Are you or members of your team continually stressed out? Do you worry about burning out? Are you confident in your ability to recognize symptoms of burnout in yourself and others?

Extended periods of stress and/or frustration, often caused by having too much to do, plays a key role in burnout. Stressed individuals tend to be easily frustrated, take things personally and be either agitated or emotionally shut down. Highly stressed and burned out employees negatively impact morale, customer service and the bottom line.

The following are symptoms of burnout:

• Physical and/or emotional exhaustion or numbness
• Loss of motivation
• Ineffectiveness
• Feeling overworked, overwhelmed or underappreciated
• Feeling cynical, frustrated or other negative emotions
• Difficulty concentrating, solving problems and making decisions
• Experiencing anxiety, anger and depression
• Increased pessimism
• Increased conflicts or withdrawal from relationships
• Health problems, insomnia or increased absenteeism
• Failure to take care of self physically
• Self-medicating
• Unable to shut down when away from work
• Lack of enthusiasm about work or life
• Decreased levels of satisfaction

As someone who has personally suffered burnout, I assure you it is far easier to avoid burnout than it is to overcome it. If you or someone you supervise has one symptom, it’s a concern that deserves attention. The greater the number of symptoms, the more critical the concern and need to take immediate action. Things to immediately start doing:

1. Work with a therapist who specializes in burnout. Don’t try to overcome burnout on your own or ask others to do so, either. When someone is burned out, they experience impaired thinking and lack the required reserves and resources to overcome it easily. Working with a highly trained professional is equivalent to flying to a destination. It’s the quickest form of transportation with the fewest detours and least amount of wear and tear.

2. Take care of yourself physically and emotionally. Consume plenty of water and nutrient-rich food, and get sleep so that you aren’t burning the candle at both ends. Make time for fun. Encourage employees to do the same.

3. Regularly express appreciation. Employees who feel valued and appreciated are far less likely to be stressed or burned out than those treated as though they are expendable.

4. Ensure everyone carries their load. Overlooking slackers increases the work and pressure on your high performers. In addition to frustrating and demotivating employees, it leads to ongoing stress and burnout.

5. Address problems as they arise. Unresolved problems and ongoing arguments drain energy and take a toll on productivity and work satisfaction. When an employee is unhappy, initiate a conversation. Find out what’s wrong and what you can do to help.

Great leaders constantly scan the horizon and head problems off at the pass. Keep tabs on how you and those you lead are feeling and faring, and you will encounter fewer problems. Even better, you’ll have the joy of leading a far happier, healthier and more productive team.

For many years if you mentioned Buffalo, New York, in a conversation, people would immediately think about snow. But lately, many find that this city on Lake Erie is associated with gardens. The festival of open gardens known as Garden Walk Buffalo has become a major tourist attraction that is good for area businesses, has transformed whole neighborhoods, and promotes horticulture in general.

Garden Walk Buffalo started more than 20 years ago when a group of neighbors decided to share their gardens with one other on a July weekend. They enjoyed themselves so much that the open garden weekend was repeated the following year, and soon it became an annual event that was open to the public. Now hundreds of gardens are on tour over the weekend, and the event has spawned additional garden tours, as well.

Five years ago, this event inspired something similar on Cape Cod, where I live, as we began the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival. Unlike Garden Walk Buffalo, where the gardens are free for touring and the event happens over a single weekend, the Cape Cod Festival takes place over 10 days, and there is a small fee for entry to each garden. The cost to tour a garden is $5, which goes directly to a local non-profit. The non-profits find the gardens and staff them, and the local chamber of commerce coordinates the list of open gardens and activities.

What do these garden tours, and others like them, mean for independent garden centers? Might it be worth your while to start one in your area? Here are some ways that IGCs can benefit from garden tourism.

Awareness

When my garden was open during the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival, a young woman walked down the driveway, suddenly stopping in her tracks. “Oh!” she exclaimed as she looked at the beds of flowers and vegetables, “I didn’t know this was possible!” There is nothing like a beautiful home garden to show people what they can achieve.

Real-life advertising

When people tour a garden, they are seeing the end result of the materials you sell. Walking through a beautiful garden is a perfect commercial for the plants and products we offer. Local IGCs could even create arrangements to feature unique or signature products and plants in an open garden along with some small signage or printed material.

It’s contagious

What Garden Walk Buffalo discovered is that when one neighbor fixes up his or her yard and garden, the neighbors on all sides often do, too. Planting can be contagious, which means more customers come into your store.

Events

IGCs can hold special talks, classes and other programs that coincide with a festival. Match your events to the theme of the fest or help those with gardens on tour prepare in advance with a “Make Your Garden Tour-Worthy” seminar.

Marissa Byrum, director of communications and community outreach at Shell’s Feed & Garden Supply in Tampa, Florida, is excited about pairing up with a nearby neighborhood garden tour this fall. “We’ll be advertising in their flyer, and I also hope to make nice signage for participating home gardens to display our store information in their yards,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to the hyper-local exposure.”

If you want to consider starting an open-garden festival in your area, start out with a theme or map out a master plan. Spending some time exploring similar events online can help narrow down the possibilities. Look at Garden Walk Buffalo and the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival to start.

Remember that sometimes all it takes is for one person or business to say, “Let’s do this!” People like to be a part of something good, and you just might grow a beneficial event that brings beauty, goodwill and profits to your community.

C.L. Fornari is a speaker, writer and radio/podcast host who has worked at Hyannis Country Garden, an IGC on Cape Cod, for more than 20 years. She has her audiences convinced that C.L. stands for “Compost Lover.” Learn more at www.GardenLady.com

“Living Coral” may be the 2019 Pantone Color of the Year, but it’s white that seems to be on trend now. If you haven’t noticed, monochromatic white schemes are showing up splashed across design magazines and floral stylings. White flowers certainly offer up a crisp, fresh feel and brighten up any style of garden design or home décor. White flowers also happen to be a must-have if you’re looking to enhance your night garden experience. Seems like perfect timing, as night gardens appear to be making a trend comeback as “moon gardens”.

White gardens and white-flower floral displays were in full force at many of this year’s home and garden shows. Some of the prettiest featured lush clumps of white tulips, white daffodils, white muscari, cyclamen, daisies ... you name it. I saw white plant selections repeated across many landscape and container displays at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, and my contacts in the floral industry let me know that many of their customers are “freaking out over white astilbe.” (That probably has something to do with Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle’s wedding bouquet.) White and fluffy is in.

Outdoor living

Outdoor entertaining spaces have become much larger investments for many homeowners — often encompassing full-fledged kitchens, bars, media rooms and much more. Folks are spending a lot of time and money creating the outdoor entertaining and staycation spaces of their dreams. This means more evenings spent outdoors.

Yet, with the evolution of bigger and grander outdoor hardscapes, it’s often plantscaping that unintentionally gets eclipsed once the sun begins to go down. What good are all those beautiful plants if you can’t see them when you’re having your evening cocktail on the patio? The beauty of white flowering plants is that they shine both in the sunlight and the moonlight.

Calm down

White and silver have a naturally calming effect, which is exactly what most of us need these days once we head home from a stressful day at work or after a long day with the kids. While good landscape lighting can help illuminate your hardscaping efforts, strategically placed white-flowering plants really help your landscape come to life at night. Be sure to choose multitasking plants for your night garden — those with flowers that stay open at night and have good fragrance.

Anchor with shrubs & vines

White flowering viburnum ‘Spring Bouquet,’ oakleaf hydrangea and mock orange are star night-performing shrubs in my night garden. White roses, such as ‘Iceberg,’ create a lush, romantic feel for evening entertaining. Abelia produce masses of small white blooms that will feed a bevy of pollinators. Gardenias offer intense fragrance and Deutzia is a perfect compact pathway shrub.

Evergreen clematis, deciduous clematis, moonflower and climbing jasmine in white can ramble over patio pergolas, arbors and fences.

Perfect perennials

White-flowering perennials such as astilbe, scabiosa, veronica and echinacea offer a bounty of white blooms that pop in the night-time garden. Oxeye daisy holds down the spring season in my night garden and white autumn sage (Salvia greggii) is a workhorse bloomer the rest of the year. Don’t forget herbs such as basil, thyme and chamomile also offer up pollinator-friendly white blooms.

Brighten with bulbs

When customers say they just don’t have any more room for new plants, sell them some bulbs. Most bulbs can be tucked into beds between perennials and shrubs. Snowdrops are a welcome harbinger of spring in the moon garden. I’m also a huge fan of white daffodils, and ‘Thalia’ is a must-have in my garden. It’s a late bloomer with a wonderful fragrance.

I’m becoming increasingly obsessed with pure white muscari (grape hyacinth,) and they seem to be popping up in more and more landscape designs. These tiny bulbs can be tucked into any landscape bed or grown in patio pots. ‘Maureen’ tulips always make a show in my garden, and there’s nothing more stunning than white ‘Immortality’ bearded iris in full bloom en masse.

Bring on the tropicals

There are plenty of annuals you can offer to fill in established landscape beds or containers for a pop of nighttime drama. Annuals such as white cosmos, zinnia and nicotiana are easy-to-seed fillers. Pentas are easy-to-grow pollinator favorites.

I’m also in love with the newer white mandevilla varieties that are perfect for more compact patio pots. Potted citrus provide masses of white blooms with intense fragrance. White-flowering brugmansia are impressive specimens that add scale and drama. Cool succulents such as potted night-blooming cereus will bring out the nocturnal pollinators.

Don’t forget foliage

Add some shine to your evening cocktail time with silver foliage plants. Senecios, artemesia and silver santolina brighten borders and container plantings. Plants with white variegation in their foliage, such as many hostas, will also provide accent in the moon garden or in patio containers.

Four seasons

Be sure to offer moon garden plants that will take customers through the seasons. Ephemeral bulbs, spring annuals, summer blooming shrubs and fall-blooming perennials should round out a good moon garden.

We could all use a calm down these days. Moon gardens might just be what your customers need to add a dose of serenity to their daily routine.

Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, business and marketing strategy, product development and branding, and content creation for green industry companies. lesliehalleck.com