Gardenkeeping

 I finally got the sign for my truck!

It’s done. The reason all of this has happened. In the end it only amounted to a piece of magnet whose dimensions are 5″x 20″.

This whole process started last March. OK, not really. My husband, David, has been trying to get me to put a sign on my truck ever since I started my own business back in 2008.  I kind of hated the idea though. I had gotten a business license and had used my name as my business name just to keep things simple. The problem for me was that I didn’t want my name and number on a sign.

Using my name was for simplicity, but also  I couldn’t come up with a name that I liked and matched the services I provide. I thought about names that were purely accurate like “Garden Maintenance Services” but it was so boring I thought, “Why bother?” so I didn’t. My other idea was to use my nickname that my family gave me as a kid, Birdy, but then all of my names were fixated birds not gardens. Plus, Birdy is something that only my family calls me and I decided to keep it that way.  So the years went by…

 I love to spend time with plants.

I feel like so much of my life has been me trying to figure out how to be with them more. It’s a good thing I like to work (not sitting down) because garden maintenance puts me in direct contact with plants and their care. I work in nice gardens but, the one I feel the most excited and engaged with is my own. I guess it makes sense. Most of my work is maintaining what is there and not always a whole lot else. Which is fine but, I found myself wanting to connect what I like about plants and gardens outside of the work that I do.

How to do this? Most people will never see my garden or the garden’s that I work in. Maybe I should have named my business “The Invisible Gardener”.

So, over the years, David has always met my complaint with the answer, “Put signage on your truck.” Finally this year I decided to get serious about it.  Then it came to me. I could get a sign advertising a website.  I loved this idea because I have always wanted to avoid fielding a bunch of phone calls for work. I can only take on so many jobs and my schedule is pretty full.  I also liked that I could share gardening with anyone who was interested in plants.

I started the process of getting a website without knowing much about it.

I knew you had to buy a domain name and that was pretty much it. If I had known how much work it was, would I have started? Hmm…. I can’t say. I didn’t even know what a blog was.

The first name I picked was Gardenkeeper,

like housekeeper but in the garden. I was busily typing in names to see what was available and when I went back to Gardenkeeper it was still available, but for $600. That was my first lesson. Only type in a name when you’re serious about buying it right then and there. I was actually depressed for a few days after that.

When I went back to my computer I was ready to go. I had my fingers crossed for Gardenkeeping. It was available and for cheap! Mine! With that accomplished I looked into building a website.  For me that was calling one of my sister who pointed me in the direction of WordPress where she has a website called Haunted Toast. Check it out. She does a lot of great stuff in the bay area. So I went to Worpress and found that you could have a page  to blog on. It seemed so perfect for what I was wanting to do.

The rest of the story is pretty boring. It’s me trying to figure out how to make a website, wondering why I thought it was a good idea and yes, there were tears. I got it up in running (after about 2 months) and began to blog.

Blogging is fun. If you’re reading this right now, thanks!

Life gets busy.

I realized that I hadn’t completed what I had set out to do, putting a sign on my truck. I worked on my lettering and David took it to The Sign Station for it to be made into a magnetic sign for my truck.  A few emails back and forth and then it was ready in a few days.

Done.

….or?!….

….stayed tuned for my next blog.

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