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MY BRIEF HISTORY WITH THE ART OF LANDSCAPING

HIGH SCHOOL

I think my first experience landscaping that I remember well was as a sophmore in High School. A neighbor from Chicago, Mike Dennis, hired me to help him with project that he was working on, building some steep terraced flower beds around the back or his driveway, using railroad ties. Mike was a burly bear of a guy, good to talk to, and as a teenager, I enjoyed the chance for some strenuous labor. But to be completely honest,  I think the kicker was when my friend walked up, with his new friend from artschool, and saw me heroically hoisting these 'massive timbers' (in my own mind, at least), untouchable, my sense of pride was palpable, and I was hooked.

My senior year, I took a job assisting a bathroom and kitchen remodeler, mostly running a wet saw for the tile work he did. Through out my college career, I would take various jobs in construction, and did a lot of digging of foundations, which I found that I actually enjoyed. Later on, in college in the Bay Area, I hooked up with an independant landscape contractor in Berkely, who abruptly dissapeared one day (hauled off to jail, can't say I missed her, though I did miss my pay). Either way, this outdoor labor provided a welcome counterpoint to the mostly academic bent of the SF Art Institute, where I was studying.

EAST BAY CONSERVATION CORPS

Perhap I liked it a little too much. For, before I know it, I had dropped out of college (for the second time), and found myself working for the East Bay Conservation Corps, through an Americorps program, teaching Health and Gardening to K-2nd graders. This was to be one of the most enriching work experiences of my career, and I (with some extraordinarily good company) relished every moment of having my face down to the ground, so to speak (trips to gather horse manure from the stables up the wild cat hills stand particularly in my memory).

So much so, that I decided to try out a career in Landscape Design and Construction, undertaking an apprenticeship with local garden building genius, Frank Hyman, of Cottage Garden Design & Construction, back in Durham, NC.

Frank and I hit it off well, and we had many great projects together.

But inspite of this, it was a really rocky time in my life, and by the time my trial period had ended, and it was time to commit, it became clear to me that I wasn't in the right place to proceed with the rest of the apprenticeship. This was a difficult decision to make, and sometimes I wonder if I made the right one.

The life Frank was offering to me, was in many ways quite attractive. I enjoyed the materials, the comradery, the challenge, the artfulness of his designs. 

But I also felt like I was taking on someone else's vision, a vision, which was not the one that I ultimately saw for myself.

However, in the wake of ending our apprenticeship, I did undertake several projects on, on my own, and found that I learned from these experiences immensely, and I am very proud of the work that I did for these clients.