Liz Hutchinson

As a career horticulturist, the ability to observe is paramount. The input you are able to receive from the world around you is just as important, if not moreso, than your own output. 

You learn patterns: which plants can take dry shade, which plants must have wet feet, which ones want to bake on a rock in the sun. You see differences: this plant is dropping leaves when all her sisters are fine, this leaf is covered in bright yellow aphids, this branch is reverting. You notice some incredible shade of blue, the texture of one leaf against another, a wasp you’ve never noticed before with a long string connecting her thorax and her abdomen. 

The same is true of writing. You listen and you listen and if you are lucky you hear something worth repeating.