Elaine Fellenstein, Lawrence, gave up a career with Hallmark Cards to become a full-time gardener, nurturing her interests both for profit and as a volunteer for United Way and the Douglas County Master Gardening program.

Seeds of change can be sown in a variety of ways. In Elaine Fellenstein’s case, they were planted while immersed in two of her favorite activities: gardening and reading. They came to fruition when she made a risky mid-life decision to become a self-employed gardener.

She’s always loved gardening and the outdoors.

“We lived on a dairy farm on land that’s now Clinton State Park,” she recalls. “One of my earliest memories is sitting in my mom’s zinnia beds and looking up through them at all the pretty colors.”

The family moved to Lawrence in 1969, when the state acquired the farm and Fellenstein attended Lawrence High School. She graduated in 1972 and got a summer job at Hallmark before attending Kansas University.

The lure of Hallmark’s attractive salary and benefits packages proved too strong, so she left KU and stayed at Hallmark for almost 35 years.

“It was like having golden handcuffs,” she admits.

In 1997, when the United Way moved to an old building with badly neglected gardens at Ridge Court, Fellenstein volunteered to tend the organization’s flower gardens.

“People going into the United Way building kept stopping to chat to me and asked if I’d like to do their gardens,” she says. “Around the same time, I read ‘Your Money Or Your Life’ by Joe Dominiquez and Vicki Robin. It made a really big impression in me. I also read a quote from Louis L’Amour’s book ‘Ride the River’: ‘One has only so much time in this world, so devote it to the work and the people most important to you. … One can waste half a lifetime doing things one doesn’t like when one would be better off somewhere else.’ It really set me thinking, and I asked myself: Are you trading life for stuff or quality?”

Fellenstein, then 52, opted for quality and decided to make some changes.

After discussions with her husband, Keith, she left the job security of Hallmark and set up her own business, the Gardening Lady, in 2007. Her biggest initial financial outlay was buying a truck.

“Up until then, I’d been using a two-seater Honda CRX, and it looked pretty funny stuffed with bags of mulch and plants,” she explains. “I told a few people I was doing gardening and they told their friends, and before long I had enough gardening work to keep me as busy as I wanted to be. I love bringing structure and tidiness to people’s gardens. The folks I garden for are interesting, and it’s great fun to work with the many different plants and styles they like.”

Fellenstein is thrilled she gets to spend so much time outdoors doing what she loves and has more time for her volunteer work at United Way and as a Douglas County Master Gardener.

“I worked the night shift for nearly 35 years and always missed sunrise and sunset. Now I savor them both,” she says.

“I set my own schedule. I’m out and about more and meet many wonderful new people. All I need now is a few more hours in the day to work in my own garden and clean my house.”