MEMBER PROFILE
BOB HILL
Allen Bush : From Seed Starter to Seed Searcher
© PHOTOS COURTESY JOHN NATION / JOHNNATIONPHOTOGRAPHY . COM
Somewhere in his early 20s , Allen Bush figured out that while a degree in sociology was fine and accounting was absolutely the wrong way to go , a guy just might make a happy living in horticulture — with a little bit of writing thrown in just to see where it could lead . Not exactly a road less traveled , but it did make all the difference .
Bush already was one of those kids who was planting bean seeds in milk containers in first grade . Even then he enjoyed the magic that came with it , that tiny little seed pushing up leaves , vines and flowers .
His early education was a mix of Louisville , Kentucky , public schools and the private Blue Ridge School in Saint George , Virginia , where a teacher told him , “ You know , you can write .” “ I can ?” answered Bush , finding needed affirmation for a deep-seated talent that also required a little cultivation .
In 1969 , he went on to the University of Kentucky because that ’ s where his friends were going – and the alternative sounded a lot like Vietnam . The accounting major died a quick death : “ I realized , oh God , I ’ ve got to do homework every night .”
INFLUENCE OF WRITERS , POETS Sociology agreed more with his soul . The University of Kentucky fostered a great writing atmosphere . Wendell Berry taught there ; as did Guy Davenport — author , poet , artist and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winner — and graduate student Richard Taylor , who would become a Poet Laureate of Kentucky . “ They had a big influence on me ,” said Bush .
His strongest influence was a little more existential . While in college , he and three buddies moved to an old farmhouse in rural Jessamine County . The rent was exceedingly cheap , about $ 20 a month each . The house did have electricity , but was bereft of such niceties as running water and indoor plumbing .
“ And I thought to myself ,” Bush said , “ My mother gardened , my sister gardened . I ’ m out here in the country . I ought to have a garden .” Bush passed on that wish to farm owner Elzie Lowery . He then spent much of the winter reading organic magazines , such as Mother Earth News . That spring , Lowery called Bush to tell him his new garden had been plowed . It was at the far end of a tobacco patch ; roughly 300 feet long and 3 feet wide .
“ And I thought ,” said Bush , “ this is not exactly what I had in mind , but it is my first garden .” His joy in that also spread to the nearby fields and woods , where he could watch the buckeyes unfurl in the spring , and learn the names of the bursting clumps of wildflowers .
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