After more than three years as editor of the start-up magazine Indiana Living Green, I’ve decided to resign to work for Sullivan Hardware & Garden, where I’m manager of perennials and woody plants at the 71st Street and Keystone Avenue store.
For years, I’ve wanted to own a small nursery, growing and selling plants that I really liked and that I knew did well throughout most of the Midwest, but especially in Indiana. I particularly was drawn to woody plants that were attractive through three or four seasons for smaller gardens. Those of us with urban and suburban landscapes don’t usually have a lot of space so we want plants that earn their keep. Of course, I like flowering plants, too, especially those that are fragrant.
I learn a lot about plants by visiting gardens all over the country and in Canada and England. Soon, I’ll be in the Netherlands for a total emersion in spring bulb culture. I go to plant lectures, visit growers and nurseries and attend trade shows. For plant geeks like me, you can’t have enough plants. I tell people all of the time that my eyes are too big for my yard. The value of so many plants, of course, is the personal experience of growing them.
I draw on these experiences in writing my columns in the Indianapolis Star, Angie’s List, Indiana Living Green and other publications, in what I write on this blog, in my talks or presentations, as a garden coach, in what nursery plants I recommend and install for clients and in working with garden designer and HortusScope author Wendy Ford of Landscape Fancies.
I don’t own the garden center, but I will have some say in what we stock, which I hope will satisfy my desire for a nursery. Sullivan always has had a good reputation for customer service and as a part-time employee there for six years, I know the assistance we offer in the garden center. We have knowledgeable employees, including one Master Gardener mixed with avid, experienced gardeners.
Indiana Living Green March-April 2010.
I’m grateful to Lynn Jenkins, publisher of Indiana Living Green, for the opportunity to edit what I think is an invaluable guide for Hoosiers interested in sustainable living. I’ve learned a lot about Indiana’s resources to help us become more sustainable in our lifestyles and I’ve developed good connections in the state’s green community. My last issue will be May-June with most of my duties ending mid-April.
At Sullivan’s I’ll be working 3/4-time, so I plan to continue all of my writing gigs, container planting, garden coaching and other pieces in the mosaic of my life.
Meantime, I look forward to seeing you at the garden center.
Congrats and best wishes with all the changes. Now I definitely have to watch for them to leave that “gate” open so I can get up to the northside to see Sullivan’s for myself.