Wilsons Nursery, a tale of 1000 bricks....

Wilson's Nursery, a Tale of 1000 Bricks...

The first day of work at a new Establishment should not go quite like it did. When I go to work for a Nursery I expect them to behave differently I suppose. This is Wilsons Nursery

 
 
 
 




which I was supposed to start work at yesterday, but due to heavy rains I was told to stay home. Chuck also requested I laquor the brick I had as a sample that he hopes to in the near future laser engrave. (That and 999 others give or take.) Today I came in with a perfect brick, covered in a clear polymer glaze that was pure and smooth and clear as frozen mountain ice on a beer can commercial.

He looked at it, put it  aside and handed me 4 more and a bag with a body grinder. "Sand some of these off." He said. "We will take them to the Boy Scouts this afternoon to see how they laser engrave. They have a laser."

Gee, all we had in Cub Scouts were silver rings and pocket knives with two blades. Its a well armed troop. They actually have two lasers. I am guessing that the Girls Scouts can only counter with light sabers.

I went to work and soon had one brick sanded on all 6 sides, another on the top and bottom. "That is enough on finishing for now." Chuck took the pile of bricks. I will go see them today."

"I thought you wanted me to come along since I'm engraving the bricks." I said.

But apparently he had other ideas.

"What about me filling out paperwork for w2s?" I had my passport ready as is the usual document to cut through the pre-employment paperwork quickly.

"Naw! I haven't time for paperwork." he replied as though it was of little import. "I trust your a citizen."

OK. Now I know we are welcoming illegals with open arms, but as an employer, failure to fill out IRS documentation is a serious infraction of the law, and made me think this job is phony baloney some how. The usual way its done is fake documentation, not skipping the whole process as though it was his word to pay me, mine that I was legal. I begin to eye the exit.

"Just take care of these plants."  he pointed to a tangled mess of weedy yellowed over bloomed and under blooming perennials in two large rows behind the building (A former Sonic Restaurant if I ever saw one) "Pull out the dead buckets and recycle the dirt in those big silver bins over there."

He promptly left for other business and I stood in the sun doing what the plants needed, weeding, a quick funeral, a lot of pity.
The fertilizer he pipes in on them daily is a concoction illegal in Europe for the last 20 years, 20-20-20, a liquid quick release nitrogen, full of pollutants and salts, bad for plants and bad for the ground water. I was not tasked with watering, only seeing the results of bad food on nursery plants, those supposedly for sale to the public. Its hard to tell, since the place looks far more like a fruit and vegetable stand than a nursery. There are some plants, yes, a small greenhouse, also yes, but more of the enterprise seems adapted around selling fruit and sand blasting rounded rocks. Bricks, that was a new line he wants to expand into. How about expanding into growing plants? I wondered.

I met Augie who was doing the watering and is an expert in animal husbandry and fixing Canadian imported BMWs. We had an interesting talk and I found him down right likable. He has a pony tail on the top of his head, sun glasses, a beard and a lot of tattoos. Mid day he called me that he had knocked the ladder down and was stuck on the roof. I offered to lift it to him for a dollar. Might as well make some money this day. I can't say as I trust Chuck to follow through with 40 hours a week at $10, not an unwieldy sum for even a small nursery in a good location (which it is).

Hidden some place in this Nursery Photograph, you will find a hidden plant. See if you can spot it....



















So I spent the day trying to inform the few customers I saw how to grow plants, the simplest basics, and they were amazed, like they found a gold ring in a box of cracker jacks and it wasn't made of plastic.

This Nursery needs serious help. I mean this fruit stand is doing a booming business but is murdering plants...I mean, well its both.

I returned to find Sean literally bored out of his mind. "What did you do all day? " I asked.

"I killed pirates and took over a city." he replied tiredly.

All the PC gamers will note he is a normal on-line junkie like the rest of his generation seem to be. Tonight he goes in to the The Flat Branch Pub to seek employment from "Chef" the head... dare I guess his work? I hope he gets a job, even if it sucks and he turns it down. He needs some diversion. We both do. Money would divert us just fine wherever it came from.