PREPARATION FOR OUR GARDEN OPENING
Around the time-frame of the end of March, 30 days after we moved in to our store, we took advantage of a few warmer days to begin making plans for the grand opening of our 1000 ft garden space. It was nestled between the shop and our local Post Office. The landlord had never given any thought to utilizing, what frankly had been 1,000 square feet of empty space, behind a chain link fence. Valuable real estate. Basically a dead zone on his property with a 6 ft high swinging gate and a chain link fence adjoining the two brick buildings. It was never locked and townies would pass in and out, leaving refuse and left over restaurant containers around for him to pick up. It was now, part of my rented space and the two brick walls on either side provided a clear cut space to create a beautiful green space. A vision of how to develop that space was being created in my mind. Itcwas an instinct and I knew I had to take advantage of the opportunity. Coincidentally, I had a new shop visitor from DC who had been frequenting my store since day 1, and she saw the garden area. She and her husband had spotted a purple fence at a garage sale nearby on a Saturday It was made out of wood and happened to be just enough length to support a swinging gate closure to the back of my building lot and “vwala” it became an enclosed area from the alley behind the shops property. I then had my handyman carpenter build a garden bench in the rear right hand corner of the new garden space out of old wood. Recycling at its best. The bench was chest high and about 7 ft long. The garden bench faced out towards the street and my passers-by citizens. This new bench gave me an area where I could pot up plants and store plant supplies, tools, and a very huge planter full of fresh soil. I acquired five large planters from a new vendor called Garden Iron and More, located in the Midwest. Iron craftsmen that hand crafted and created authentic looking vintage garden furniture. Their pieces had style, durability, weight and some of the most unique pieces were formed by this company. I fell in love with their things. I was required to place a minimum order of $1500 and the items were shipped by rail, transferred to a semi truck and delivered to my shop/garden sidewalk. I received delivery of them the first week in April. The delivery consisted of hanging and stationary distressed wrought iron pieces for planting and several etageres, benches and three different settee styles. Such cool stuff. So exciting for me that I’d have props and vessels for my big plans.
I requested approval to add a frost free water spigot on the side of the building through my landlord. My contractor completed the install. One step at a time, I was building in some convenience to care for all the plant life in my new space. I purchased a wrought iron table and chairs, a green umbrella and began scouting for additional vintage wrought iron pieces to restore. (sanding, painting and on occasion trips to a welder to fix broken legs), glass topped wrought iron table sets, smaller two-person table and chair sets and a stepped progression style plant Etagere to position and slide in front of the garden bench. I was visiting auctions, garage sales, commercial vendors, and receiving local residents tips to acquire pillars, planters, window boxes, chaise loungers, benches, settles and old fashioned wooden ladders. I’d paint them garden green and use them for displaying smaller plants and planters. I was having so much fun; finding and discovering. I was in this big undertaking on my own, but along the way my new friendships, my recent customers and that inner strength that God had provided to me, day by day, gave me the vision to keep moving towards “Joy.” My hard midwestern work ethic kicked in, and paid off in a big way. I’d look around at what I had accomplished with little money invested, to pull together the cutest green space anywhere. Meanwhile the fence gate was now a locked gate until my grand opening in May.
The townies became more and more curious and the question were endless about when the garden would open. They passed by constantly anticipating my grand opening in announcement. You can imagine how I wanted the garden to be fiull, lush and well stocked, so that I could reap a great return on my cash investment, and all the time and hard work I had invested. I wanted my opening to be a welcome and exciting event for my new community
I had ordered an eco-friendly type of planter made from recycled plastic and coconut fiber. Its brand name was Evi-Forms and it is still in business today. Sustainable was becoming very popular. The planters came in fabulous colors, shapes and sizes. Being a youthful trendy community my customer population was environmentally conscious and they gave a huge thumbs up in a big way, to my searching out products for sale that were economical, reusable and plant friendly. Also made in America was a huge buying trend.
I was buying plants, but one of a kind specimens to entice my buying audience. If folks wanted me to create window boxes and planters for them I would do so on a “custom basis,” so technically I wasn’t in the individual plant selling business, but my plan could be flexible enough to purchase flats of desirable plants, both for the home and the garden, based on customer demand. My real goal was to sell garden furniture and prepared planters, and sell in quantity, my eco-friendly planters. The beautiful plants I purchased began to fill in the space and with my fruitful green thumb and a healthy knowledge of how to select and care for plants, I had folks constantly coming to see what new plants were no populating the garden.
It was a charming spot and with hard work and daily plant care, it became a lush and very lovely green space. Everyone loved it was clear. Anticipation grew. And I was in seventh Heaven having created a wonderful place to work and invite my customers into. I even made friends with the owner of the adjacent building and proposed to let his twelve employees enjoy their lunch break sitting in the garden. It was a great reach-out opportunity and he was pleased to accept my invitation on behalf of his marketing team. I knew word of mouth would get around about their being allowed to use it as an eating/lunch/relax space. And I new they would enjoy it as their offices were on the second floor his building. He leased the ground floor space to the US Postal System and it was a very popular postal location. This became one of my best draws for business and the hardware store across the street became invaluable sources of walk-in customers for my store. It very much helped my bottom line. The saying, location, location, location was so true
When I am planting, I get totally absorbed in the soil and the plant and getting my fingers “in the dirt.” It’s an experience that takes me to a natural place. The plant, the vessel, the soil and thoughts about where it all comes from, and how many blessings flow to me from the simple activity of planting something live and green and created by my God. When I plant I enter a spiritual time. How great is my time in a garden where I have moments of prayer and reflection and gratitude. My gifts and talent comes from my creator and gardening time for me is peace, rest, contemplation, gratitude, calming and about as close to God as I can get. My hearts home…..in a garden!
So you may ask yourself, why I would go into such a lengthy description of things like buying planters and garden furniture, adding a frost free water spigot and a back fence to secure my garden space. I’m just one shopkeeper trying to create an oasis that breaths life into a small community of townies. It’s a sharing of my dreams on paper. Creating a meeting place of sorts where my neighbors, new friends and acquaintances can gather, and where my personal inner goal is to create a scenario, where others who pick up this book and read it, can imagine themselves creating their own dreams one plant, pot, fence and vintage garden piece at a time.
My spiritual gardening will be shaped by my life’s journey and the communities I take part in. In my garden I will find the growth of my inner self. And I hope to create in everyone a yearning to find their own inner peace, contentment and a spiritual encounter with their own creator, in whatever dream they choose to follow.
This is a very good thing, so says “Contessa.”