In early 2020 when the Governor announced that the State of California was going to shut down, I thought, “Oh this is going to kill my business.” Luckily, it went the other way. With the encouragement of our main vendors, American Soil & Stone and Urban Farmer, we stayed open. Suddenly everybody and their brother wanted outdoor living spaces. To meet this demand, we pivoted away from gardening completely and turned into an outdoor construction company.
“Outdoor construction” means we built a lot of decks. Also we built a lot of pergolas and patios and staircases and retaining walls. “Outdoor construction” meant the girls school that was meeting in someone’s garage could now meet in the garden. It meant the Smith twins could have a flat place to play. And it meant one man who was working from the roof of his house could now work from beneath his olive tree which was so much safer and also so much more photogenic.
The company grew. I hired Arturo Galeana who had been laid off by ABC Landscaping. He joined his compadre Ruben Garcia who hitherto had been my sole employee. I pulled back from being a worker among workers to tutoring the workers’ kids on zoom, sometimes at the job site and sometimes in the parking lot of KFC where their mamas work. Somehow we not only got through it, but learned to thrive.
Here we are, at the end of the pandemic (knock on fucking wood). We have a whole new business on our hands. The kids are back in school. And we are ready to work for you if you are ready to build your “outdoor living space.” I just ordered new business cards. It says Grateful Gardens, of course, but I added “and Outdoor Construction” to reflect the way we pivoted.
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