Before starting my garden design/build business in 1995 I had a whole other career in Asian studies. I received degrees in Chinese Language and Literature and in Asian History, then lived in Japan for a long time and became a technical Japanese translator. After doing that for about ten years I was ready for a career change. I had a naive idea that it would be kind of idyllic if you could make a living as a gardener. I decided to start my own business after getting fired from my first job as a fine gardener after only two weeks (on my birthday).Luckily, things improved quickly and I had the great good fortune to be hired by people who were willing to give me a chance even when I didn't have much experience (I didn't tell them I'd been fired from my first job). One of the first design projects I had was at a beauty salon where the garden was seen by many and this led to numerous referrals, the development of my continuously blooming garden design technique and, finally, my book The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden (Storey Publishing, 2009).I've now designed over 200 gardens in Maine. I've enjoyed traveling everywhere from New Jersey to California signing books and giving talks about continuously blooming garden design.My other specialty, which is about as different as you can get from "continuously blooming", is Japanese-inspired gardens. I design and build them mostly using native New England plants so they fit harmoniously into the landscape (an important principle of Japanese garden design). I also give a lot of talks on Japanese garden design and history, which I enjoy tremendously. It gives me an excuse to go back to Japan regularly to study gardens.Please feel free to visit my website at www.LeeSchneller.com to see some pictures of gardens I've done and to see my touring schedule.Author photo by Deborah W. Smith