I'm obsessed with plants and landscapes.
I go for a run and I'm naming off all the plants that I pass. I was at the hospital today visiting my mother in law and it was "Gro Low Sumac, Russian Sage, Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass, Miscanthus, What is that tree? file that leaf shape away in the brain to do research when I get home."
Other times I'm lamenting. "oh they bought those dang hydrangeas from Costco and planted them in full sun, should I knock on their door?" decided against it and drove past the next week to a pile of dead hydrangeas. Should have maybe knocked.
I'm experimenting and making mistakes too and that's okay. I definitely pruned our grapes wrong. But that's okay and I still have more than we can eat. I tried to divide a gaura and realized it has a taproot. I pruned my tomatoes for the first time ever and probably cut too many leaves off. Oh well! They are still thriving. And my cutting garden should have planted the flowers in blocks like at Snuck Farm so the tall sunflowers wouldn't hog the sunlight. I'm learning that most of the time, plants are super resilient.
I wake up every morning and the first thing I think about is getting out in the yard. What projects can I do today? What needs to be done? What do I want to do? And I'm SO excited to do it. In fact I can't wait to wake up to go out and see what is happening.
I drive around neighborhoods and study their landscaping. Taking note of sizes, bloomtimes, etc. I stop by nurseries to see how their stock compares to ours.
I had a customer come in yesterday and she had to pick plants for her yard installation on Saturday and it was SO fun! I went home and sent her inspiration photos of different options and it just makes me really excited and happy. I'm going to research tree options for her too.
The next thing I need to do is take some Landscape design classes and learn Autocad and sketch up.
I feel like I'm more "me" than I've ever been. I am proud of what I've learned and I love to share this passion. I'm excited for what's coming next. I feel healthier emotionally because I've got time to think of things I love all day instead of having too much time on my hands and ruminating on kid things and other things I can't/shouldn't control. Its a good feeling and I think it is helping me to be a better spouse and parent. Its fun to use my brain. In the past few years I've asked myself on occasion, "Am I dumb now?" lol but really did feel like sometimes I'm not learning new things. Now I am. And there is no making myself do something. There is an energy for this that I've never had for anything else in my life. There is no mental effort because I love it so much.
So fortunately I have this cute recent BYU Business School Experience Design Grad in my basement for a few more weeks! Elise has great taste and I'm going to have her help me with a logo. And we are going to do somethings on Etsy. And planning some fun events for winter! I'm excited.
