How does your garden grow?

I asked a well known AI tool to create an image showing someone watering a garden of opportunities. As AI generated metaphors go - the representations above are not a bad stab at the idea I was looking for.

However - this is not the gist of the article - I am not particularly interested in how AI generates visual metaphors.

I have to ask all educators - how does your academic garden grow?

1. Do you leave it to luck - see what happens.
2. Do you occasionally visit, pluck out some weeds and tend to the healthy crop.
3. Do you regularly buy in new plants - to maintain the crop and let the rotting vines die out.
4. Or - are you like me, continually tending, weeding, nurturing, grafting vines and checking on the performance; exploring yield, quality, viability etc.

Do not get me wrong, I do let vines die, I will pluck out weeds, I do occasionally rely on luck - I have also been known to buy in new plants.

So, what do you think that I am describing?

In education ... there is a wealth of opportunities, however they do not simply appear, as if by some magical academic sprinkling of cosmic dust. Often, it takes patience, graft and cultivation - over a long period of time. As knowledge exchange, which can be known as outreach/engagement or corporate social responsibility is becoming a domain of greater interest for higher education. Occasionally, I have other academic professionals - act, as if the relationships and opportunities created are easy to pluck out of thin air. They, alas are not.

To get the numbers, find allies, encourage collaboration etc - you have to cultivate, water your garden and tend to it over a long time scale. Equally, results do not happen within academic years, with this you require a growth mindset that is set on the long game - with several short games en route.

I am happy to help others, so long as they are open to nurturing an ecosystem that will take a long time to develop.