Five years ago, whenJudy Maxwell answered a blind ad for a gardener-contractor, the events of her life converged with her passions: She became The Prairie Gardener.

Originally from the Cleveland area, Maxwell has over the years acquired a pair of doctorates, taught at Ohio State, developed a passion for insects, lived in Australia, Germany and Japan, and worked for the Forest Service.

She's helped placer miners restore the sinuosity of Alaskan stream beds torn up in the search for gold. She worked on an endangered species project - the Karner Blue butterfly - at the University of Wisconsin.

And she had used a sabbatical to work on the Exxon Valdez cleanup in Alaska. As she worked there to put monetary values to the damages, an epiphany struck: "There is a way to try and value things not traded in the marketplace, like a clean beach or a living sea otter," things she calls "an endowment."

Looking out from the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, it came to her: "Why should we have to pay corporations not to screw things up?"

When Maxwell saw how the political system handled it, she quit.

Searching for a "now what?" she followed a friend's advice and wrote down everything that gave her joy:Hardware stores. Bookstores. Insects.

And she answered that blind ad.

It happened to be Bismarck's Mormon Temple, her first customer. The next year, she had 10. Today, she has reached a point where her job schedule is full. With a "dream team" of students, she works from April to September. Winters she spends designing next year's work.

In the past, humans have tried to lock up areas as wilderness, she said. "But we've tampered with the earth's ecosystem so much, we must (now) see ourselves as gardeners."

It's been seven years in Bismarck, and she has friends - a gardening group, lunch group, church group, library group, rug-hooking group.

"I wanted to live here," she said. "The city is just big enough. Ihave great neighbors and you can drive 15 minutes and be out in the country.

"I've got what Ineed right here in Bismarck. It's my home base."