Have you ever wanted something so bad that it becomes an obsession?  Well, that’s what it’s been like for me at The Garden Corner… even before it existed… and thus far, well after it’s began.

 

Just to be funny, I’d like to say it’s been a long dream of mine and that through personal sheer will and fierce determination (all on my part) that this place has come to be.  My description would work even better with the theme of Rocky playing in the background.

 

Cept’ it would be all made up.

 

The Garden Corner’s seed has been one that’s been planted, cultured, and cared for by many, many rebel gardeners.  And it’s through these many hands and hearts that this single seed has pushed up from the dark, cold soil into the bright sunlight.  And this is despite all odds arrayed against it… Even our banker, back in the day when he had a bunch of money to loan, was skeptical enough to ask for plenty of collateral.

 

Incidentally, Andy was his name (He’s still our banker after 24 years) and he’s played a role not only loaning a whole lotta money to get this started but also as a real, bonifide customer.  Would you believe, many of his coworkers at his bank are also customers?  (My Dad likes to tell me that they shop here because they’re checking on their investment.)

 

I like to kind of, sort of, jokingly say that the role I play in all of this is the point man for Andy.   Lest something goes awry on his investment he has someone he can tar and feather…and make disappear.  Really though, in the strict bankers world where T’s are crossed and i’s are dotted on numerous copies, I think Andy, in his heart of hearts, is a rebel gardener.

 

We do like to think of ourselves as the garden rebellion and like I said, many have played a rebel role in our story.

 

It’s hard to fathom the many… and like the thankful speeches at the Oscars, it’s hard to mention all them. For instance, how do I begin to describe a phone call from staffer T-bone in Corvallis? While he is neck deep in his studies at OSU he’s calling to ask how did it go today?  And we talk of customers and their hanging baskets and deliveries, and coffees served and how Jim likes a two shot mocha in a to-go cup while he shops and his daughter has shade just up to their front door. T-bone, Jim and his daughter Tina are garden rebels.

 

And how do I describe a text message from Staffer Kt on her day off that if Sharon comes in, her hanging basket is ready and at the planting bar and that she hopes the red in her basket is the deep red she was hoping for… Kt, and because Sharon loves that particular shade of red and insists on it for her garden, makes them both incredible garden rebels.

 

And what about the back and forth prototypes of hanging baskets that while we were drinking coffee and dreaming of it, Don, the local welder, has to build?  And has to keep building (and working) until the dream meets the real world?  Don’s a garden rebel because I know he wants the common gardener to have uncommon choices.  (He built the Largest Hanging Basket in the World for us…. And without complaining much either.)

 

This isn’t to mention the many, many people that have come in one by one to our hard-to-find, top-secret location.  Some of them freshly flustered because of intense traffic issues they’ve just fought to get here. I’m sure they have many more convenient garden options but I can see it in their eyes and hear it in their individual voices. They’re garden rebels because they want, even demand, something different, and something unique, something to make their garden reflect their personality.

 

I’m proud to say there are now over 20,000 of us.  Each one an individual garden rebel that has found their passion searching for something different, something unique to help create a garden that has their individual personality all over it.

 

When we take it all together it looks very much like a full fledge garden rebellion. And The Garden Corner? It’s the natural result of all those garden rebels who are searching for and finding, and living their passion.

 

Live your passion!

 

Jonn (J-dogg)