MOM'S NEW JOB

Mom has worked at her new job for two weeks now.  Of course, Mom only works three days during the week, so even though she has worked for two weeks, she has only worked for six days.  But since Mom is almost as smart as a basenji, she has already learned a lot of stuff about doing her job, and here are some of the things she learned how to do:

1.  Answer the phone
2.  Run the cash register
3.  Say hello to customers and ask if she can help them
4.  Water the plants
5.  Sweep the floor
6.  Mop the floor
7.  Find somebody to answer all the customers' questions that she doesn't know the answers to
8.  Put price tags on plants
9.  Pet people's dogs when they bring them in to the garden center

Well, okay, Mom didn't have to learn how to make a fuss over people's dogs.  She's already had a ton of practice doing that at the Humane Society and also here at home!

On Friday, Mom took her camera to work so she could make a bunch of pictures for me to use in my blog.  And now I will show you the pictures.

Here is the front of the Soil Service Nursery, which doesn't look very exciting, but it is a nice building anyway.  A few years ago, there was a fire in the building, and it got remodeled inside, with lovely new bathrooms.

This is  one of the cash registers that Mom uses to figure out how much money people owe.  It has lots of pretty buttons on the screen that you can push.

These are some of the plants that Mom has to water.  You can't leave these plants outside in the wintertime because they will freeze, but you can put them outside in the summer.

You can also buy gloves to wear while you are gardening.

Or hats.

Other things you can buy are fertilizer, potting soil, and a variety of supplies to use when growing plants.  There's also stuff to get rid of ants and slugs and chipmunks and rats.  One year, Mom bought something called Rabbit Scram, because a rabbit kept eating one of our hostas.  Mom did not know that Rabbit Scram was partly made out of blood meal.  We dogs got very excited when Mom put the Rabbit Scram on the ground, and we started digging all around there, trying to find the dead rabbit!  So Mom had to put the hosta in a pot, and she gave the Rabbit Scram to Aunt LaDene, who doesn't have a dog.

Anyway, there is also a "Scram" for dogs and one for cats.  I think it's mean of people to try to keep these animals out of their yards, but no one asked me.

Another thing you can buy is stone benches or little statues to put out in your yard.  This angel likes to sit between the restroom doors.

Sometimes, big trucks come to the garden center, and they have a whole bunch of plants and trees inside them.  When a truck arrives, everybody gets busy unloadng it.  On Friday, a truck was already there when Mom arrived.  This truck had a lot of really big trees, so the men got everything out, and they used a forklift to move it all.  It took them five hours to unload everything from the truck.

A lot of the shrubs and evergreens live in this big space on the south side of the building.  All those evergreen trees with bags around their roots came out of that big truck on Friday.

There are fruit trees in a nice little line behind the building.  If you buy one of these, you can grow your very own apples or plums or some other kinds of fruit.

On the north side, there are three greenhouses, and one has perennial plants in it.  This is the one where Mom mostly likes to shop.  Also there is a greenhouse with shrubs in it.  Mom isn't sure what the third greenhouse has in it.

Out in front of the greenhouses are lots of small trees such as redbuds and dogwoods.  Also, that's where the roses are.  And on the left side of the greenhouses, there are big trees like maples and oaks and gingkos.  You can pay somebody to come to your house and plant your tree or whatever.  Mom is still trying to learn how much to charge for having this done, and also how to schedule the planting date.

Another thing Mom is trying to learn is where the different plants are located on the lot and in the greenhouses, so she can tell the customers where to go, so to speak.  If she could get out of the building and look around more, Mom could figure these things out better, but mostly she has to stay inside by the cash register and the telephone, especially on busy days.

There are a few annual flowers, such as pansies, in the nursery where Mom works, but most of the flowers are at the garden center part across the street.

Here's what I don't like about Mom's having a job:

1.  She's gone for hours and hours on the days when she has to work.
2.  She gets home an hour after our suppertime, so we are really hungry!
3.  She is really tired after working all day, so she doesn't want to do stuff like help me write my blog.


Here's what I like about Mom's having a job:

1.  Nothing
2.  Well, okay, maybe I like it that she will have more money to spend on dog food.