I love my job

I love my job.  It may sound corny but it's true. 

A couple of weeks ago a client called me up to help her plant some annuals she had gotten but hadn't been able to plant because she had gotten sick.  She lives on a five acre beautiful property in the vicinity of a red tail hawk nest and the pair would present themselves every afternoon. 
She had a few flats of lovely annuals and basically let me get on with planting them into the containers on her deck.  I love putting together little vignettes of color!  And since I had seven or eight containers I could really get into doing a "variety on a theme".  How fun!
Next she explained that she wanted her front bed to be full of color, gave me a budget (a budget is very important for people like me as I enjoy nothing more than buying plants with other people's money...) and off I went to the nursery to select the best plants for her location.  When I got back and had everything planted in a subtle and attractive pattern, I couldn't help thinking that I am extremely lucky in my choice of profession.  I got paid to plant flowers!

But of course it isn't that simple.  I did repair and modify some irrigation and mulched the flower beds as well which created a lovely mix of technical work, manual labor and garden design.  I call that a great day of work.

Yesterday I got to go back up to another beautiful property near Sisters to help put the finishing touches on a garden that will be on the Sisters Garden Tour the 8th of July.  These clients have maintained a lot of the natural landscape and have worked hard to create an organic landscape that does not deter from the natural beauty of the area.  Their home is straw bale, full of soft corners and big windowsills and is embued with a sense of peace and beauty.  They thank me for coming to work and I thank them for having me there, I love being at their property.
I had been there earlier in the season to get things under control (mainly weeding) but also some irrigation work as well.  They had two big overhead sprays to water the edible fenced garden and it was quite inefficient.  I converted it to a drip/microspray system and then mulched the beds.  Those two things will go a long way to combating weeds and lowering water usage.
But going back yesterday and seeing the garden areas bursting with flowers and seeing the work I had done previously was extremely satisfying. 

I have found my passion.  I love my job.