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The Work We Do: Suzie Germano, Trimble’s Nursery

I’m Suzie Germano and I’m the nursery manager at Trimble’s Nursery in Cutchogue. I’ve been working here for 13 years.

My favorite part about this job is every day something else is in bloom. It’s a bird sanctuary here; it’s beautiful. I love designing people’s gardens because the final result is amazing, as you could see around you.

On a normal day, I’m first to come in. First thing I do is check the entire property for water for plants that are dead, for any watering issues and what I do is basically get ready for all the staff to come in so I can designate the jobs to them. Weather is one of our biggest problems and benefits depending on the year. Especially wind, because all the plants that are on the table have to be taken off and put underneath. We just want the sun. We grow all of our annuals here and a lot of our perennials. We buy in, too, but we always buy local. We grow probably about 70 to 80 percent.

Education is the biggest part of gardening. You have to start from the soil up. I could sell anybody a garden but I will not sell them anything unless I know the amount of sun to shade they have, if they have deer problems, if they have rabbit problems. There are a million problems that could arise. If you are on the ocean, you need more salt-tolerant plants. Different plants thrive in different conditions. People come in, and I tell them to take a picture of their home. Count how many hours of sun to shade where you want to plant.

I learned from everybody here. The owners taught me basically everything I know. It’s a great job, and I love it.

It’s basically education. And I’m not going to let you leave the nursery with a plant I’m going to make sure you know where you’re putting that plant and people appreciate it. They come back because I’m not here to sell plants, I’m here to make your garden look beautiful.

But, you know, look around. It’s a mecca.

‘The Work We Do’ is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. This weekly feature is made possible by Peconic Landing. See more photos on Instagram @thesuffolktimes.