In March, I got hired part-time at Northwest Nurseries, Inc. (a wholesale nursery in Redmond) and The Gray Barn Nursery at Pacific Topsoils (a retail nursery in Redmond). This was in addition to my one landscape maintenance gig I do every Monday in Lake Sammamish, along with some light administrative work for the editing job. It's been a rewarding experience to work both the retail and wholesale side of the plant nursery business. I was unsure if I'd be fit for Gray Barn, given that I don't see my introverted self thriving in the retail environment, but I think it's been a good challenge for me (and it's easy to say that now, far past the height of springtime madness).
Also in March, I had to relocate, so I ended up moving from Kirkland to Bothell. In the midst of all those transitions, I didn't have enough mental bandwidth to take the CPH exam, so I decided to hold off for a while and focus on moving, setting up my garden at the new house, and exploring my two brand-new jobs.
Ever since I transplanted from Ohio to the Pacific Northwest, I seem to have this strange attraction to changing locations during the springtime, which unfortunately means getting a late start on the vegetable garden. This year (for the first move, that is) followed the same pattern. Nonetheless, I often came home from work and went straight to the back yard to get things set up as quickly as possible. It was a slow process that bled into summer, but I got a respectable garden going in five 4x4 raised beds, along with additional flowers and veggies growing in pots. Somehow I managed to do this while working over 40 hours a week (something my body's not used to) and being 6 months into a new and wonderful relationship with a woman in Everett. Needless to say, I was busy! Of course, Doing All The Things is not really sustainable, so I couldn't fine tune the garden the way I would have liked (and I obviously didn't carve out enough time to work on the blog), but at least I had some activity happening at home that I could be proud of.
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| The garden had humble beginnings... | ...and then it ate the house! |
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| Okay, maybe it wasn't that big. | This is what happens when you don't prune your veggie plants. |
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| Yes, that's a pink shirt I'm wearing. Yes, I'm comfortable with this. | Jami and her damned tomatoes. Always with the tomatoes. |
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| I had several respectable harvests. | And as you all were expecting, that meant plenty of Insalata Caprese, which is my favorite summer food and perhaps the meaning of life. |
But that's not all! In July I got hired at a small landscape installation and maintenance company called Ironwood, so I reduced my hours at Gray Barn to pick up a few days with Ironwood. It's another great opportunity to get hands-on experience in the field, so I'm glad I took it on. Maintenance work is invaluable for learning how plants behave in the garden from season to season. My boss is an old pro in the horticulture field, so I'm hoping to learn a lot from him.
In other news, finding stable housing has been a challenge this year. My partner and I decided we were ready to move in with each other by the end of summer, so we started the process of creating a household together. The details of that process are exhausting; let's just say that circumstances made it necessary for me to move three more times (and two of those moves were with my partner). Ultimately, we ended up in a house in Bothell and just finished moving last Saturday. There's a good deal of work and unpacking to do, and I'm on the mend from what I think is a minor sprained wrist, but I'm feeling really hopeful and excited about the new living arrangements. I'm sure I'll post more on that later. :)
That's all for now. I don't think it should take another year for the next post. Cheers!
