You can't take the gardening out of the girl........

I never knew I loved photographing nature until we moved to the country.  Getting up close and personal with plants at the age of twelve was the best thing that could have happened to me.  Of course that didn't occur to me at the time - only age offers that kind of hindsight.  My parents had taken over my grandfather's garden center business and growing operation at the time and of course I had no choice in the matter.  The knowledge of trees, flowers, perennials, weeds, watering, propagating, irrigating, landscaping and design slowly grew over a period of five years.  Oh, and can I mention at this point, that Mark Cullen came with his dad to buy wholesale from us when we were both just teenagers?!  I think he's about the same age or a year older than me.  Go figure, eh?  Anyway, I discovered that I loved helping design for the customers.  It was a creative outlet that became so second nature, that I called it "design on the fly".  During these teenage years, I had also developed a love of interior design. It was physically easier and a whole lot cleaner than working on a farm or garden centre.  That was the life for me!   And so I prepared my portfolio and applications.  I went to my interviews and was successfully admitted by all three.  I declined all three.  Stupidly, I was too afraid to venture out.  So that ended that.  A year later I went to the School of Dramatic Art at the University of Windsor.  It brought me out of my shell; gave me the confidence I needed to go out into that big strange world.  Best of all - it's where I met my future husband.  So then I went back to the gardening industry and the garden centre for another ten years full time and then another five years part time.  I worked for other garden centres while living away from home as well.  With this most recent move back to where I started so many years ago, I've taken on some landscape clients.  I hope to make this a full out career move over the next year.  It's been slow to start and it's mainly me that's the issue.  But the need to turn to creating a beautiful world for myself and for others is stronger.  Stay tuned to see who wins.