There are a few things that every job requires. For horticulturists, we have some tools and traits that we couldn't do our jobs without. Most agricultural tasks require a myriad of tools to accomplish, and horticulture is no exception. The level of tools required is often dependent on the nature of the task at hand, as well as the size and budget of the land being worked. For instance, a commercial cotton field would need more mechanical assistance than a sustenance garden. Likewise, the machinery we use at the Howdy Farm is more intense than the machinery I use at home. Since I've been at home for the last few weeks, I haven't been using a ton of tools, so I'm going to discuss the things that I've learned to love over the last few months, and learned to completely rely on in the last few weeks. The most obvious and basic tool for horticulturists is, of course, pruners! However, my favorite tool has been a soil knife for awhile now. While I couldn't do my job without my trusty pruners, I think my favorite thing about soil knives is how versatile they are. If you need to dig, cut open a bag of mulch, carry something, plant something, chop something down, squish a bug, etc., there's a soil knife for that! Besides soil knives, the best tool a horticulturists can have is actually a trait: adaptability. If this semester at the Howdy Farm has taught me anything, it's that horticulturists can't do their job if they're not adaptable. A lot of what we do is entirely dependent on mother nature, so the very foundation of horticulture is prone to shifting at a moment's notice. There was a day that Michael and I were thinking about planting my seeds and setting them up in the greenhouse but we ended up repairing a broken water line. I started my semester as an intern at the Howdy Farm in College Station and have ended up doing several home improvement projects around the house with my parents! This semester has been an unprecedented, unanticipated exercise in adaptability. With the current state of the world, horticulturists are now having to be even more adaptable.
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Allie MartinHowdy! My name is Allie and I am a senior Horticulture major from Austin (keep it weird, y'all). Welcome to the home of pollinator garden paradise. Here you will find my journey through growing pollinator and host plant species, and hopefully, see the life cycle of native butterflies unfold! Archives
April 2020
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