Garden writer and blogger Yvonne Cunnington Country Gardener nominated Gardening With Confidence garden blog for a blogger’s Meme award. Thank you Yvonne.
I met Yvonne on twitter. Yvonne is @CountryGardener and I am @HelenYoest. We tweeted somewhat regularly. Then one day, during a Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, Yvonne revealed her meadow garden. Oh my gosh, I knew right then, this photographer, writer and gardener was someone I needed to know better. Her meadow got my attention! I’ve been a loyal reader ever since…albeit a lurker.
There were conditions to with this Meme award. In order to participate I needed to:
REVEAL SEVEN THINGS ABOUT ME
1. I prefer to be out of doors. Maybe this isn’t a huge surprise. But every job I have held, since my first job at 11 renting rafts and umbrellas to tourists at the beach, was outside. I don’t do office work well. I like to be out in the open. Even my career path as an environmental engineer was as a field engineer. And an illustrious one at that. You know those tall smoke stacks at factories – some 200 – 300 feet tall? Yep, I use to climb those smoke stacks to collect air emission samples. Years of sun exposure did not treat me well. When you see me you might think I’m 55. Well, I’m not. Not yet anyway!
2. It never occurred to me that I could per sue a career in horticulture. I didn’t even know it was available. What I did know was that I liked everything in nature. I was enthralled with the air, the water, the flowers, the trees, the insects, the animals – if it was in my environment, I wanted a piece of it. I even had a horticulture business (mow, blow, and go lawn care) in high school and during college, yet it never occurred to me to investigate horticulture as a degree. BTW, the pay to mow a lawn then wasn’t nearly as much as it is today. And yes, I still mow my own grass!
I also knew I wanted to write. In the end, I choose environmental engineering with gardening as a hobby; and I decided to use this hobby as an outlet to write (although I wrote hundreds of papers as an engineer, it never satisfied my creative side.) Horticulture was always in me. Even when I chose a graduate school, I chose Brunel University in London, England. I wanted to spend my spare time visiting great European gardens. I did. It was always about the gardens.
I believed then as I do now, that imagination is key to any success. If I can imagine it, I can build it. I believed that with the skills of an engineer, I could tackle any problem. Today as I garden my wildlife habitat, those skills come in handy. I am a wildlife habitat gardener ergo, I am a sustainable gardeners. My half acre plot of land is as much a system as it as a garden. When I look at it, it does me proud. As a side note, where I worked in my corporate job, I wrote a monthly gardening column for our newsletter.
3. As an environmental engineer, I worked all over the world. In 1989, I spent 6 weeks in Pakistan. My area of expertise was burning hazardous wastes in hazardous waste incinerators and cement kilns. That’s me, second to the left, holding an assault rifle with the border patrol. This is only photo op, but yes, I have held a heavy war machine in my arms. My team and this group and I were gung-ho about this photo. Looking back, with all that has happened in the world, I wonder where these Pakistanis are today.
Outside the plant where I was working, refugee camps abound with Afghanistan refugees (from the war with Russia.) Tents in neat rows were lined up outside our compound. At one point our compound came under seige. I had a gun to my head with our captors wanting to know why we Americans were burning our hazardous waste in their country. Well. we weren’t. We were there contracted by USAID to rid over-aged pesticides their county had. These barrels of pesticides were rusting through the 55 gallon drums, going into the aquifers. We were there to rid a potential problem, actually, to keep the problem for getting worse. I came home safe and sound, no worse for the wear. In fact, I was totally unfazed by the whole chain of events. I can’t say I would have handled it as well today. Probably because of my children.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx4. My husband and I have three wonderful children. Lara Rose, Lily Ana and Michale Aster.
My kids were diagnosed with early onset wonder lust, just like their mama. We are ready to go anytime, anywhere.
5. I had a good relationship with both my parents. I love my mother and loved my father dearly, but growing up I felt closer to my father. He gave me 3 things. More than 3, but three are with me all the time: 1) Wonder lust. I have a love of travel – there is no place I don’t want to go, period. 2) Coffee. My father woke early and started his day with coffee – quiet and alone. I was jealous of this relationship. I knew when I grew up, I too would drink coffee, in the mornings, quiet and alone. 3) Gardening. We gardened together, mostly veggies.
When my father died of cancer in 1991, I was devastated. While I loved my mother, it seemed like a greater loss to loose my dad. It wasn’t until years later that I realized God gave me a gift – the gift of time to better know my mom. My dad passed with me loving him, knowing him, understanding him, accepting him, caring for him. I couldn’t say the same about my mother. Now I can. If she had died in 1991 instead of my father, I would never have had the opportunity to know her like I do today. I cherish our time together. I moved her here from Norfolk, Virginia 4.5 years ago to an assisted care living facility. My kids and I get to visit often.
6. The car and truck I drive will give you no indication of my love for muscle cars. I actually like cars in general. The design, the engineering, the style, the colors even. On our drive to school in the mornings, my son and I discuss the merits of various cars. When we see a new model for the first time on the road, it brings on big excitement. But nothing like it does when we see a vintage Vette, GTO or Mustang.
7. I’m driven to inspire gardeners to garden for wildlife, with sustainable practices and to garden year round (we can do that in Raleigh.) I believe I have a passion that was meant to help others. Helping others understand the environment and the impact gardening has on it. That’s what I do now and have been doing professionally since 2001…and for decades before.
TAG SEVEN OTHER BLOGGERS
This was difficult. I read a lot of blogs. Many of my choices were already tagged and I have many more to tag, but here, I’m limited to seven.
A Tidewater Gardener This is Les Parks blog. I like Les and his topics, photographs, style. I think you will too.
Bumblebee Blog This is the blog of Robin Ripley. Robin also has a garden blog with the Examiner. This chick likes to tell tales of her chickens, too.
Compost Confidential This is the blog of Joe Lamp’l of joegardener. Joe is the nicest blogger I know. No offense to other nice bloggers, but this guy is just plan nice – all the time. An offers good sustainable advice too.
Defining Your Home Garden This is the blog of Cameron. When I want to know about deer, I go to Cameron.
Grumpy Gardener – Southern Living Magazine This is the blog of a grumpy gardener. But don’t let his grumpiness fool you. Steve Bender is a great communicator; he is funny, smart as all get out, and dedicated to his craft.
In The Garden – This is actually a group blog and should not be included, but I’m tagging Tina Ramsey on this. I like Tina. She is a good friend to many bloggers, has interesting things to share, and would be the first person I’d pick to be on my garden coaching team.
Sustainable Gardening Blog – This is the blog of Susan Harris. We share a lot of interest in sustainablility. Susan also started to movement for us Garden Coaches. She clearly defined what it is I do. Thanks, Susan.
Helen Yoest
Gardening With Confidence
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