No, that's not a typo. I live my job.

Running a Bed and Breakfast on Cape Cod is the perfect symbiosis of work and play. It is a full-time, year-round enterprise, but there is no monotony. There is inn business to manage on a daily basis, including the care and feeding of guests, but there is also plenty of time to work my personal creation and passion – the inn's English gardens.

The gardens would be English anyway, I think, because I am -- born and bred and complete with accent -- but they are by design as well. There is always something in bloom. Beginning in spring with the daffodils... literally thousands of daffodils...that show their lovely heads for far too brief a period in April, and finishing the summer with the remarkable annual metamorphosis of the inn's glorious 60-year-old, 12-foot tall P.G. Hydrangea from the lovely creamy white of spring to the glorious russet color of late summer and early fall, the garden never disappoints.

There have to be water features, of course. These are particularly interesting from a gardener's point of view. Traditional is mixed with contemporary at our inn. A peaceful water garden, tucked behind a truly imposing wisteria arbor is one aspect, and a garden planned around a hot tub (in which many of our guests enjoy a cocktail and a soak before dinner) is the other. The flora is different; the feel is different. There can be no denying the success of each, however, as memorable points for our guests, which means, of course, great satisfaction for me as the garden's caretaker.

The gardens are not finished product, by any means. They are palettes on which to paint with living colors. There is no immediate gratification, either, with plants. Take for example the inn's tree peonies, which plants can grow as tall as 5'. The flowers are a large, lush, vibrant flower whose show is way too brief in the spring. The time dedicated to getting them to that point, however, is not. It took four years of nurturing and care before we could truly enjoy the fruits of those labors. It was and is well worth it when guests – and innkeepers, too -- can sit amidst a glory of peonies while reading, or having casual conversation and tea in the afternoon, or just sitting quietly and taking it all in. We have guests who actually book their stays around the blooming of the peonies, and that is a high compliment for me.

The wisteria vine, on the other hand, requires the same or more attention to keep it in check! The arbor is hardy and happy and way too willing to expand beyond its given boundaries. All but two weeks of the year, it seems, the wisteria commands a gentle pruning. When the unique shaped lavender blossoms appear in those two remaining weeks, though, it is truly breathtaking. The vine exudes a visual romance and joy paired with a heady scent that reminds me why the other 50 weeks of tending are so very little to contribute to this outcome.

I must brag a bit about the perennial gardens. Perennial flowers are lovely in that, with a plan, a garden will evolve in texture and color as the growing season progresses. Perennial plants are lovely as they grow in nature, as the sound of any instrument in an orchestra is lovely in its own right. However, and to continue the metaphor, when the instruments are drawn together and an order given to the music, the outcome draws attention to the whole as well as the individual. Such is the way of a perennial garden. When color and volume and height and shape are coordinated, a visual symphony will be the result. I modestly submit that the perennial gardens at the inn are just such a symphony.

Another benefit of enjoying gardening when one lives as an innkeeper is the availability throughout the growing season of fresh flowers to bring indoors. For our guests enjoyment, we always include cut flowers in rooms and around the inn from the moment they are available in spring. Design of cut flowers is a whole other dimension for a gardener. In this case, however, gratification is indeed immediate. The Zinnias, in their various colors, make a truly imposing bouquet even without contribution from other flowers in the gardens. In the brisk cool fall and the chill of early winter, when fresh flowers from the gardens are not available, dried hydrangea, which lasts so well at all stages of blush, is placed around the inn – on the fireplace mantle in the common room, for example. I am a gardener, after all, as well as an innkeeper. I must grow plants and flowers, and I must see and share the results of those labors whenever possible.

A final benefit of running a B&B and being an avid gardener is that, with the advent of the internet, the inn's gardens are available to everyone year-round. A page of our website -- http://honeysucklehill.com/index.html – is dedicated specifically to the gardens. It is a joy to run a B&B; it is a joy to garden; and it is a joy to enjoy both in harmony. You see that I truly live (and love) my job.