I am very late with this portion of my blog, yet it is one of the most important parts of my life.  I get the most pleasure from being outside and I have always enjoyed gardening. One of the things that I like is that your always learning. There are so many facets to it and you can go in any direction you please.

Background

I’ve always loved planting and getting my hands dirty. It feels so good! I was a tomboy growing up and was always in the woods and playing in streams and ponds. Always a nature girl, happiest anywhere outdoors. As an adult, I had other responsibilities such as being a single mom to two children and working full time, sometimes two jobs, and other time full time and attending college at night.

After awhile I left corporate and got a part time job at a small privately owned nursery.  I fell in love. When you’re given the advice of finding something you love because then you won’t mind working, that is sure the truth. Believe it. Hopefully it won’t take you as long as it took me! I learned so much, I could wear my go to outfit, (jeans) every day. Unfortunately the lady who owned the nursery was a shady character and heavily into debt. She ended up emptying the store and disappearing. Another lady I met working there knew the landlord and we thought we could open it up ourselves! She didn’t have the money so I took my profit sharing and took over the nursery and hired my friend.  It was a nursery, gift shop, and florist. I had no flower arranging skills and I left it that I would do the outside and she would handle the florist duties.

One of the things I always remembered was that one time I was shopping at a nursery and I wanted a delphinium so bad. I spoke with the person on hand and he asked me where would I be planting it. I told him and then he proceeded to tell me the conditions needed to have a  healthy delphinium.  It wouldn’t work for me.  Well I appreciated him giving me that information, I never forgot it and knew that is the kind of nursery I want to have. You don’t want to waste people’s money for the sake of a sale. That is one of the ways that going to a private nursery is better than your big box store. Another important lesson learned.  Also gardeners love to talk, they love to hear and share and learn.  Gardeners are friendly, awesome people!

I’m not putting down going to your local Lowe’s or Home Depot. If you know exactly what you want that’s fine. The prices are better but you have to remember, they are huge buyers, and that is why their prices are low. You will not get the personalization, knowledge or any specialty plant, tree or shrub you might be looking for. On a side note, it breaks my heart when the plants are not watered and are dying in their containers.

Anyway, we had so much fun getting the nursery ready.  The building was charming. All one level with a stone fireplace and wide plank pine floors.  I wanted to sponge paint some of the walls, this was before sponge painting was “a thing”. I went into Sherwin Williams and they had no idea what I was talking about, same with AC Moore, although they did show me where the natural sponges were. Needless to say there was no Utube .  I also wanted to take grapevine and and have it climbing up a wall like a tree with spreading limbs.  I had to buy grapevine wreaths, they didn’t sell just grapevines, and unroll them and anchor the branches to the wall. It came out great! My father made flower boxes for the front. I named the nursery Strawberry Fields Gift shop, Nursery and Florist.

I learned as I went along. By placing orders from the catalogs, I got familiar with the names, the zones, seasonal habits, and by taking delivery and pricing and placement I knew exactly what I had and where to find it. This was in NY and one of the first things I had to learn was “deer proof” plants. Of course there are very few and if a deer is hungry they will eat just about anything! This is very important. At this time I knew my favorite flowers were perennials, and to this day they are my specialty.

I also learned a bit of flower arranging. If there was a picture, I could do it. Not my friend, she didn’t need any pictures, she naturally had an eye for it.  Me, it was kind of hit and miss.

Then came the gift shop part of it. Wow, was I in heaven! I got to go to the gift show at the Javit’s Center and the gift building in NYC, and buy everything wholesale! Talk about a kid in a candy store, this was mine! I did have a vision of things I wanted to carry, unique items, items related to gardening and I had a field day! I also adopted two shop kitties, (from a friend) their names were Annie and Oakley, a brother and sister. They charmed all the customers.

I have to say that when I opened the nursery, I had already been diagnosed with MS. I exhibited no signs and could do everything that needed to be done. I was 35 years old. A lot of people discouraged me from opening but my mind was set. When a couple of years later I had to close, I was still glad that I had done it and had the best time doing it. I met the nicest  people and I will never forget that life experience.

When the shop closed I was very depressed. For years I couldn’t drive by the location. This was right before 9/11. When I was going out of business I met two people. One, a lady  opening up her own small nursery, and a man who was opening up a garden center. I ended up working part time for each. The garden center was first, which I loved, and he knew nothing of perennials.  That ended up being to physical and I couldn’t do it so then I went to work for the small nursery, working in the gift shop and flower arranging until that got to be too much also.

After a long relapse and trying several different medications, I finally felt good enough to try something new. I had read an article about something called garden coaching.  This was where you took your knowledge and made a garden plan using the information you were supplied. I would meet customers at their homes and discuss their likes and dislikes, how much sun or shade, the quality of the soil and whether they had deer, gophers, rabbits, whatever. The best part……they would do the work! This was for people who wanted to learn.  Right away I said, “I CAN DO THIS”.  That is how I became a Garden Coach. I named the business Imagine Gardens.

I started getting jobs immediately. I would meet, gather the information, and make a detailed garden plan for the customer. Yahoo, back doing something I love. I continued to do this until my  husband got transferred to Virginia.

The house we bought had trees covering the front which I did not like.One of the first things we did was remove the trees and let the sunlight in.  The yard was landscaped nicely and on the side were 3 empty raised beds.  I thought this was a gift from God.  During the first weeks there I saw an ad in the newspaper for a Master Gardener course that the county was offering.  I googled the address, I had to make sure that I could drive there, ( I only drive locally, not highways).  Luckily it was very close and I signed up. Besides learning more about gardening, I thought that maybe I can make some new friends. One of the first things they had us do was take soil samples in our yards.  I couldn’t believe that there was practically no soil to get.  It was very hard, all clay, the worst soil I’ve ever encountered.  That’s when it hit me thats why there are raised beds in the yard, because you can’t plant in the regular soil!  At this time I was walking with a cane and very mobile.  I enjoyed the course, passed with flying colors, (open book tests). I started volunteering. I did the plant clinics, the help line, plant sales, and continuing education. I volunteered to do the Newsletter, which I did for 5 years.

As the MS got worse, there were fewer opportunities to volunteer and it was harder getting to the offices.  I thought I had made some connections but it became evident that I didn’t.  One thing about me is that I don’t like to ask for help and so I don’t.  One member did follow up and offer me rides to events I couldn’t get to on my own and we’d gone out to lunch.  Not one other person offered any assistance or friendship. Needless to say I was hurt.

I have been a Master Gardener now for 8 years.  This year I was going to stop but because of the Corona virus, Master Gardener college is being offered on-line.  Usually a few MG’s would go each year to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.  They stayed in hotels or dorm rooms, whichever you preferred.  The whole course lasts 4 days, a long weekend. I had expressed interest on numerous occasions and no one offered a ride, of course I never asked either.  This June I am enrolled and I can finally go.  I’ll stick around for one more year since I can get my hours in with this course.  I will let the extension office agent know when I will no longer be participating.  I do wish they would give exit interviews, I would like to let them know my reasons.  One thing I have noticed is that there is no follow up.  They don’t do anything to keep their volunteers.  I have watched so many just disappear.  I was shredding this week, going through old newsletters and I was surprised to notice how many volunteers I don’t see anymore.

While I was still a Master Gardener, I started volunteering at the botanical gardens.  At this point, I am now in a wheelchair.  I didn’t think there were too many opportunities so I signed up for helping in the library.  Although I couldn’t work in the gardens, much too hot, there were more and more opportunities!  I helped make decorations for the Gardenfest of Lights, prepping cut flowers for classes they had, the yearly plant sales and whatever else that came along.  I love it there. I really feel in my element.  They have the best garden/gift shop that I didn’t think I could work in, until I mentioned it. This lady said, “come with me”, and brought me right into the garden shop and introduced me to the manager.  I have been there ever since.  It reminds me of my store and all the eclectic, unique and fun items I would have had.  The buyers knew my history and noticed I had a good eye and this year asked me to assist in buying!

I feel so welcome here. They go out of their way to accommodate me, (which they are already very accessible).  They value all of their volunteers and continually offer us all kinds of perks.

DaDaDum…..then the corona virus hit in March and all volunteers were sent home.  The following week 90% of the staff were also let go.  We are all biding our time hoping this ends soon.  They did receive funding for some of the staff to come back.  I feel so bad for the employees.  I didn’t know that as a non-profit they actually lost their jobs and would have to reapply when this was over, (they were practically guaranteed to get their jobs back).  Our librarian didn’t make it.  She was a recent college grad with no family down here and couldn’t afford to wait it out. She did get a fabulous new job up north where she came from around her family.

So there it is, my whole gardening history except for my personal garden which from now on the Gardening part will be about