Hi!  Welcome to my new online journal, GreenGardenista.com!  My name is Amy - thanks for stopping by my little “green” space on the web!  Let me start things off by telling you a little bit about who I am and what I envision Green Gardenista will be all about.  To start, I am one of those lucky few with a “fun” job, or so my clients tell me. About seven months out of the year I am the envy of my customers, and all the passing office people that I bump into in my outdoor “office space.” You may have seen me, I’m the woman you walk by on your way to another indoor meeting and offer to swap jobs with for the day - and I’m not saying I’m NOT open to that, but I’m letting you know right now, if I’m picking the day, you’re going to need to dress warmly - ’cause it’s going to be a gray and icy January morning!

Generally speaking, I love what I have made my job to be, even more than what it actually is. On paper, what I do is landscape management, but what really drives me to learn more and do more in my field, is my passion for environmental conservation. After years of property management and landscaping experience, I’ve learned a thing or two about what it takes to work with people’s expectations, meeting people where they are at, and helping them achieve things they wouldn’t have been able to do on their own. One of the great things about the “green industry” is that there is always something to learn - you’ll never reach a place where you’ve mastered everything, because the flora and fauna you have to deal with, and the techniques that go with them are limitless. There is so much knowledge out there, and there is always another way of looking at things, or another angle from which you can see the “big picture” better. It is a balance of these angles that I believe constitutes green gardening.

There has been a lot of buzz over the definition of what green gardening is, and which major issues of the day it is trying to address. I suggest that going green involves many things both biological and ecological - but the end goal of going green should be practical and attainable. To borrow from the euphamism “too heavenly minded to be any earthly good,” I don’t want to be so ‘conservation minded’ that I have no practical use, and turn others off. I work with a lot of green minded people on the job, both clients and co-workers, and unfortunately I often see some of them try and bite off projects that are more than they can chew. When they are met with a road block, or a success that doesn’t meet their full expectations, it really throws them off. I think it’s very easy to look at the major implications of Global Ecology, and Global Warming, and to try and fix everything within your sphere of contact all at once. Most successful change happens over time, and we all know the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. I have paid close attention to all the media presentations given on the status of the “Honey Bee Crisis,” and hype over Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” and everything in between, and while the message of all these major problems should impact individual change, I think the weight of the issues can make the matter confusing, and cause frustration.

What I want to share with you, and have you share with me are our own personal efforts to change for the better the only real place we have control over, and that is not just our yard but our entire life!  I also want to to break down the stereotype that pits environmentalist, and green gardeners against those of us in the business of agriculture, floriculture, and property management, and to create a place where all of us can work with each other.

After all, we’re all gardeners! I think it’s time we were able to give each other a shout over the backyard fence to share what we know free of charge! I’d like to make gardening (whether hobby or otherwise), an easier, more enjoyable pursuit that seems easy to participate in no matter how green your thumb is. Most of all, I want “green” to be accessible. I know my yard may never make it to one of Al Gore’s slide shows, but that doesn’t mean that my yard isn’t a vitally important mini-ecosystem in the neighborhood I live in.

Bottom line, I want to go green in a way that I can achieve, and in a way that’s practical to me.

Your Thoughts:  What practical ways do you try to “go green”?  What works for you? What doesn’t?  If you feel the same then I’d love to hear from you!