Pride In Your Work (and a green thumb I didn’t know I had)

I hate gardening. At least I always thought I did.

(Our resident green thumb, Elizabeth, is probably squirming over that statement. It gets better, I promise.)

You see, when I was growing up, my dad loved gardening. He had a big vegetable garden, and always dragged us into helping him tend it. I was never one for digging in the dirt, sweating on a hot summer day, and playing with delicate little plants. I never understood why he enjoyed it so much, especially since the location of our garden made it tough to keep out the deer, rabbits, and other creatures that usually destroyed it before we could enjoy the fruits of his labor.

I never understood it — until this past Monday night.  You see, when we bought our house two years ago, we always talked about turning at least one little portion of our tiny backyard into a vegetable garden. We never really knew if it would work (the bowling alley-shaped yard is surrounded on three sides by very high walls and fences), or if we’d ever actually get around to doing it. But after a month of carefully tending to the growing grass in the rest of the yard, we finally tackled the project on Memorial Day.

First we drew a little map with a paper and pencil, plotting out where everything would go. Then we dug up the dirt along the side and back of the yard, stirred in some peat moss, and even edged the whole thing with some really nice bricks that we found on our first of many trips to Lowe’s. Once that was all done, we went to a small farm nearby and picked up a variety of vegetable plants, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and Andrea’s experiment: cantalope. We even stole a few wrought-iron trellices that my parents weren’t using, stuck them against one of the concrete walls, and planted a climbing flower of some kind that should hopefully cover the trellices. This week’s light rain has been perfect so far, and I plan to add a layer of mulch this weekend.

The point of the story is that despite my very sore legs from all the digging and bending, the first thing I did when I got home from work last night was go back and check on the garden. I’ve been following the dog outside when she goes to make sure she doesnt bother anything, and I find myself wondering what we could do differently next year. In short, I’m finding that I really like gardening, as long as it’s my garden. I will take great pride including my homegrown tomatoes in a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich (one of my all-time favorites) later this summer. I even took photos of the finished project (although, as usual, I forgot to take any “before” photos).

How does this connect with what we do at DDA? Pretty easily, actually.

You see, we don’t ever farm out our work, or outsource anything to another company. Not only does our team of programmers, graphic designers, copywriters, animators, videographers, and interactive media specialists handle every single piece of your project, but we also take great pride in the finished result. Think about it. If you are an animator, and you just sit around and animate small segments of projects that another company has outsourced to you, will you take pride in your work? It’s not likely. To you, it’s just another project for just another client that you will never see, meet, or talk to. You do that piece, and move on to the next.

Here at DDA, we each play a role in creating the best marketing and advertising products. Whether it’s a new website, medical webcast, trade show display, or simply a printed brochure, we are involved from beginning to end, which creates a strong sense of pride in our work. So when a project is complete, and a client is (hopefully) happy, we are happy, too.

So I don’t hate gardening anymore, at least not when it’s my garden (although I’m hoping the soreness wears off before the first weeds need to be pulled).

Entry by: Steve