Daffodils and Garden Beds – LOCC Blog

By Tanner Porter
November 13, 2023

One of the amazing aspects of getting to be a Creator in Residence with the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps is that the LO provides the composers with housing for the year, so that we can live full-time in Louisville during our residency. Having rented small city apartments most of my adult life, I was absolutely thrilled when I moved to Louisville and saw that the residence I’d be living in had a yard, complete with garden beds in the back.

It’s safe to say that I’m a huge plant person. I love taking care of my houseplants, exchanging cuttings with other plant-enthusiasts, and gifting little propagations to my friends. Seeing the garden beds, I immediately set out to learn about what Fall veggies I could plant, and settled on a variety of lettuces, kale, carrots, radishes, and several kinds of bulbs for the Spring. I haven’t had too many chances to grow veggies in recent years, as none of the small apartments I’ve lived in had accessible outdoor space. (Anything beyond potted, windowsill herbs felt beyond me!)

But here in Louisville, I have the chance to grow a vegetable garden…and make a few mistakes along the way. Namely, I learned that first frosts can happen sooner than the internet says they will, and that I should have invested in warm coverings for my seedlings earlier on. The initial round of lettuces were stunted by a quicker-than-anticipated cold snap, but I still got some delicious arugula sprouts of it. Better luck next time!

Having grown up in Southern California, I was especially excited about being able to plant bulbs. When I was a kid, my Mom grew a number of bulbs in pots (mostly Narcissus), and we always had to put them in the refrigerator for that synthetic “cold snap.” Here in Kentucky, you can just plant bulbs right in the ground and let nature do its thing! Woohoo!

I decided to plant Hyacinth, Crocus, and Daffodil bulbs. The thing I find loveliest about this is that the flowers will come back next year, after my residency is over, and hopefully bloom for whichever Creator is living here at that time.

Because this is such a new program, my cohort and I have role of helping the orchestra shape the Creators Corps initiative; what we learn this year will go forward into helping plan the program for next season. Last year’s cohort left us with the gifts of their advice, kindness and support. I hope to pass these sentiments forward to the next group—and maybe a few Daffodils as well. Here’s hoping the bulbs bloom this Spring, and in Springs to come!