens
Aug. 6: Cooking with Kids
Aug. 9: Learn to Make a Charity Quilt
Aug. 13: 4-H STEAM
Aug. 16: Harvesting Honey
Aug. 20: Stretching Your Food Dollars
Aug. 23: Water
Aug. 27: Seasonal Eating
Aug. 30: Viticulture 101

Rutherford County Master Gardeners will present Keep Your Garden Going at the Linebaugh Library, upper boardroom, at 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 2.

Saturday, Aug. 24, from 7–11 a.m. is Grape Harvest Day at the Lane Agri-Park. Park at the Farmers Market parking lot. Bring a five-gallon bucket, pruners, gloves, hat and clean jugs for juice.

Reminder: Prune mid-summer flowering bushes now. Buds for next year set in the fall. Later pruning will remove next year’s flowers.