My First Container Garden
I remember it so clearly, the first time I planted a container garden. It was a beautiful Spring afternoon on a busy Saturday. I had just celerated my 21st birthday the week before. I was walking around the nursery with a very nice woman showing her my recomendations for a large container that she wanted to put on her patio. Afer about an hour of giving her my ideas, she was very excited to have this container in her garden. So excited, that she asked if I could plant it for her while she walked around and shopped some more. Be well trained in customer service, I said “Of course!”
I hauled the giant 24” italian clay pot over to the potting bench and got to work on it! I made sure I followed all the things I had been taught… I put the screen over the hole to keep the soil from getting out, I used our best potting soil mixed with good fertilizer, I arranged the plants so that it was a beautiful mix of foliage colors and textures with the tallest plants in the center and trailing plants along the edges, and then I gave it a bit of water to set everything in place. I amazed myself by what I did. And the customer? She LOVED it!!
I got the help of one of my coworkers and lifted my monsterous creation up on a cart and I brought it up to the front desk to ring it up for her. My boss came back from his lunch as I was taking the planted container out to the woman’s SUV. He came over to see it and the woman told him how much she loved it and how helpful I had been. I was on top of the world!!
As my boss and I walked back inside the store, we were asked by three other customers if we had any more of those beautiful pre-planted containers. We said no, but we’d be happy to make one for each of them. We took their orders and I made them the following Tuesday. Why not that same day you ask? I learned a very important lesson that day from my boss. While he loved my initiative and customer service, there are sometimes when you can’t do something for a customer right then and there. A busy Spring Saturday, is one of those times!!
