BESPOKE GARDENING - Key Persons
"As a child, I spent my summers in the Midwest. I was deliriously happy when I could visit the farm down the road and help my neighbors pick vegetables, feed rabbits, or herd cows into the barn at milking time. My earliest paid jobs involved working outdoors, as well - tending horses and leading trail rides at a summer resort and state park.
After graduating from college, although I worked indoors for years, I was always looking for chances to enjoy being outdoors and to get my fingers into the soil.
"Even when I moved to New York City, I sought out places to live that were near parks (and permission to plant flowers in those places and parks!). After finding a place with a balcony open to the sky, I hauled up soil in the elevator so I could plant vegetables and flowers. The building manager didn't mind when I also planted a shade garden on the grounds, and -- after meeting a nearby busy homeowner with a great vegetable garden space through a classified ad -- I worked a trade of vegetable garden work for some of the vegetables.
After moving to Connecticut some years later, again with green or garden space a prerequisite, I suddenly came upon a volunteer opportunity to create a garden for a community theatre. During a tour of the theatre (they wanted me to write grant proposals), we came out a door that opened onto a steep, weedy, untended hillside. As soon as I saw it, I blurted out, "Oh! You need a garden!" The theatre manager just looked at me and said, "Go for it!" So I did. As the theatre built a new entrance deck at the base of this hillside, I worked with a limited budget and a lot of elbow grease to transform the steep, long-ignored space into one of refreshing visual interest for theatre patrons. It was humble, but it was a start.