July 25 - Ground

How serendipitous that today's photo prompt – ground – works so well
with my last day of work at Groundworks. It's been great!

July 19 - Building

The building – not quite a shed, even – where soil amendments and bales of
potting soil are stored at the nursery. I love that even a storage shed gets a touch
of art with the painted wooden quilt block, and the style of diagonal wood walls.

July 17 - Inspiration

This is the logo, interpreted in metal, for the nursery where I've been working
the past several years. Next Wednesday will be my last day for this season,
or any season, as I've told them I won't be back next year. Time for me to  enjoy retirement!
The owners – now friends – have been a huge inspiration to me as I've landscaped
my yard, planted my gardens, and taken better care of the earth. Thanks, Groundworks!

April 10 - A place

This is the place I work. You know, that place I wrote about this morning.
And that place I just got home from. It's SO beautiful, I'm grateful to work
outdoors on days like this.

Better late than never

So I woke up this morning a little later than I usually do, and since I had to be work at the garden center at 9 a.m. I didn't have time to write in the wee small hours. I only work two days a week, and then only from 9 to 1 p.m. I know, it's tough. Heh.

Here's the view from inside the sales pavilion, looking out on the Greenbrier River:

Listening to the rushing water, seeing the beauty of the growing plants, dragging the water hose around moving my body in new and challenging ways – it's good to be back. I only wish the weather would catch up. Early spring at the garden center is always iffy and there always are a few days where layering is A Good Thing. But it was SLEETING when I got home an hour ago. I hope the pansies can handle a little frozen rain better than I could.

Anyway, I'd thought I would have the energy to both work and walk, and I actually might. But since it's precipitating and cold, I will opt to take a little restorative nap instead. I walked five miles yesterday after work, but I only worked two hours and it wasn't as physically taxing as it was today.

The good thing is – and I know this from experience – I'll get used to it. And the other good thing is, if the garden center's open, it must be SPRING!

I heart my job

I really do.

Growing up, I was not at all interested in gardening. My father always had a vegetable garden, and he loved growing weird things like kohlrabi and shoepeg corn. My grandmother loved getting her hands dirty; she grew beautiful roses and poppies.

One time as an adult I threw some pot seeds out the back door and ended up transplanting a pretty incredible plant into the basement under a grow light. They call it "weed" because that's how it grows – like a weed.

My third husband was a back-to-the-land wannbe, and we had several raised-bed gardens, but again – they were his, not mine.

I guess it took all this time to meet the right mentors and to be open to the possibility of me actually being a gardener. I started several years ago with perennial beds, and three years ago dug up a large area for vegetables. Two years ago I doubled that space. It's just the right size to provide almost a year's worth of tomatoes, garlic, pickles and green beans for my husband and myself, along with several months' worth of squash, edamame, onions and okra. Oh, and the annual New Year's Day serving of Hoppin' John. (Seriously, black-eyed peas are easy and fun to grow, and I'm willing to "spend" a row of space on them just because they're so cool-looking.)

In the last couple years I've added two more large perennial beds, filled in the planters in front of the house, created an herb bed, planted strawberries and blackberries and am right now looking at three apple trees, all in bloom.

Here's the view from the break "room."

I wouldn't love gardening nearly as much if I weren't working at Groundworks. I'm inspired each time I go in to work. My "office" is a potting bench, with a sea of flowers in front of me and the gentle Greenbrier River flowing behind me. There's something beautiful to look at all the time: new varieties of perennials, unusual and interesting annuals, weird plants I'd never thought about (like the papyrus plant that came home with me over the weekend) and old favorites like baptisia and creeping phlox and hostas.

Papyrus, a likely candidate
for the "thriller" part
of the thriller/filler/spiller
combination in an outdoor
container garden.

And my job is not always about getting my hands dirty. I'm on a mission right now to find or create a daily sales report that will meet their needs. I do advertising and marketing for them. I spruce up their blog and Facebook page, make signs and I've even learned how to use the cash register. I load heavy bags of fertilizer and huge bales of growing mix into pick-up trucks. I water hundreds (maybe thousands, but who's counting?) of trees and plants.

It's a physical job, yet another reason I need to keep working out. Being leaner and stronger can only help me as I help the next customer wrestle a couple of rhododendrons into the trunk of her car.

Working girl

So yesterday was my first real day of work (which I define as getting paid to be someplace for a specific period of time) in a long, long time. I've been here in the Middle of Nowhere for nearly 15 years now, and the last time I had a "job" was when I lived in Ohio. (I do a tiny bit of freelance graphic design, which is real work, but I set my own hours for that.)

I've helped out at a local garden center for the past two summers, bartering my labor for their plants. This year, thanks to Rocky Raccoon, I'm on the books and covered by Worker's Compensation, in case one of Rocky's cousins shows up. This year I'll be doing sales as well as production, getting me out of my comfort zone a bit.

It's a part-time, temporary gig and the working conditions couldn't be more beautiful – a sea of flowers and plants in front of me and a river behind me. It's a great "office" and the work is fun for someone who doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. Or her t-shirt, face, cap, etc. And, um, that would be me.

I was pretty tired yesterday when I got home. I didn't stay up for Mad Men, but will be able to watch it online today, maybe. We have a pretty full day scheduled – workout, banking, driving back to the "city" to deliver our old car title and to pick up some phone doodads – but I guess this is what most working people do, right? This little job will, hopefully, make me use my at-home time more efficiently.

Maybe my husband will learn to cook. And maybe pigs will fly. Heh.