The Hopeful Gardener

Well the long summer break for Universities is over, the Thai holiday is behind him and we're 2 weeks into the first Semester so DrummerBoy is officially 'unemployed'. Poor possum is still waiting for formal notification of his degree and results which makes proving you've got a degree a little difficult when you're job hunting. People he's seen so far are in retail and he'd rather be slugging it out in the heat digging ditches and designing gardens.

Never fear, mother's here . . We're on the campaign trail with a vengeance. Mummy made pretty resumes and cover letters, he put in the words and now the landscaping industry in Sydney is being inundated with a letter and resume drop. Short of printing 5,000 and dropping them from a helicopter, he's got the city covered. (Would they drop from a helicopter or get sucked up into the rotors and resemble ticker tape rain?) Damn you Ian for making me think about physics!

In retrospect, perhaps an apprenticeship rather than a high falutin' degree might have been more practical. He's got the theory, knows his soils and roses, can identify a load of plants with their botanical names and knows at least 100 pests (we had them all pinned to a piece of styrofoam on my dining table for months!). He's a big boy and a hard worker, not afraid of lugging heavy stuff or putting his back into hard work. The ultimate goal is his own business but to get that, he needs the practical experience. Three months working for a landscape gardener in your three year Uni career doesn't quite cut the mustard. Employers of landscape designers are not so impressed with three years as a casual pool shop attendant!

It's tough for a new graduate with little practical experience, in a saturated employment market, seeking a position in a landscape design company during a five year drought! So would somebody please give my little horticulturalist a job . . . he's ready, willing, able, eating me out of house and home and his car needs registering and insuring . . .!