Today is Thanksgiving Day. Dave and I have so much to be grateful for in life and in our business at Pleasant Hill Nursery. We are immensely proud of our nursery. It has been nearly thirty years in the building process, many of those years were tough. Some were incredibly stressful. For those of you in the nursery business, you know this is not an easy way to make a living - especially this year.
When I returned to the office today, I was thrilled to see Nancy's latest container design. She created two planters that are now on each side of our office entrance. In the center of the pot, is a Boulevard Cypress ( Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Cyano Viridis' ) that is pruned up a ways to expose the lower trunks. Around the base of the plant, level with the container edge are a Wooly Thyme and Irish Moss. A simple design but it definitely makes a statement.
It really all comes down to food, at least for me. And what does this have to do with the nursery industry you ask? All of us that work here are cooks and have our specialties (and idiosyncrasies) and share food and recipes. I just had a delicious handful of pumpkin seeds, in the shell from a coworker. Yum. So where was I? Oh yes food. Our neighbors at the nursery are farmers and we get strawberries, green beans and corn from them. We grow a vegetable garden in the back for all to share in the bounty.
I often say this to people I know but I want to say it publicly. Pleasant Hill Nursery has the most amazing group of people working here. Every day I feel pride and gratitude for the employees that make up our team. They are passionate about what they do. They care about the customers we have. And they treat our business as if it were their own. As a business owner, what more can you ask?
Go to your local farmer’s market for no other reason than because it is just fun. For me it is pure pleasure with tasty treats added on top. My local market is in Creswell behind the library off the main street, Oregon Street. It is on my way home and conveniently open from 4 – 7 p.m. I can’t wait to get there and see who is selling what and have a chat with my ‘market friends’. This is a very small market, maybe twenty vendors. This is the second year it’s been going on and some of the same folks have come every time to sell their goods and come they do, whether they make much money or not. The showing up every time is what eventually will make them ‘successful’. Success at the farmer’s market comes in many forms. One is not there to ‘get rich’ so there has to be some other benefits. One of the most successful vendors is the cute old guy, Jim, who makes bird houses, ‘guaranteed to house birds’. He also started making boxes and shelves, items that the other vendors buy to display their wares. I noticed he is now making cash boxes. I don’t think he had a grand plan for this is just worked out like that and he has enough money to go fishing with his buddy. Michelle, my co-worker, meets me at the market and sometimes some other friends stop by. One has to look carefully and ask questions and enjoy the process, find out about the sellers, what they like to grow or make, what is the best thing they have today. I found some Meyer lemons, brought up from California, no not locally grown, which is difficult at best, and I bought all three of them for 75 cents each. What Michelle and I like to do is buy a little from each booth or at least say hello and admire their wares.
PHN Growers Blog 
