04/24/2019
Spring has arrived again, like it has from the very beginning. Snow is pretty well gone and hopefully flooding in the Red River valley will be minimal. The gardening world is waking up too, and raring to get going for another year.
2018 was a good year for us! We had been in the greenhouse business for 40 years and have now come to the end of the long and winding road and we have officially decided to retire! No one is taking over. The Salad Bowl Greenhouses is done. Gradually the buildings will be removed and the space re-purposed.
It has been a great 40 years. We had a chance to see and guide between 70,000 and 100,000 people. We met young families who now have grown older, their children bringing their own children who grew up, married and brought their youngsters.
Life on this earth goes very quickly.
I think it was author Phil Calloway, who expressed people’s comments about the daily grind of going to work as though it was a necessary evil. Over the years, we also heard these kind of statements, and how customers wished they could be doing what we were doing since it looked like so much fun!
We heard customers say:
“I need a 6 month vacation twice a year!”
Or, “The only one good thing about my job is that my chair swivels!”
Or, “I couldn’t go to work today because I woke up in a good mood and didn’t want to ruin it!”
But for us, we had worked in the public domain and in the private sector but growing our own business has touched all of the emotions as it was the toughest, hardest, most memorable, most grueling, most fun of all adventures we’ve ever been on.
We chose to have a positive attitude every day no matter what.
We chose to play at our work although that was up to 18-20 hours a day.
We tried to help and guide every customer as best we could.
And we tried to make the shopper’s day a memorable experience.
Everyone can start their day miserable or cheerful. We encourage you to choose to be cheerful every day. Look at the work you do as a great gift to you as well as to those you work with and for. We tried to express that attitude to you.
Colossians 3
17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This passage has been our vision and goal for 40 years.
If we work only for ourselves work will crush us. But to see our work as God’s assignment, it becomes a calling, a meaningful task filled with purpose and joy no matter what the work is.
We evolved from just a few simple plant choices our grandparents grew to exotic plants from around the world, growing in magnificent containers which are no longer just the vessel to put plants in but now are part of the landscape.
Cutting a row and wrapping it in newspaper has advanced to individual containers….paper and pencil, cash and cheque, have forged ahead to plastic credit cards.
We loved making living wreaths, one-of-a-kind Hypertufa planters, and miniatures for your garden fun.
For us, it was now time to let this go. We will miss the friends we’ve made in these 40 years and the fun experiences we enjoyed every single day.
We won’t forget how often we helped butterflies and hummingbirds recover from heat stroke, and how many nests the wrens made in baskets that we couldn’t sell so as not to disturb the babies. One time we discovered a mother cat had birthed her litter of kittens behind one of the doors. We didn’t own a cat!
Many of our customers have become our friends. We have prayed together during the hard times and laughed together during the good times. We often remember what they planted last year!
People have brought us their cherished seeds to start, or seeds they’ve picked up around the world, so we can grow them and even offer some of them to you! That’s why you never knew what you might find in our greenhouse, and to be honest, neither did we!
We’ve asked children to find our monkey flower, pencil tree, lady slipper, snap-dragons, dunce cap, bear claws, dinosaur kale, green ball, burro’s tail, kangaroo paw, hens and chicks, lamb’s ear, mother in law’s tongue, but the most popular with young folk were always the tickle plants. It was our intention to draw young people back into gardening and we hope it worked.
Of the many mom and pop greenhouses in our area, we outlasted them all, due to the support of our community, neighbours and dedicated customers.
2018 was our last year and we had opportunity to catch up and say goodbye in our hearts to the many people we’ve come to know over these 40 years.
It has been such a joy, such fulfillment to get to know all of you throughout these many years and we will keep our page going as long as there is activity. The hardest part of our retirement is the reality that we likely won’t see most of you again. Now if perchance, you might feel a little sorry, please don’t! Instead let the love of gardening, the fun of plants, the interest in new ways outside the box, the willingness to share and trade, grow inside you and your children, and their children…and so on..and so on….
We were so surprised to receive retirement gifts and cards from long standing customers who valued our efforts to enhance their summer gardening experience. We’ve kept and cherish them all!
When you feel thankful the next time, whether it be to the gas station attendant, the hairdresser or the city worker picking up garbage along the streets, show your thankfulness in some way. You will never know the impact you have on their lives.
In the meantime, we are prepared to start a new chapter with whatever the good Lord prepares us for…..totally unrelated to what has occupied our lives so far.
As some of you already know, we are quite involved in the sewing of pillowcase dresses for children in poor countries around the world….84 countries so far. If you would like to donate your used pillowcases and sheets whenever you replace them, we are always glad to get them. Just leave them bagged or boxed, at the greenhouse gate where there is a plastic box for just that purpose (as the cleanup takes place in the greenhouse yard, the drop off box for these donated items will have to be moved one driveway to the north at 4367 Rebeck Road) where we’ll pick them up. Facebook us or email us at [email protected] and we will pick up from your home. Please pass this information on to your family, friends, neighbours, community club, people you meet at the cottage, at your church or place of employment.
There are exciting new gardening adventures ahead for you as this industry continues to evolve!
♪♪ I’m so glad we had this time together
Just to have a laugh or sing a song
Seems we just get started and before you know it
Comes the time we have to say “So Long” ♪♪
