A little bit about my job

I work for a non-profit and as I'm sure any of you who have experience with non-profit work that you may have a job description, but it's very likely what you actually do from day to day will differ greatly from that. Lately I've been reviewing landscaping plans, looking for books about native Louisiana plants, and reading email newsletters about gardening on the Gulf Coast. Just to clarify... I have no gardening experience whatsoever. I do have several indoor plants, but until a year ago I've not been really good at keeping them alive. So why gardening? Well, as the director of community outreach I thought cleaning up/beautifying some parts of our community would be a great way for our volunteers who don't have construction know-how to get involved in a community activity.

Our first project last year was for the local library branch. The branch director had a clear vision of what she wanted and so that project was deceptively easy. This year we've been working on an extensive landscaping project for the downtown domestic violence emergency shelter. It would be an understatement to say that this project is just slightly more difficult. With little direction from the shelter staff except the request to include a palm tree in the design, I've been working with a long term volunteer at our non-profit to help formulate and execute a plan. Linda, the long term volunteer, has really been such a great help- investigating the correct plants to use and coming up with a total cost list. Today we began to put plants in the ground and although it was just a small bed compared to all of the other work left to do it felt like a really big deal. I hope we're able to show these women who have just escaped from such hard circumstances that we care. Who knows, maybe it will start a movement to clean up downtown that would be nice for this small town.

Margaret