Pruning is one of my favorite activities ... tuning up an irrigation system on a hot day and getting soaken wet at the same time.

.. and reading a good book on plant biology or checking out plants under a microscope.

Good Day ...

I like to prune azaleas- I make like an artist. Maintaining green meatballs doesn't appeal to me, but maybe it's because I'm not as good at symmetrical shaping!

I do weekly maintenance for interior plants. My big kick is to visit a plant that has been static or even struggling, and see a new shoot or better yet, a flower bud.

I love the way a plant looks after a fresh coat of leaf shine. I like to prune too, and to watch if the plant grows into the shape I had hoped.

I really like it when I discover that our install crew has come and removed some old, nasty plants and replaced them with spanking new healthy ones.

I really really like it when someone comments on how nice the plants always look, or how the plants looked unhappy while I was on vacation (even though we had another employee covering for me), or how obvious it is that I must really enjoy plants.

I like it when people seek me out to ask plant care questions and I love it when they follow up weeks later by telling me that my advice saved their plant.

Most days it's really fun to be the plant lady...

My favorite thing is blowing all the dust and tiny debris off of all the walks, decks and drive. It's a lot like riding a loud bike through the neighborhood, kinda bugs people but they can't stop me. It is also the last thing I do and means I am done and can go home now. Hurray!

ilima

I enjoy weeding and deadheading.

I also enjoy seeing a rejuvanated shrub such as a hydrangea I've cleaned out recently of old dead stems after 40 years of neglect.

A plant that has tripled in size because I placed it in the right spot and didn't add any fertizer yet.

A vist to a possible work site and looking at the soil and seeing its yummy with lots of worms and dark with organic matter.

I'm on a similar page as Ilima, but I enjoy using an old straw broom as opposed to a gas-powered leaf blower. It's a great way to end off a day of work. Relaxing, not strenuous at all, lets the mind wander! (Even if it has been wandering all day long).

Pruning and weeding are probably my next two favourite, mainly because you can see results almost right away.

-Audric

The only maintenance I do is in my own garden - you couldn't pay me enough to do that for someone else :-) I find weeding to be my most enjoyable task - good thing, cuz there is always a lot of it necessary! It's very therapeutic plus, as Audric states, it makes such an immediate impact.

At the nursery, I quite enjoy watering. My department is out in the open and must be done by hand. Watering is an extremely pleasant way to pass a hot summer afternoon and gives me a chance to review my inventory up close and personal. I can see what's selling and needs to be reordered, what's past its peak and needs to be cut back or discounted and what's just coming into season and needs to be featured in a display. Since I spend a good portion of my day indoors doing administrative tasks or in meetings with staff or vendors, I really enjoy my time out on the sales floor schmoozing with the plants and customers.

I don't do maintenance for other people anymore but in my own garden I kinda like doing everything.
I do take extra zen like pleasure in hand watering early in the morning in my fluffy slippers , bathrobe and morning coffee in hand. It's how I wake up.

At work I still hand pick out all the plants for our projects and going to the nurseries to choose the plants is still a pleasure even if the clients or the project is a pain in the arse.
I guess after dealing with drainage, engineers, the technicalities of the hardscaping ect..... that when 'plant time' comes, it is relatively relaxing and an enjoyable aspect of the job.

It also signifies the end of a job, and that is always a good feeling, even when you do have great clients and especially euphoric when you have demanding or uncaring clients.

Mich, I think that's part of why I like color rendering so much- almost done with the project.

I like it all, but I get a weird special pleasure out of removing a sulky, weak, ugly plant. Usually I wait way too long or it takes me a while to talk the client/myself into the fact its unsalvageable and removing it. But the area looks soooooooo much better with that pouty bratty plant gone! Makes me smile every time. 'Course I always think "should have done that a year ago!"

I love tearing into a neglected garden and editing out overgrown or inappropriate plants.

Adore weeding, one of my greatest pleasures, and so tangible. I don't get much of a chance to do that anymore, and I miss it.

Love hand watering during the hottest days of the year to be sure that everything will pull through. It gives me a chance tor really look and be in the garden. Have made some of my best renovation plans while watering. In my head, of course.

I love seeing new seedlings emerge where I had looked only two hours ago and saw nothing. They were always there, but I didn't look hard enough. It's like the fog is lifted from my eyes and suddenly there is burgeoning life, almost trembling through the soil. So full of potential. (Don't get mites this time, please...)

I love cutting back fragrant plants- lavender, lemon verbena, thyme, mint, sage, rosemary... ahhhh.... I keep a sprig in my pocket and pull it out later in the day.

I love finding and transplanting the seedlings I started this or last or two or three years ago. Especially at this time of year when I'm looking at the catalogues for next year.
We tend only our own gardens, but I love being able to spend a few hours at it. Makes me remember why I went into this business in the first place.
I love walking around the nursery with my partner and examining and evaluating the plants we are growing. I love it even more when I bring a glass of wine.
I love pulling fleabane. One of the most prolific weeds in the garden, but easy to pull and once it is removed, it always looks like there is a garden there.

I enjoy both remedial and aesthetic pruning. And, oddly enough, I like watering (in my nursery job). Guess it's one of those tasks where you can take your mind to your Happy Place. I was watching one of the guys watering arborvitae in the tree nursery, a few weeks ago. He was happily whistling away, holding the hose with both hands as he gazed off into the cosmos. From the back, he looked for all the world like a guy taking a very prolongued whiz, and enjoying every minute of it.

Rejuvenation pruning of neglected ornamental trees and shrubs, although during the dry part of the year shaking out dead is way too dusty *cough*.

I also enjoy my smaller accounts, places I can spend a few hours at and make them look bright...light prune, spot spray weeds, and blow down paths and walks.

I enjoy them all when I feel I have the time to do them. Of late I have been spending all of my time building a greenhouse and everything else is slipping. It is starting to pile up and I don't like that. Once the greenhouse is done (a few more weekends) then I can start chipping away at it. That will take me 2 or 3 weks to get caught up.

Then I will enjoy my favorite maintenance task of kicking back with a barley pop and checking out the view.

jb