A Boy Scout, a Horticulturist and a Lot of Plants

A few months ago, I was asked to help re-design part of our church’s parking lot landscape.  There was nothing really wrong with it except for some old plants and some dying Chinese Elm trees.

So, I created a design that switched out the dying Chinese Elm trees, which don’t do all that well in parking lots, with Sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo) trees.  I also switched out some of the missing Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens ‘Green Cloud’) shrubs as well.

I ordered the trees and shrubs and we were all prepared for an all-church work day.  I showed up bright and early (I think 8:00 is early for a Saturday, don’t you?), and met up with a 16-year old boy scout, who was earning community hours for his badge.

He was a very nice boy and we started placing all of the trees and shrubs.  Then we started digging….


Yes, I dug holes too….although it has been awhile since I’ve had to dig so many.

We worked on digging holes for the shrubs.  My ‘helper’ had never planted a shrub or a tree before and he watched and listened as I showed him how to do it.

I realize that most of you may know how to do this, but just in case, here is what we did.  He took pictures for me (I knew I would blog about this) – you can see his shadow in most of the photos…

Planted a shrub

Planted a shrub, First, I hit the sides of the container, to loosen the root ball from the container.

Planted a shrub

Planted a shrub, Then I spread my palm out so that I held the shrub between my thumb and fingers and then flipped the container and plant over.  I carefully pulled off the container.

The root ball was pretty healthy, it was not root bound.

The root ball was pretty healthy, it was not root bound.

Planted a shrub

I placed the shrub in our already dug hole.  **An easy tip for figuring out how deep the hole should be, is to put the entire container in the hole you have dug and see if the soil line of the plant is level with the sides of the hole (NOT the sides of the container).  You don’t want to plant too deep or too shallowly.

My Boy Scout assistant finished planting the shrub, taking care not to pile up extra soil around the shrub.

My Boy Scout assistant finished planting the shrub, taking care not to pile up extra soil around the shrub.

After planting this shrub, we went on to plant more.  We took turns digging holes, but I must admit that he did more digging then I did.

I enjoyed working with him and explaining how to plant trees and shrubs.  After we had worked together for quite a few hours, he asked me, “Are you a teacher or something like that?”

I told him that I ‘teach’ people how to take care of plants.

I hope this was helpful to some of you.  I will share my tips for planting trees (we planted 6 of them), next time.  

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On a personal note, I have been stuck at home the past few days.  My daughter, Gracie, is sick with an extremely contagious virus.  The sickness itself isn’t that bad, but the fact that it is easily spread is the problem.  She has to miss a week of school and will thankfully, go back on Monday.

However, I am going nowhere…..my son now has it.

So, I am spending my time writing gardening articles, knitting, blogging and doing a little gardening.  It really doesn’t sound all that bad when you think about, does it?

Six Trees, a Boy Scout and a Horticulturist

Horticulturists Don’t Wear Nailpolish….Do They??

I was asked this question 10 years ago by a woman in the human resources department as I was filling out new hire paperwork for my new job.  At first I was taken aback.  But, the evidence was irrefutable….I was wearing pink nail polish and I was a horticulturist.  

horticulturist job

Bougainvillea, Gold Lantana and Purple Lilac Vine adorn a feature area along the golf course.

And so that was my introduction to what turned out to be many years at a very fulfilling job working as a horticulturist for two golf courses, and for the surrounding community areas.

horticulturist job

The golf courses were bordered by a national forest, (yes that is a national forest in the background), and an Indian reservation, so much of the surrounding area was untouched and just beautiful.

horticulturist job

I set to work right way, designing and planting new landscapes  everywhere I could find bare, boring areas…and there were quite a few.

My job was not without it’s challenges…..I was the only woman in a department of 38 men, besides the secretary, which was not always easy.  I had to earn their respect before they would do what I asked.  Also, sometimes I would have to act braver then I was when the guys would show me snakes they found as well as huge grubs they dug up.  I would pretend it was no big deal to me, even though I cringed inside.

horticulturist job

I managed all of the landscape areas, but thankfully, not the turf areas on the golf course.  I had a crew of 4 men, which included my foreman, who had followed me from my previous job.  

Although my favorite part of my job was designing and installing new landscape areas, I also was in charge of the maintenance of 100’s of trees and plants as well.

horticulturist job

I did have unfortunate mishaps such as losing a large saguaro in a torrential summer storm and the Palo Verde tree below.

I used to dread going to work the days after a summer storm.  I would spend hours deciding what fallen trees could be saved and those that could not.  It was always very sad to see some beautiful trees lost.

horticulturist job

Riding in my little golf cart around the golf courses and community was always so much fun.  I typically spent 1/2 my days in the office and 1/2 outdoors.  The weather was usually very nice to be out in.   In the winter, the golf courses would be covered in a layer of thick frost at times and golfers would anxiously wait until it melted so they could start golfing.

For the most part, summers were nice too, although an occasional day over 114 would hit.  Those were hard, because the crew would have to continue working outside, so I would have the crew work on pruning trees so that they could stay in the shade – I always felt guilty that I had an air-conditioned office to retreat to.

golf course

Some landscape areas did not have an irrigation system, so were planted with succulents and hand-watered twice in the summer.  Washes lined with river rock ran through many of the areas, like the one above, which would rapidly fill with water after a summer storm.

golf course

After placing the plants that were to be planted, I would often join my crew in digging holes and planting.  Did I already mention that this was my favorite part of the job?

golf course

New Planting of Valentine and Rosemary

I was given the opportunity to present landscaping seminars for the local residents and was absolutely terrified my first time, but soon learned to love speaking to groups. **People who meet me find out very quickly that it is hard to shut me up when I talk about plants ;^)

golf course

I left this wonderful place to work for a landscape design firm, where I could focus on what I enjoyed best – designing and installing landscapes.  My community was running out of areas for me to create new ones.  Sadly, the area above was one I did not get to before I left.

golf course

I realize that I have shown this picture in previous posts, but it was my favorite landscape that I worked on.  It is a hummingbird garden.

As I looked back on the places I worked as a horticulturist, this was my most favorite job.  I loved the people, the landscapes, the beautiful desert setting and I miss the beautiful, large trees that I would drive by each day on the golf course.

Okay, so back to the HR lady’s nail polish comment….I told her that I did wear nail polish, but that I also wore gloves when working with plants, so it wasn’t a problem.  I also wore make-up and curled my hair, which I guess was not what her picture of a horticulturist was ;^)

‘Boss’ For a Day…