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Please meet Genevieve Schmidt
Mon, 12/05/2011 - 1:57pm — Genevieve
My first horticulture instructor, Auguste Broucaret, started out his classes by telling us all why he loved being a gardener. He said, “If you love gardening, 
you will NEVER be bored. There are new plants coming out every year, new techniques to test and every gardener you meet can become a new friend. Gardeners are the happiest people in the world!”
What an inspiration. He was 72 the year I took his classes, and his ready smile, mud-stained overalls, and youthful energy made us all certain we’d chosen the right career. I’ve been a professional landscaper for 15 years now and every day proves the wisdom of his words.
In my own journey as a gardener, I’ve gone from maintaining gardens professionally, to designing landscapes and most recently to training a select crew of apprentice gardeners, who have shown me how much I enjoy teaching people to garden and seeing their love for plants grow. I think we all have something inside of us that longs to be expressed, and gardening is one of the best ways of experimenting and playing with that artistic side. In the garden, you get to try out new plants, new colors and styles - and whatever doesn’t work can get chucked in the compost.
But it’s different from so many other arts in that we’re partnering with living things. It reminds us that it’s the process of creating beauty that’s important, more than the end result. In striving for those blissful moments when a combination comes together just right, or a finicky plant bursts into bloom, we awaken something beautiful inside ourselves.
Whether you’re a container gardener adding a splash of color and life to your front door, or an all-grown up goth chick creating wickedly dark vignettes , the plants on this site give us the palette we need to bring color and joy to our own garden journeys. So get out there - explore, create and try something new in the garden today.
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Gen - I love this so much, "In striving for those blissful moments when a combination comes together just right, or a finicky plant bursts into bloom, we awaken something beautiful inside ourselves." And it's so great to share those moments with others, too. Thanks for articulating that so wonderfully.
Laura, right back atcha with the quotes; I loved what you said here: "As a young girl, I recall relishing deep red roses that grew on a fence in our front yard. I remember being very young and noticing the swell of an iris bud before it bloomed. To capture and preserve the purple color of violets, as young as six, I painted them with watercolors. As I grew, I began to search out new flowers to learn about. I was, and am, drawn to unique plants."
It's awesome how that sense of chidlike wonder has followed you through your life and you've honored it through gardening and art. We all need more of that in our lives.
"In striving for those blissful moments when a combination comes together just right, or a finicky plant bursts into bloom, we awaken something beautiful inside ourselves." Amen, sister! You know - it's funny - I started out as a writer and was drawn to the beauty of gardening - and gardeners. You started out as a landscape designer, but have proven yourself as an artist with words as well. Keep up the great posts! I look forward to more!
Awww, Lisa, your words mean so much to me. Thank you!!
(Aren't gardeners just the nicest people? Every time I visit a new garden I feel so full of inspiration, not only from the beauty that I've seen but from the people who have created the garden. We're lucky to both have careers based around something we love.)
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