desertpirate

I met Roberta four months ago at a gardener's gathering in north San Diego county. I'm the one who gave her that little tid-bit. What I actually said to her (and I remember because I told my son the same thing just before he chose his major in ornamental horticulture) was this: "If you earn your living doing something you truly love, you'll never work a day in your life." I've heard myself give that piece of advice to many young people over the years and never took that advice myself until a layoff from my "good paying career" forced me to re-evaluate what I was doing. I wound up taking a job as a gardener on a small campus for a community college. I'm the only one in that position at my facility. In the past 14 months I've been able to turn this, formerly staid, hedgerow and Agapanthus theme into a colorful and welcoming place to be.

I understand what some of the designers here are talking about when they "warn" that design is largely hardscape work. I come from a construction background. I think what Roberta sees is the trap many designers fall into. It becomes so easy to just plunk down whatever is the current trend in plants. Here in San Diego county, we're going through a Day Lily phase, as opposed to the Agapanthus/Bird of Paradise phase of several years ago. Once Roberta finishes her education and goes into the workforce, if she's the one experimenting with different colors and textures from the "current trend", she'll garner plenty of attention and land more than enough work to keep busy with.