First Shade Day this year was on May 12th. I returned from the grocery store and looked across the lawn to see a deep, crisp shadow.
First Shade Day is the day you notice deep shade for the first time every spring.
This is my second post about First Shade Day. Last year was a warm spring and I was full of activity around the garden. This year we’ve had a brutally cold last few weeks and I’m behind in tasks around the yard. I’ve been working on getting the perennial weeds out of the gardens, re-edging beds and transplanting perennials and shrubs which were long overdue to be divided or moved.
The weather has been so overcast, so cold and so miserable it’s been hard to find the motivation to go outside.
I’ve been focusing on one part of the garden or one task and celebrate getting something done rather than striving to push through and getting burned out. Little by little I’m getting there.
We’re in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It’s an exhausting time. I’m in a constant state of alert when I leave the house. A trip to the grocery store is an effort to get in, get what I need, and get out. In the old days, I would make small talk at the grocery store, but we’re all so serious I’ve stopped trying.
I do what I can to protect myself and my family. I wear a mask, nitrile gloves and use a liberal amount of sanitizer when I get back to the car.
I’m happy to say here in CT sanitizer is showing up on the shelves again. I almost cried when there was a display of large bottles of sanitizer at BJs yesterday.
I find the most at peace when I get out and do some work in the yard, or someone else’s yard. I don’t wear my PPE then, as long as I’m away from people, and I get lost in my work. It’s like there is no pandemic.
Last week I visited a garden center and picked up annuals for a client’s property. I love, love, love the pinks of those geraniums and pansies. The plants are massed in the garage because we’ve had a freeze warning the last three nights.
I’ve been doing a lot of ‘subconscious’ thinking on my future as well. I love landscaping and landscape design and everything about this field but I have yet to find a way to make a decent living at it.
I have yet to reap the rewards of my education and experience.
I keep pointing at the change in the economy since the stock market crash of 2008 as the reason for my difficulties. I liken the crash to someone pulling the rug from under my feet and falling to the ground after they did it. Whatever momentum I had was gone.
Perhaps I’m where I am because of who I am.
I’ve always been detail-focused which is great if you’re a rocket scientist but not so good if production is the way to make earn a living. I take the time to make sure gardens have color in all seasons and flowing and crisp edges. I choose plants based on how they’ll perform in the garden and not whether they’re in stock at the nursery.
So what am I getting at?
Over the last few years, I’ve been transitioning to a different model. Why not focus on what makes me different as opposed to what makes me like everyone else? There will always be companies who can do the job cheaper, however, few can do it better.
Perhaps I should spend more time designing landscapes and consulting about landscapes and less time digging holes. Could I design landscapes for people all over the country from here in Connecticut? Could I design landscapes that other companies install? Could I design landscapes for homeowners to install with helpful links to videos I’ve made about planting and mulching?
Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing the fruits of my labor. I’ll never refuse a planting or landscape maintenance job if someone wants my level of service. I have yet to find a way to properly communicate what that difference is besides the photos on this website.
I’ve also been trying, unsuccessfully, to publish more blog posts. There are a handful of you that enjoy reading my ramblings and I appreciate you. If I could write more, and year-round, it would be another avenue to explore. I find writing goes best for me when I’m in the right state of mind, which is usually a warm sunny day. I have yet to find a way around that obstacle.
I enjoy making videos about landscaping and hobbies I enjoy. I find gardening videos difficult to make because in gardening there are so few absolutes. The soil, the sun, the weather are all a crapshoot. No matter how well I try to explain something, especially about pruning, there will always be more questions. I suppose all I can do is my best when creating videos.
This post is meant to celebrate First Shade Day and explain the direction I’ve been heading the last few years. I don’t know where I’ll end up but I do know the following.
If you change nothing. Nothing will change.
Comments
14 responses to “First Shade Day 2020”
Great post John, I often think the same way. We are cut from the same cloth, balancing between being creative and profitable is a difficult place to be.
Paul if you ever find a way to balance being creative aka artistic and profitable please tell me first. I wish I could figure that one out.
Also John, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been”. Right now everybody is telling me God is trying to tell me to retire and enjoy life. On May 2, I just finished a job, stepped back to check the last pruning cut on a hydrangea, my heel caught one of the big rocks making up the landscape of big, medium and small rocks, I crashed backwards onto the asphalt in a parking lot and fractured a vertebrae in the center of my back.. I am hoping to get it fixed with bone cement in the next few days so I can get back to living the life I enjoy. I am so far behind, I am not sure I can get caught up, still have yards to clean up and spring pruning to do. I am thanking God that we have had really cold weather lately, which has really slowed down the budding out process.of a lot of plants. If I can control the pain, I may try to get some of the Lime LIght, Quick Fire and other tall hydrangeas pruned.
I have learned so much from your videos, and really identify with your work ethic, and perfection in putting in landscapes and maintaining them. I am so thankful for the clients I have because they are always telling me I can’t retire until they don’t need me anymore. Which makes me nuts right now because I am not able to take care of their yards right not, and spring planting is coming fast, I feel I am letting them down, but they all tell me to take care of myself and don’t worry about their yards.
You are an amazingly talented, conscientious landscaper and maintainer, and I hope and pray you will find the people who can recognize this, truly appreciate it, become loyal to you and shout your virtues from the house tops. And about that opening quote, what you’ve always done is remarkable, and your knowledge is endless, maybe you should teach in a tech school during the winter. Whatever, keep doing what you love!
Kay, sorry to hear about your fall. I hope you heal quickly so you can get back out and do what you love. We had a warm winter but spring has been nonexistent until two days ago when the went from frost warnings to 80 degrees in one day, I kid you not.
I hurt my back a couple of years ago and told all my clients I couldn’t visit for one month, starting in May. I thought I would lose some but everyone was willing to wait. I didn’t want to hurt myself permanently trying to work through an injury.
I’ve got one client who asked me to visit and do whatever I want whenever I want in their gardens. I’ve waited my whole life for a client like that! They live about 10 minutes away to boot. This house is my happy place right now. I hope to make some videos on it as well, it’s a beautiful place!
I was so happy to see in your answers to the others that responded that you are going to continue doing what you love and in the perfect way in which you do it. Continue with your great videos, I never tire of learning, and you are a fabulous teacher. I truly hope you find an abundance of amazing clients like I have. My go to landscaper and I think we have that Tuscany theme courtyard designed to the clients liking. I will try to send pictures when it is done! Kay
Kay, I’ve been having a fun year so far. Focusing on a beautiful property, along with my own gardens, and projects I enjoy. I’d like to be publishing more content but sometimes I give myself permission to work in the garden without taking pictures or video. I’ve got to stop that, sometimes, because there is so much I can share.
Hello John,
I must say I always enjoy hearing from you and follow your posts/blogs/videos. I came upon your video on Spirea when you illustrated how to prune it back in April, then came back to show the results. You saved 2 of my plants; they were 20 years old and I never pruned them once. I was ready to rip them out until I found the video. So I’m a fan and will be sad to see you go off the online airwaves for one.
I feel it’s a bad time to make big drastic changes during a pandemic so do mull it over for a while maintain safety for you and your precious family and circle of friends. We’ll be in this uncertain times for a year or more before the new normal sets in.
I too am feeling my age and the stiffness that results in a days work out in the yard are harder to ignore; I buy Epson salts in bulk now. I was upset when BJ’s (I am shopper too) dropped the 2 bag package :0)
Take care and do take some time for the new you to settle in.
Thank you for all you do for us!
Mylrae :0)
Glad the spirea pruning videos helped. I’ve realized you can only prune your spirea back hard a couple of times, after that the foliage gets very crowded and the plant loses vigor. I think spirea is a short-lived shrub and branches should be encouraged to take root so the shrub can spread.
I’m thinking aloud and acknowledging and embracing where I am and where I’m headed. It means so much when I write posts like this to hear that people like you appreciate what I have to say and have learned from my posts and videos.
Thank you for your encouragement. 🙂
I love your blog and your videos! I would hate to see you move on to brighter pastures but if you do, best of luck! My sanity treatment during covid19 has also been getting lost in my yard. I’ve overspent on new perennials but the way I look at is 2 fold…first, it’s keeping me sane and second, my gardens should look awesome in the coming years and when I look at them I will remember this time in history and be glad that it just hat, history!
Thanks for reading the blog. I’m simply acknowledging my frustrations and embracing changes in my path, I don’t even know where I’d start if I was going to move on. When I started my career a blog and youtube videos weren’t an option, how things have changed.
The sign of a gardener is plants that following you home when you visit the garden center, hardware store and grocery store. I went to the nursery for a few perennials and returned with 11 plants for my yard. It happens…too often.
I’m looking forward to this time being a memory as well. I hope we remember the lessons learned as well; spend more time with family, stay in touch with those we love, eat more dinners together.
John,
My name is Tina and I live in Wisconsin. First I’d like to say I am sorry to see you are struggling in this season of your life. The fact that it is so incredibly difficult for you is because you care so much.
Secondly, since I am so very far from CT, I can’t hire you. Which is a shame because I bought my dream home last year. It has a very landscaped property and to be honest-I have no idea what I am doing to maintain it. I spent 3 weeks digging up what I thought were wild onions last Fall. Come to find out in April – they were grape hyacinths! So I am a hot mess and so is my yard! The previous owners lived here 34 years and spent countless hours designing and maintaining this place. I am not retired so I cannot commit the time they were able. Long story short- if I need real answers on how to do something, I look for your videos. I trust them . You are thorough and thoughtful. You answer most questions before I ask them and give so many great ideas and suggestions.
So while you are floundering in where you fit right now, I mostly want to say I appreciate you. I may only be one person but I think you should know your knowledge and personality do make a difference in some people’s lives. It may not pay the bills but as a human being- it’s what matters.
I hope you discover what works best for your peace of mind. Thank you again for the many hours of videos you have provided me.
Take good care.
Tina S
Wow Tina. It’s rare to find people who get the human side of people, you clearly have that gift. The path I’m on is the path I’ll continue to follow, do what I love, and share what I love.
Congrats on the new house. Remember mistakes are learning experiences and we all have them, I guarantee you’ll never pull a grape hyacinth again. Gardeners yards can be tricky because diversity abounds and we can’t help but keep creating more gardens. I can’t keep up with my gardens and this is what I do for a living.
Thanks for commenting.
Thank you John for your wisdom and knowledge. And having the compassion to share it. God bless you in all you do.
Thank you Trusted Landscaping.