Mrs B and I spent half term in Scotland, which was warm and wonderful, and we basked in the unseasonal combination of sunshine with (almost) no midges.
But it was a lot hotter in the Midlife Garden (now rebranded the Garden Gate Flower Plot) and on our return from the Far North, I was amazed at the transformation in the raised beds and cutting patches. Every seedling seemed to have trebled in size and was blooming. The dahlias that I had transplanted the day before we left, now had buds on them. The Cerinthe had grown long and elegant stems and the Ammi Majus, were over eight feet tall and covered in white umbels.
The survival of these flowers is entirely down to our colleague Kate who spent long hours watering to keep everything alive. No surprise her efforts have been rewarded with a nomination for Employee of the Month. The award is, as yet, an unofficial one, as we are a fledgling organisation (or should I say seedling perhaps) with three of us involved on a regular basis: Myself, Mrs B and Kate, although other members Kate’s entourage are occasionally involved, such as mum Sue, and husband Sam. Not to mention her youngsters one of whom was saleswoman of the month after coercing punters into buying all our bouquets at the Frome flea market last year.
Kate heads up the PR and Marketing division, running the Social Media content, promoting the business, and finding exploring new outlets for our product. And in between ferrying kids to school, she even manages to chuck a few seeds into her own flower patch to produce more stems, so it cannot be a surprise that she has had a disproportionate number of Employee of the Month nominations.
Mrs B has assumed the role of Presentation and Quality Assurance. As The Face of GGF, nothing leaves the premises without her approval. In the early days, she trained the workforce in bouquet design, and she is also head wrapper, folding brown paper with Origamian precision to present the flowers at their finest.
And what of the Midlife Gardener himself? Well, I guess the clue is in the title. I am the ageing horticulturist bumbling round his garden, growing the stems, talking to them, and cutting and conditioning them every week. Sowing and growing takes time and might seem mundane, beside the glamour of Presentation and PR. But for every John and Paul there has to be a Ringo on drums; and Best and Charlton could not have done anything with a football if Nobby Stiles had not been there to do the donkey work. We are all part of a team in which there is no “I”.
But with a bit of creativity, you can find “me” – which is what Kate replied when asked who Employee of the Month should be. Well done, Kate, the GGF EOFTM, goes to you.
Again. (sigh)
