A few years ago, Duncan Wardle, former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney, spoke at a plant industry convention. He gave an amazing presentation on creativity, how important creativity is, and why we aren’t always at our best when it comes to creativity. Click here to watch one of his TED Talks.
A takeaway from his talk that I still use today is the phrase “Yes, and…” I think he used it in the context of creative brainstorming sessions, replacing the phrase “no, but” with “yes, and.” That really stuck with me. Sometimes, a simple phrase like that can completely change the path of a conversation. In this case, instead of telling a fellow brainstormer, “No, but,” which kind of sounds like “I don’t like your idea, but listen to mine,” you say “Yes, and” to add to their idea. It allows building creative ideas instead of battling between ideas.
Kim and I realized that we use this idea in the garden all the time. We love coming up with projects to do. We’ll sit in the yard and look at a particular area and then start talking about the possibilities for the space. It usually starts with a simple idea, and then each of us adds to it with a “Yes, and,” until it transforms into something better than either of us would have come up with individually.
But it also gets us knee-deep into projects that we don’t always have as much time for as we would like, as happened recently with our veggie beds. We were changing the location of the beds, and both Kim and I defaulted to the idea of them being simple rectangles. Then we added a second row, a path in between, hopefully someday leading to a garden shed. Then I sat in the backyard and asked myself, “Why build rectangles, when you can build giant trapezoids plus an octagon and arrange them to create a mandala veggie garden?” Of course, Kim loved the idea, and so our new veggie gardens were born. Lots of lumber, lots of screws, and lots of sweat were required. Plus, we wildly underestimated the slope of our backyard. At one side the beds are only eight inches above ground, on the other more than 3 feet. I think I’m going to have to build steps so that we can get in to scout and harvest. For us, “Yes, and” means that we never do anything simple. We always build on each other’s ideas and end up in a unique and usually fun place.
I’m glad we did get the veggie beds completed, because Fall Veggie Season is here! Join me this Saturday to kick off our fall seminar series with our Organic Veggie Gardening seminar. It will be similar to the “Beginning Veggie Gardening” seminar, but I will make sure it highlights the plants and products needed for organic gardening. (And the Mi Cafecito Mobile Coffee Bar will be here in the morning with hot and iced coffee for sale!) Then next Saturday the 21st, I’m going to teach Advanced Veggie Gardening. I’ll take on topics that I can’t get into in my starter workshop, diving deeper into bug and fungus issues – how to prevent, how to treat -and we’ll take on growing tomatoes (always challenging). It’s a great time to start making fall happen, so let’s come together and “Yes, and!” our way to amazing fall veggie gardens.
