Gardener / Horticulturalist
Dictionary definition of “Horticulture” – The science and art of the development, sustainable production, marketing and use of high-value, intensively cultivated food and ornamental plants. Horticultural crops are diverse, including annual and perennial species, fruits and vegetables, decorative indoor plants and landscape plants. Horticulture contributes to quality of life and the beauty, sustainability and rehabilitation of our environment and the human condition.
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She turned a lifelong interest and hobby into an income producing second career.
FAMILY BACKGROUND AND CAREER INFLUENCE
LG was the youngest of three children. Her father was an investment banker. Her mother was a homemaker who served many years on the volunteer Board of the local SPCA. LG’s parents provided a loving home.
CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF A FUTURE CAREER
Looking back many decades later with an adult perspective, LG always liked to dig in the dirt to plant flowers, pull weeds, mulch, and plan where to create a new show of color next Spring. Little did she anticipate how her childhood interest would persist into adulthood and provide the basis for a second career.
LG’s earliest thought of an adult career was to be a neurosurgeon. Why? Because operating on the brain was certain to be a big learning and skill challenge. However, LG discovered early on that she enjoyed reading, writing and learning foreign languages more than science. Her elementary school provided the opportunity to learn a different language as early as the fifth grade, so LG chose German, more toward eventually serving as an interpreter at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, than as a future teacher.
HIGH SCHOOL DAYS
The same public school district which provided foreign language courses within its elementary schools also offered multiple high school art classes with grades counting the equivalent of traditional academic classes for a student’s GPA. LG enjoyed various aspects of creating art through painting and sculpture. Many of her family members had always been artists and artistic creativity ran strong in her family. However, she heeded her father’s advice: “You’ll never make a living as an artist!” so she was also a dedicated all-around student.
Looking back on her high school days, LG sees a balance between being a good student while maintaining an independent spirit. Her friends were similarly respectful of authority but just before high school graduation, LG and several friends, all of whom were considered to be “Girl Scouts” (i.e., never behavior problems) were caught (!) by a teacher as they were cutting class (!) to head across the street toward a lunch deli. The teacher’s reaction: “Way to go, girls!”
COLLEGE COURSES RELEVANT TO A FIRST CAREER CHOICE
LG’s criteria to select her college enrollment were: (1) far from home so she could experience living in a different geographic area; (2) strong foreign language program; and (3) cold weather to enable skiing near school. Despite her strong high school GPA (a declined applicant rarely knows the reason(s) for rejection), LG was not admitted to her first choice, but was accepted at her second choice, which also met each of LG’s three college enrollment goals.
Maintaining her focus on developing proficiency in foreign languages, LG majored in German and minored in Italian. She was not then interested in pursuing science related courses but looking back, wishes she had because science can be both mentally challenging and interesting to know. LG took one required computer class and did well enough to be able to opt out of a requirement to take a wide variety of liberal arts courses (a strange option, since abandoned, for a liberal arts school.)
In addition to studying languages and “walking on” freshman year to the Division 1 alpine ski team, LG chose to be active as a performer: on stage as an actor and as a member of debate teams plus within moot court (arguing to “pretend” judges the application of fictional facts and actual, basic law). A professor involved in her moot court team advised LG to consider law school. She was intrigued by the possibility of presenting legal arguments as a career during a parents’ visitation weekend during her senior year, LG devoted a few hours to taking the LSAT (Law School Aptitude Test).
FIRST CAREER – LAWYER IN A SMALL LAW FIRM
(Editor’s note – Gardener / Horticulturist was LG’s second career path. For a full narrative of why she chose to be an attorney and a career challenge leading to abandoning her attorney days, see the separate career story: “Law – Attorney In A Small Law Firm”)
EARLY INTERESTS FORECAST A POTENTIAL SECOND CAREER
Since early childhood, LG enjoyed working in the family gardens to plant and transplant flowers and appreciate different plants for the differences between themselves and within themselves as the seasons changed.
LG’s grandfather was a Landscape Architect and before him, several earlier generations had been employed as horticulturists. As a child, LG was fascinated by the gardens created and maintained by her grandfather. His skill in design, cultivation, propagation, and display in ornamental gardens captivated her and was filed away in her mind, to recalled later.
LG’s family took their children to visit beautiful, formal gardens in their area. One featured a large hot-house where LG was amazed to see flowers blooming during the Winter months.
When away from courtrooms and her law office during off-duty time from tending to her law practice clients, LG maintained her family’s home gardens and was often asked to provide gardening advice to friends. She read about plants and horticulture to increase her amateur knowledge.
TURNING INFORMAL ADVICE INTO A PAYING BUSINESS
After taking a few months away from employment as a partner in a law firm, to focus on being a full-time mother, LG wanted to fill her working time void with an interesting activity. She dismissed the idea of returning to practising law due to its heavy time demands and requirements to be in a courtroom, which could not (pre-2020 pandemic) be conducted remotely. LG had spent several years studying horticulture part-time while raising her children and later, with friends asking her for gardening advice, LG decided to open her garden design business. Having a strong background in art, garden design (through classes) and plant knowledge gained both from classes and a lifetime as a gardener, LG focused her business on providing residential garden design.
RANDOM QUESTION LEADS TO PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT WITHIN HER HOBBY INTEREST
Wanting to learn more to add value to her gardening design business, LG visited a nearby world-renowned site of formal, indoor and outdoor gardens, seeking a role as a part-time gardening volunteer. During a brief discussion with a garden manager who was looking for part-time, seasonal employees, LG said “I could do that!” and was immediately hired, which commenced a multi-year association with that non-profit business, eventually leading to LG’s enrollment in the formal garden’s Professional Gardening education program, which required proficiency in chemistry, math, entomology (the branch of zoology dealing with insects), greenhouse management, plant propagation, plant identification, garden design, soil science and more, concluding with LG earning the equivalent of an Associate’s two-year degree in horticulture. (Editor’s note – This program has partnered with local colleges to provide course credits toward the college’s graduation degree while concurrently providing housing and compensation paid to the student / employee for their full-time work at the gardens.)
A CAREER MAY CONSIST OF MULTIPLE PART TIME OCCUPATIONS
(Editor’s note – Earning a professional degree in any field creates broader opportunities for employment within that field.) As a graduate of the public gardens’ degree program, LG was qualified for consideration to be hired for many jobs in the horticulture industry, including management of some of the gardens’ magnificent outdoor displays.
After several years of full-time employment within the vast public gardens’ business, a commitment averaging over 50 hours per week, LG opted to depart her otherwise enjoyable employment to restore some balance to her work / life interests and responsibilities.
While reopening her personal home-based landscape design business, which had been mostly sidelined while she worked full-time at the public garden, LG responded to an ad seeking a Director of Programs for a local, government sponsored center for horticulture. Still feeling interested in full-time employment, LG was intrigued by this potential blend of her two careers. She was not initially hired but the polite letter advising that someone else had been hired, apparently kept the door open because soon thereafter, LG received a call, offering a similar job, but only part-time. The duties aligned perfectly with LG’s experience in a public garden and even allowed her to utilize her background in law, negotiating and writing contracts for various vendors. In the interview, LG made it clear that she was only interested in accepting if the part-time job was truly restricted to 28 hours weekly. Other responsibilities had, since leaving her prior full-time job as a horticulturist, cropped up and made it clear to her that part-time work was all LG could take on at the time. The employer accepted her condition but after a year, during which LG averaged 40 hours a week in her four “part-time” days, LG reminded herself that plants and their related care require attention on a full-time basis, which did not leave any time for the administration duties included in her job. Thus she resigned in order to focus exclusively on her garden design business, where she can better control the hours required to serve her clients.
FIRST CAREER PERSPECTIVES AND TOOLS MAY PROVE USEFUL IN A SECOND, APPARENTLY COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, CAREER
LG notes several similarities between her two successive careers, the first in law, the second in horticulture:
(1) The clients of each occupation (in law: people; in horticulture: people and plants) require attention beyond a 9-5 weekday working schedule. Excellence means caring about your result, no matter whether it is “within” your official hours or not. Just like people, plants’ issues don’t always develop during business hours.
(2) From being a trial lawyer, where it was imperative to engage and persuade juries in a relatively short amount of time that what you’re saying is what they should conclude, LG sees that visual aids aren’t generally used enough in the rest of the world. If you want to convince someone, don’t just talk to them; SHOW them with pictures, charts, whatever helps them to hear you. Few people want to be talked at. Most want to be moved. It’s not hard to appeal to all five senses if you take the time.
(3) The need to understand perspectives of the people purchasing LG’s consulting service. Thus, LG designed a questionnaire for the client to complete at the outset of each project, to confirm that both the designer and the client (especially when the client is a combination of two people, such as a husband and wife) are all “on the same page.” As in her first career, communication is vital. Many disputes have followed from unmanaged expectations. When you enter a relationship with a client, try to make it as clear as possible what they should (and should not) expect.
FORMAL HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION OVERVIEW
Horticulture provides a range of “green” career paths including in-greenhouse production, wholesale brokers, commercial nurseries, garden centers, florists and landscape design and design / build firms. There are also green jobs in private and community gardens, municipal parks and state and national reserves.
Horticultural education is offered within two-year certificate programs and four year college programs, leading to a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree and graduate degrees including a Masters in Science (M.S.) and Doctorate (Ph.D.) For “hands-on” horticulture jobs, it is also highly important to gain work (apprentice) exerience – even as early as high school years – by working or volunteering at farms, garden centers, in private gardens, etc.
CAREER SATISFACTION
For LG, literally digging in the dirt has always been a passion. She loves to create an artistic appearance of balanced environmental beauty serving the needs of clients, communities or municipalities. The key challenge here is to gain the knowledge and experience necessary, while apparently, effortlessly producing a show of color which changes as nature’s seasons evolve.
Owning her business permits LG to control the hours she must devote. On the downside, while choosing to work by herself, LG has little to no support when things go wrong. However, she believes that this trade-off is worth it.
LG acknowledges the support received from her husband to enable her to depart one career and invest time and money toward establishing a second career. This made it easier but still, not easy. However, LG has always maintained an optimistic attitude, vowing to “look ahead, not behind.” When a new garden design has been fully implemented and her client(s) smile, she smiles. She also believes the plants are smiling within their new home.
