The new yet, familiar face
Many of you may recognize me from some of your first trips to the greenhouse, or the person that drops off your catalogues in February. I am Sue and Rob’s oldest daughter Arielle and I am now back at Glenlea Greenhouses after spending a few years away learning how much I missed this place. So to reintroduce you to myself, this is a little story of how I got to where I am today.
I grew up around flowers and that is where my passion began. From crushing the peat bales for my mom by standing on the benches with my sister Heather, to playing in the sand beds with our Tonka Trucks, we always had our hands in some form of soil. From then on it was kind of like destiny that I would be drawn back to working for the family business.
Once I got to university, I was determined to not follow the aggie path like my parents did, even after their constant, “you’ll regret it!” or the, “It’s the best faculty to be in, agriculture is always hiring.” So from the beginning I decided to plunk myself into the Faculty of Kinesiology. Though I met a few new friends, it wasn’t the place for me. I then decided to try my luck with environmental sciences with a focus on water resources. This seemed like a great fit for me since I enjoyed the outdoors and cared for the environment; this was until the government decided to cut all funding for water resource jobs. And then I realized where I should have been all along; The Faculty of Agriculture. I got my degree in Agroecology which was the perfect complement to my environmental science minor. As soon as I got into the faculty I got the big ole, “Told you so!” from my mom. I loved the faculty and met some lifelong friends.
Now, you’re probably saying, “why didn’t you get a job with a big chemical company like most people do coming out of agriculture do?” Well I tried my hand at agriculture research for two summers working as a research technician and after the first year I thought it was the path I should be taking. It was an exciting new look at how the chemicals and plants are developed for the everyday farmer. So this prompted me to return the following summer to continue along this path and hopefully make it my career someday. Was I ever wrong. The entire summer I spent longing for the beauty that is the greenhouse with the colourful baskets and the sweet smelling petunias. It wasn’t until my mom sent me a picture of the greenhouse full of fall mums in bloom that I really knew where I needed to be. So I packed my bags and came home. From then on I was no longer just an employee who took their job for granted, but I was a contributing member of the management team.
Flash forward to today, I am now going to help contribute to the blogs you see on the website as well as post many new and exciting things that I see in the greenhouse. I will also be posting some fun videos that I take to show you all a few of the behind the scenes action here at the greenhouse as well as some tutorials on planting basics such as transplanting, watering and other how-to’s.
I look forward to meeting you all in the retail this summer as well as a few of the farmers markets that we attend! We have many exciting new and fun things planned for this year so keep your eye out here and on our facebook and Instagram page!
Cheers,
Arielle