The Sunday Magazine

Gardening guru makes the difficult decision to retire

"I planned to work until they scattered my ashes for slug bait," says Marjorie Harris, who recently turned 79. She used to ask herself, "What on earth do people do when they aren't working 7 days a week?" Now she knows.
Gardening author and designer Marjorie Harris

Marjorie Harris is a professional gardener and writer, with a thriving garden design and plant installation company, a newspaper column and 15 gardening books under her belt.

The idea of retirement hadn't occurred to her. She assumed she would continue to work until "they scattered my ashes for slug-bait."

But as she was about to turn 79, she began to think about things differently. A visit to a friend's home on the shore of Lake Erie crystallized her thinking.

In her essay for The Sunday Edition, Marjorie describes her flash of insight, and how it set her on a new course.

Click the button above to hear Marjorie's essay.