A walk through any garden center quickly leads to the conclusion that gardening is not a cheap pastime. A few ooh’s and aah’s as you put attractive plants into your trolley soon adds up to 100 – £,€,$. In Maslows hierarchy of needs, gardening is not an essential, but as any estate agent will tell you, it can be an investment.The value proposition of AndAllen is to create an outdoor space that is in harmony with the house and enhances the pleasure in our daily lives. There was a budget of course, based on the established rule of thumb that the garden spend should be within 5-15% of the total build cost.
The major difference in gardening between the UK and southern US with respect to maintenance is the absolute need for irrigation – so cost of water has to be factored in to the equation.Having run the system at the recommended rate to get the new plantings established it is time to start the optimization process. From August (the hottest month) irrigation will be pegged back 30% and plant health monitored. The aim is to try and get below 50% of the start up conditions. Additionally, research has already started to see what a xeric planting may look like.
A couple of weeks ago , Mase – someone very special to CP and myself, hit a major life milestone – with the aid of his dad, he opened his first bank account! He had saved birthday and Christmas money and was ready to begin the topsy turvy relationship with the professionals, who will be your best friends until you cannot pay a bill! To bolster his bank account, I offered him 4 hours of hand weeding in the woodland garden, just working along side me, doing what I was doing. The hourly rate was negotiated – he started off at $300 an hour – even CP gulped at that! We ended up at the going rate for landscape labour (plus a small family premium).
In view of his outrageous remuneration demands and the fact that he would soon be thinking about his career path – I thought it was time he had the DP chat about money. It would also take his mind off the mounting heat and continual back bending. We very quickly got to the understanding that money was the foundation of trade – he was essentially trading his time and skills for money.The natural evolution of this was that the more in demand and rare your skills were, the more you could charge for them – hence the need for careful thought about education, job experience and career path.
The next subject was a bit more problematical to grasp – not surprising really as it took me til I was about 30 to get it – stimulated by a chance discussion with someone who had been around the block a few more times than me. THE VALUE OF MONEY ? Mase clearly understood that money allows you to buy things ( and he had a list of stuff he wanted to buy!) but when asked once you have bought what you need, what then is the value of money? Head scratching – back to pulling weeds Mase! The way it was explained to me was the value of money was to give you CHOICE – a greater element of personal freedom. Prioritize necessities if needs be ; invest for you and your families future; pursue a hobby; create time ( the only commodity that is irreversible) for yourself by contracting out jobs you hate ( in my case cutting the lawn); gain satisfaction by supporting good causes; travel; treat yourself to life’s little luxuries and so forth. Back to Maslow!
At about 11-15 Mase commented that it was getting very hot – I countered with Gatorade and a reminder that finish time was 12-30. This brought us onto the last subject of the day – attitude ( work ethic in NE parlance). I pointed out that we could easily call it a day as we were just doing a bit of weeding but we had made a commitment – to CP ( who was preparing lunch) and to ourselves. If we checked out early, his wages would be down 25% and in the real world that would have consequences. We concluded that little cameo discussion with the magic formula for career success – skill plus attitude (with a little bit of personality thrown in!).
In the end we did 4 hours of productive work – Mase stuck at it and pulled his weight. We had a light hearted discussion with a little bit of edge – will any of it stick with him? Who knows – but I think some will. As a boy, Andy shared his philosophy with me – simply if you want to buy something and you don’t have the money in your pocket – then don’t bother. He was right about that – debt kills choice. Allen was the master of finding innovative ways to save. Both these philosophies have stayed with me and I suspect some of our chat will have stuck with Mase. When asked whether he wanted his wages as cash or a bank transfer? Cash – he had worked that one out!
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