From Where I Stand

from The Landscape Contractor magazine JUN.20 Digital Edition

Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces A look at the design style of Jan Johnsen

As we wrap up our second month in quaranpertinent landscaping, lawn care, and horticulture issues. Then we drew tine, it seems like all of us are changing to adapt to our new reality. In back the curtain and revealed a politician or a talk show talking head or those first 30 days, we felt like toddlers. Sure, we were scared by a lot, an AM radio DJ. The audience would be in shock. Immediately, we’d but we approached our days with childlike wonder. We revisited pet say, “What! This person doesn’t know anything about landscaping and projects and explored new hobbies. After work, we inched out of our horticulture. Where is the expert you promised?” homes for nightly walks maintaining wide, silent Let’s take it a step further, instead of having our distances between those we passed by. We spent our usual book seller offering volumes of books on landnight’s e-learning about this new virus seeing what scaping, horticulture, and plants we lined up guys who new research or development could stop COVID-19 made Facebook memes and sketchy YouTube videos in its tracks. We explored our hidden potential, set in their apartments. We asked our attendees to line up goals, reembraced our families, and made the best of to have their favorite 10-word meme signed by some a world with brand new boundaries and rules. guy who’s never been in a greenhouse or picked up a

If the first 30 days were childhood, the next 30 shovel. days were adolescence. We got restless, cranky, Our most popular sessions at iLandscape are the and withdrawn. We wanted to sleep until noon and ones where landscape professionals stand on a stage go out cruising with our friends. We procrastinated and come clean about their mistakes. They detail all on our pet projects. We took chances like inching the times they approached a problem completely wrong our driveway lawn chairs closer to our neighbors and gleaned essential wisdom from the failed outfor those Friday night beers. New information on come. They offer humility and laugh about their errors COVID-19 was met with, “Whatever, just tell me because it became a teachable moment in their quest when it’s over.” In Illinois, we saw our friends to become a better professional. No audience wants in Georgia and Texas and Wisconsin and whined, “C’mon, their parents are letting them hangout with their friends!” Only to have our leadership reply, “Well, I’m not Wisconsin’s mother! If that’s how they do things in their family, maybe you should go live with them!” We folded our arms and stormed-off deep down knowing they loved us and only wanted to The Maturation Process someone to arrogantly stand in front of them and say they should be listened to because they’re never wrong and never make mistakes. We’d roll our eyes and say, “Next.” Our iLandscape audience would never accept this. Our program would be a laughingstock. Our numbers would plummet. We’d fail at our mission to provide keep us safe. education that improves the lives and livelihood of

The mood on social media and around the counlandscape professionals. try changed to. The first 30 days we used social media to reconnect Our commitment to knowledge is not just limited to our jobs. If virtually where we could not be physically. It became a vital lifeline to anyone has ever shared a beer with the Breier family of National Seed feel close to each other while miles or even 6’ apart. However, the old (and who hasn’t) the conversation always turns to sports. We list the demons began to creep back in. Sadly, we saw the same arguments, top 5 best quarterbacks or the best NBA starting lineups of all time. We charlatans, misinformation, and trench warfare that cause so many of all have intense and unbreakable sports loyalties, yet sports arguments us to despise our virtual community. The usual battle lines got drawn rarely devolve into cross-eyed shouting matches. Sports fans pride ourin the ongoing political and culture wars that we are letting define us in selves on our knowledge, but we can have spirited discussions without this country. raised blood pressure or feelings getting hurt. We disagree like adults

I am hoping the next 30 days bring a sense of maturity and wisdom. and we aren’t silly enough to think our point of view is the only point It is time for all of us to grow up a little in this new reality. of view that matters.

About one third of all attendees at iLandscape purchase the more In most every other walk of life, we acknowledge ignorance and expensive education pass. The ILCA Education Committee requests a embrace knowledge. Look at our hobbies. Cooks share recipes and substantial budget annually and we gather the best minds, authors, and techniques. Musicians noodle and riff. Fitness enthusiasts share workexperts in the horticulture and landscape communities. I put the ILCA’s out routines and song playlists. Pet lovers discuss training methods and annual educational program up against any in the country for its breadth accept a melting pot breeds. Look at the wisdom we receive from our and depth. The Education Committee reads, analyzes, and mines thougrandparents and senior citizens who look back at their one and only sands of session evaluation forms for nuggets on how to improve the life where each regret serves as a stepping stone to every triumph. next program and with whom. They attend conferences of their own Yet politics is that one blind spot where it all goes out the window. and read countless books, white papers, and blogs to find speakers with Maybe I was naive to think COVID-19 would bring out the best in the perfect balance of expertise, practical knowledge, and presentation America. We’d realize how silly and trivial political differences are skills. against an enemy that doesn’t care about borders, religion, gender, or

The proof is in the pudding. Every year, the education attendance politics. In addition, I ever expected a political dogfight on an issue numbers have grown. We feel that the iLandscape program makes the where every single person wants the exact same outcome - for this dislandscape industry better. It perfectly matches the passions of lifelong ease to be quickly eradicated, with little loss of life, so we can rebuild learners who understand that even with decades of past experience, our economy and relationships again. there is always room for more knowledge, wisdom, and paradigmWhen we find ourselves searching for disagreement on an issue shifting. where everyone universally agrees - we aren’t being true to our ideals

Now, let’s imagine we treated the iLandscape educational programs - we are just bored siblings in the back of a car looking for something like how we argue about politics. Imagine if we announced we had one to fight about. I’m sorry, but there is just too much on the line to act of the leading experts on horticulture in our field as the keynote speaklike bored adolescents. We cannot let our ideologies get bigger than our er. We billed this person as having all the answers to all of your most brains.

When ILCA accepted the awesome responsibility to try and help our members get through this crisis, we agreed we had to be timely, honest, and transparent. Our members were depending on us to wade through the clutter and provide a “boots on the ground” reality to how businesses could get through this crisis. We didn’t create a narrative and then pick and choose what information to dispense that fits that narrative. We didn’t say, “Well 80 hours of paid leave is a lot for COVID-19 and could hurt businesses so let’s just not tell anyone about it.” That’s wrong and unethical, especially when there are literal lives on the line.

I’ve had to field calls from panicked members when COVID-19 entered their workplace. I personally know those who got sick and, sadly, I know of fatalities. Thankfully, our closed Facebook group has avoided the nonsense. On my way to access the group I float over a news feed that exists in a different reality. An alternative reality where every interaction is part of some epic struggle between good and evil or public health vs. the economy or hard science vs. conspiracy theories or left vs. right. I try to race past it as quick as I can, but it is hard not to get discouraged.

Look, I get it. I love consuming the news. I understand the gravity of these issues even as I abhor political theater. I love non-fiction books and read countless articles in an attempt to not sound like a moron (yes, I realize I have more work to do!). I understand that after a hard day, sometimes it’s nice to relax in an easy chair and immerse ourselves in a biased media world where we are never wrong. Where experts are made up out of whole cloth and facts that run counter to our beliefs are a threat and must be eliminated. It’s satisfying, but deeply, deeply unhealthy.

The calendar is about to turn on our next 30 days of this reality. All indicators show a light at the end of the tunnel. I think back to The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19. I can’t fathom how terrifying that must have been as it swept across the country claiming the lives of 750,000, many of them children and young adults. I can’t imagine how the world could emerge from that threat with anything else on its mind besides peace and prosperity. Yet, 20 years later, we were fighting World War II.

Maybe this is our destiny. No matter how many times we are shown what really matters we will retreat to a world where only our own beliefs matter. Maybe we have been in the backseat of the car too long where the only feelings left are the sting of the last punch we received from our sibling. So we ball our fist, once more.

Personally, I don’t believe that is our destiny. These past 60 days in our industry, I’ve seen too much sacrifice, humility, and honesty. I’ve talked too many quaking voices through what to do next. Inside all of us is that desire to self-improve. That desire to learn how to landscape, bake bread, play a G-chord, or housebreak a puppy. So next time someone says they are an expert here to tell you the truth, it’s responsible to question their expertise and motives. If you find them lacking, simply do what you’d do at iLandscape - walk out of the room and don’t look back.