Please Excuse My Dirty Fingernails, But I’m Busy Changing the World

Want to join me?

When most people turn 65, they look forward to retirement and an easy life. Not me. Instead of sitting on my duff, playing golf, or complaining about aches and pains, I’m busy learning a new skill.

This life change entails hours of research, acquiring and understanding new information, perfecting new talents, and learning through trial and error. However, it’s not a chore. Instead, the work is fun because I’m following my passion and operating on my own schedule. What could be better than this?

What’s This All About?

Gardening.

I can see your eyes rolling, but please let me explain. My idea of gardening doesn’t match the consensus of 90% of the general population. I am not going to the local big box store to buy exotic, pretty flowers to artfully arrange in a manicured lawn. That, my friend, is as boring as playing shuffleboard.

I’ll be doing quite the opposite. My idea of gardening involves searching along roadsides and through the woods, locating native flowers, trees, and shrubs, photographing them, and then gathering seeds or cuttings to recreate Mother Nature’s style of landscaping in my yard. 

But Wait, There’s More

That’s just the start. My passion encompasses more than just gardening. I care about our entire planet and feel we need to take a broader view and look at environmental conservation as a whole. Between the destruction of habitats and ecosystems, the decline in pollinator populations, overuse of pesticides, pollution, and climate change, humanity has royally screwed up nature’s balance.

Yet, I prefer the glass-half-full approach. Yes, we’ve messed things up, but the good news is that ordinary people like you and me can make a difference. Maybe not on a large scale, but in our own little ways – YES, WE CAN!

I plan to spend the next 20 to 30 years learning, exploring, experimenting, and discovering what I can do. Hopefully, through my successes and failures, we will all be encouraged to plant a few native plants, pick up litter, refrain from using pesticides, or reduce our carbon footprints.

If you’re unfamiliar with the environmental impacts of litter and pesticides or what a carbon footprint is, stay tuned; we will learn all this stuff together. That’s the purpose of this bi-weekly newsletter. Together, we can laugh at our mistakes, cheer our successes, and learn how to be better stewards of our planet.

Join me, and let’s get our hands dirty!