The gardening seed was planted early in me by my
paternal grandparents, who had retired to their
summer country cottage and loved to garden. I
wasn't much interested in their rose garden, but
enjoyed planting tree seedlings, picking black
raspberries, and most of all, operating my
grandfather's Gravely tractor. I'm still
working on acquiring a taste for stewed Rhubarb
like they prepared, but spooning homegrown
strawberries over large doses of vanilla ice
cream is still a fond memory. My weekend visits
to
the country were relaxing and lots of fun.
My nursery career got its jump start a a local
nursery that grew mostly shade trees and Yews (Taxus
spp.). Spreading Yews, upright Yews, with
row after row of only Yews. The nursery owner's
landscape designs were fairly basic....
spreading Yews under windows, upright Yews on
corners and in blank spots on foundation
walls. It masterfully served as a great way to plant
work for the future too, since Yews need to be
trimmed a couple times a year to stay looking
their best.
Group of mature Yews in
an older landscape planting.
Did Walter grow these Yews by chance?
My first nursery mentor was Walter, who
taught me both ends of a shovel, and has passed
away long since. It was kind of like learning
grade school math from him, the kind you still use on
a daily basis. It's usually the basic stuff you
learn that serves you best for the longest
period of time, not the advanced courses.
Walter taught me the basics and more... "Never
pass work to get to work" he would say when
sending me out with my shovel to fill-in holes
where dug trees once stood. "You can't be both a
nurseryman and landscaper, choose one or the
other." He chose nurseryman, I chose landscaper.
"Two can live as cheaply as one, if one eats
like a bird," he would offer up. It seems
all nurserymen
become astute philosophers at some point in
their lives. And I still think of Walter when I
have one of his old favorites, a sliced tomato
sandwich on buttered white bread. Yum!
Walter-mater
Sliced tomatoes on
buttered bread
Yews have gone the way of Disco in these
parts, since whitetail deer love to eat them
during winter months. You don't
see many Hicksii or Brownii Yews planted in
residential landscapes anymore, and the days of
hand-digging trees has nearly passed us by as
well. But we can still enjoy a fresh tomato
sandwich while remembering our roots!
Bob
