A Ten Dollar Plant In A Ten Cent Hole

My dad was an amazing gardener. When he was in his prime, his garden was the envy of the community. While I respected his passion, working with plants did not become a passion of mine until college. Helping him put tomato plants into the garden or set out trees or shrubs was not my favorite thing to do.

One of his favorite phrases when we were preparing the hole was “You don’t put a ten dollar plant in a ten cent hole.” His point was that you would not want to take a plant you had invested money in and limit its ability to succeed because you didn’t create the best environment. Many times I would have to make the hole bigger or add additional nutrient material before he would allow me to actually place the tree or plant into the ground. And yes, the extra attention did make a difference.

In regards to change, I see too many people shoving new ideas or plans into horribly deficient environments. The idea or plan struggles to survive in this new setting. Sometimes it slowly recovers to grow into the results the person was looking for. Too often, it simply dies.

 If there’s a change you are struggling with, have you created the environment where the change can have the best chance to flourish, or have you basically left it to make it on its own?  Most importantly, can you afford to let his new direction “die?”