Do-it-yourself Immortality Kit

My job is never dull. Being a self-employed landscaper, you have to wear lots of hats during the day. Any day could see me mowing acres of grass, designing and installing a healing, memorial garden, making a client’s weeds go away for months, knee-deep in a hole of mud and pipes, teaching a class in drought tolerant landscaping or my favorite one, sitting with a client, sipping coffee and discussing their landscape just to name a few!

I got an unusual request from a client recently, that certainly was unique. It seems that my client had visited Yosemite recently with friends. Sitting under the emerald sky of the giant Sequoias, they debated the tree and its benefits and whether or not it could grow in a place like the high desert. They talked about how majestic the trees are and how many life times they have lived and how many lives they have benefited. My clients certainly have the space for the massive trees on their Mojave River-side property. So they decided to test it and brought back a Do-it-yourself Giant Sequoia Tree Kit.

Naturally, as their landscape manager and advisor, the job was handed down to me. At first, I was a little peeved. I was thinking, I mean, really? Couldn’t we just BUY a tree partly grown? Don’t they know the odds of getting the little seeds to sprout and grow under the best conditions, never mind putting them into the ground near the river where  God knows what has the opportunity to have it’s way with them?

I was relating my distress at the thought of trying to bring up mighty Sequoias from a seed, to a friend. She did not see my problem. “Aren’t they huge, beautiful, green trees?” “Won’t it take a lot of skill to germinate and raise the trees?” “Don’t Sequoias live thousands of years?”

I dutifully answered “yes” to each of her questions. “The way I see it,” she said, your client has a tremendous amount of confidence and respect for your skills.”  “ And to top it off,  at an average life span of 3000 years, I’d say it’s job security, Honey!”

I had to laugh at that. And the thought of  practically being immortal by planting giant sequoia trees, who live for thousands of years is definitely worth the hassle.

Get Immortality, plant a tree!

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

 ~Nelson Henderson