Sick of Spending Your Entire Workday at a Desk?

I'll never forget the first time I felt truly envious of someone's workday. It was over 10 years ago, and my mom and I were visiting a local nursery. There was this nursery employee in a gorgeous sun hat, watering the orchids, and I'd never before seen anyone looking so content and fulfilled at work.

"Well, that sure looks like a lot more fun than sitting in front of my computer, doing contract work," I thought. "She tends plants all day... and gets paid to do it!"

Seeing this woman so happy at her job planted a little seed of desire inside me. What could a new career involving the garden look like for me?

It took me a couple years (and many hours googling "flexible working from home jobs") to figure it out, but I eventually created my own dream job. Now, I run my own business working as a garden consultant. I specialize in designing and installing backyard kitchen gardens for clients who want to learn how to become gardeners.

Here's what my 9 to 5 hours look like now on garden installation day.

9 am

Arrive at client's home and check in with my installation crew.

9:15 am

Re-measure the space and stake out straight lines around the new garden's border.

10 am

Assemble three of our cedar raised bed kits while my crew installs the garden edging and puts down the gravel pathways.

12:30 pm

Oversee the positioning of the new raised beds in the garden space.

12:45 pm

Eat lunch.

1:15 pm

Fill the raised beds with a great soil mix ordered from a local soil yard.

2:15 pm

Install two arch trellises to connect the three raised beds in a row.

3:00 pm

Begin to place plants purchased the day before from a local nursery according to my customized planting plan for the client. Plant the herb and flower border around the edges of the beds. Fill in with larger plant starts.

4:15 pm

Sow pea seeds along the arch trellises and fill in empty spaces in the garden with seeds for fast-growing plants.

4:30 pm

Bring the client outside to explore their new space and take their first herb harvest.

4:45 pm

Test out irrigation lines.

5 pm

Head home feeling physically tired but mentally energized after another successful garden installation!

Garden Consulting Is a Full- or Part-Time Job with Flexible Hours

My workdays looked a little different when I was first starting out and my youngest child was still in preschool. Back then, I ran my business as a part-time job in just 4 hours a day. I'd drop my kids off at school, spend the morning gathering materials for DIY raised garden installs for my clients, pick my youngest up from pre-K at noon, and take her along with me to deliver the garden materials to my client. After that, we'd go pick up the rest of my kids and head to their afterschool activities.

I was able to spend more time working once all my kids were in elementary school. My business grew, and I got to the point where I could hire carpenters to build raised beds, irrigation specialists, and work crews to help me do larger garden installations that I couldn't handle by myself.

Now, do I have days where I spend most of my time in front of my computer? Absolutely. I still have to answer emails and work on my marketing and create invoices. But I also get to spend a lot of time in my garden and in other peoples' gardens. It really is my dream job.

Is Working in a Garden Your Ideal 9 to 5?

About a year after I started my business, I was leaving a meeting regarding a garden I'd designed for a school community, when a woman approached me and said, "You've got my dream job."

That's when it really hit me. I had someone else's dream job. I was getting paid to garden and to teach other people how to garden. I had made it.

I decided garden consulting was just too good not to share, so I created the Gardenary Consultant Certification so I could teach other gardeners how to start their own businesses like mine.

If my 9 to 5 sounds more fun than sitting at a desk all day, you've got to check out the Gardenary Consultant Certification. It may feel like a far off dream, but you too are just a couple decisions away from having a job like mine.