C6 The Seattle Times Saturday, April 24,1976
Making it on her own  
Gardening opened a new life

By PATRICIA FISHER


A chance meeting with a Japanese gardener changed the course of Marilu Wickre's life — she said he saved it — and opened the way for her to operate her own business successfully.
Marilu Wickre is a gardener. 23 years old, working hard and making it in a career she enjoys, after some difficult teenage years which resulted in her being on her own at the age of 17.
Becoming an executive secretary was Ms. Wickre's first goal. but alt-er a year at Auerswald Business University, she had had it. She got a job as a receptionist, but tired of that quickly. "I would go to sleep at night' still pushing buttons," she shuddered.
One day while visiting a friend, she noticed a gardener working at the house next door. MS. WICKRE approached the man and asked if she could work for him. Money was her motivation then, but she added, "I like working outside, getting tired."
He said yes. he could use some help, and she began that day learning the Japanese style of gardening which she maintains is the best, most professional and artistic form.

Marilu Wickre demonstrated her pruning technique, a skill she acquired over a five-year period, learning to be a gardener.
The gardener worked with Ms. Wickre for five years, allowing her to learn and develop her skills. "1 was sore for about a year," she re-called, "my muscles ached all the. time until I got into shape.'' Some-times the novice gardener said she couldn't work. she was just too sore or the weather was too bad, so she went along to the jobs and waited in the truck while her mentor worked.
But the work had given her life a focus and direction and she became increasingly enthusiastic about it, "It's like a free job. Like living off the land. There's always work to be done," she said, searching for the right way of expressing her joy with her chosen profession.
" It was the only thing I could do at the time that made me feel good; that made me feel worthwhile," she said, referring to those traumatic teenage years when depression and self-deprecation were her most common feelings.
AFTER FIVE YEARS, Ms. Wickre felt that her apprenticeship had lasted long enough and she decided to try to make it on her own. Though she said she will always be grateful to the man who taught her gardening and "saved my life, really," Marilu Wickre likes having her own business. "I can choose what jobs I want and what areas I want to work in."
She limits her business to residences. The challenge is greater, she feels, and there is more individuality possible and the money is better.
Running a successful business is not just a matter of providing the service. Ms. Wickre learned she must keep careful and accurate re-cords so that her taxes are paid properly.
 As an aspiring businesswoman she also found that the equipment she needed is costly. When Ms. Wickre's roommate bought a house she paid the young gardener for landscaping the yard by buying her the tools necessary for pruning.
PRUNING IS Ms. Wickre's favorite aspect of gardening — mowing is her least favorite. "Pruning is what's really creative about gardening," she's decided.
This past winter Ms. Wickre sold cars at a lot on Aurora Avenue, She saved all of her commissions, enabling her to buy a power mower, edger and chain saw — necessary tools of her trade.
Ms. Wickre didn't like selling cars: "It was interesting, but I gained 20 pounds just sitting all day; I'm used to physical activity." However, she will probably sell cars again this winter because gardening is seasonal work.
During the spring, summer and fall. Ms. Wickre works four hours a day, four or five days a week. The work is too strenuous to do more than that. Gardening is a business that you can only work at for about 20 years, she believes, because your body wears out. It is really hard on your back. After six years in the business she is already having a lot of back problems.
THE WORK CAN also be dangerous. "Like falling out of a tree or mowing over your foot," she explained. Although she has fallen 25 feet from a tree ("I just bounced") she has never been injured doing her work, "not even a broken finger." she said smiling. 		For a while after she began the arduous work, Ms. Wickre felt she was losing her femininity. But, "I got it back when I discovered you can live any way you want to" it's a matter of attitude, she discovered. Now she is proud of her strength and capabilities and is adept at selling her services to customers who fear the work will be too hard for her.
Ms. Wickre has one serious problem, not so easily overcome, however. Ironically, she is allergic to grass, all evergreens and weeds. She did not discover the allergy — "I thought it was a cold"— until she had been in the business for a while. By that time she loved the work so much that she was willing to suffer the shots she must take every two weeks and the antihistamines she takes twice daily to control the symptoms.
WORKING AS a gardener has given Marilu Wickre a sense of her-self, a feeling like she is contributing something important to the city that she loves. "Seattle is a garden-er's wonderland. I never want to leave here. I like making things look beautiful." she said.
Now that she is on her own and making a go of it, Marilu Wickre has a five-year plan for her future. She hopes to get into landscaping. It will mean that she will have to go back to school, a prospect that she does not relish, but to which she is resigned.
Before she is 30 Ms. Wickre hopes to have her own maintenance crew. "I will do the designing and contract for the crew to put it in and maintain it," she speculated.
Her exuberance and obvious plea-sure in her work must be infectious. Marilu Wickre's friends are betting it won't take five years for her to realize her dreams.