At Chanticleer there is a staff meeting every Monday morning before everyone goes out to do their respective work. This keeps communication lines open and lets everyone know what everybody else is doing. Ryan (the other triad intern and partner in crime) and I got a chance to sit in on the meeting and be introduced to the whole staff at one time. Today, I worked with horticulturist Laurel Voran and Chanticleer’s intern Shanti taking care of the Ruin Garden. What a great garden to work in! It amazed me to hear that the previous director had the risk-taking foresight to tear down a perfectly good building in order to create this imaginative and artistic ruin in its place.
Then it was off to the vegetable and cut flower garden with Doug Croft. Doug was out of town the previous week so there was plenty of dead-heading and weeding in his garden. I also sowed beet seeds, harvested beans, and planted sunflowers.
I loved working in the woods with Przemek Walczak. He maintains the woodland areas around Chanticleer editing invasive plants and incorporating natives. Today’s lesson was how to untangle girdled tree roots from a nursery container and how a tree (in this case, a maple) like this should be properly planted. “The site is prepared”, he said. Hmmm, but I didn’t see any hole. A very shallow bowl-shape depression was dug in the ground, the tree centered above it and the roots were then laid out into shallow channels that were splayed out like a sun’s rays and covered with the natural soil. I was amazed that planted this way no stake was needed, for the tree was steady and could stand on its own!
Thursday, I got a chance to rake the circular Zen Gravel Garden. Dan Benarcik showed me some secret techniques and then challenged me to come up with my own design. O…Kaaaaay… “And do it by 10:00 am before the garden is open to the public”, he says. “Oh and I also need a new flower arrangement for the water bowl in the outside living-room area”, he adds. But it’s already 9:15 am, I think to myself. Well, Dan just wants to give me a little taste of what he does every day. A busy fellow he works around the house by the pool, designs and maintains 140-plus container plantings, takes care of the outdoor living-room, rakes intricate designs into the gravel garden and a multitude of other chores. As I’m raking I think to myself, “This is not as easy as it looks”!
And last but not least I spent Friday with Jonathan who takes care of the front entrance to Chanticleer which involves the Teacup Garden, Tennis Court Garden, Upper Lawn area and a multitude of container pots. He was drawn away to speak to a group of visitors from Quebec which I unobtrusively listened in on and was fascinated to hear him speak and then hear his orations translated into French by the group’s interpreter. I helped his assistant Yvonne weed, water and plant some small bulbs into the Tennis Garden. I also got a chance to get some “hot tips” from Jenny, a previous photographer from Fine Gardening magazine. Thanks Jenny for the indispensable advice!
All in all I had a gratifying but ephemeral first week at Chanticleer and am looking forward to my next and last week there. Boo-hoo. :(
I loved working in the woods with Przemek Walczak. He maintains the woodland areas around Chanticleer editing invasive plants and incorporating natives. Today’s lesson was how to untangle girdled tree roots from a nursery container and how a tree (in this case, a maple) like this should be properly planted. “The site is prepared”, he said. Hmmm, but I didn’t see any hole. A very shallow bowl-shape depression was dug in the ground, the tree centered above it and the roots were then laid out into shallow channels that were splayed out like a sun’s rays and covered with the natural soil. I was amazed that planted this way no stake was needed, for the tree was steady and could stand on its own!
Thursday, I got a chance to rake the circular Zen Gravel Garden. Dan Benarcik showed me some secret techniques and then challenged me to come up with my own design. O…Kaaaaay… “And do it by 10:00 am before the garden is open to the public”, he says. “Oh and I also need a new flower arrangement for the water bowl in the outside living-room area”, he adds. But it’s already 9:15 am, I think to myself. Well, Dan just wants to give me a little taste of what he does every day. A busy fellow he works around the house by the pool, designs and maintains 140-plus container plantings, takes care of the outdoor living-room, rakes intricate designs into the gravel garden and a multitude of other chores. As I’m raking I think to myself, “This is not as easy as it looks”!
And last but not least I spent Friday with Jonathan who takes care of the front entrance to Chanticleer which involves the Teacup Garden, Tennis Court Garden, Upper Lawn area and a multitude of container pots. He was drawn away to speak to a group of visitors from Quebec which I unobtrusively listened in on and was fascinated to hear him speak and then hear his orations translated into French by the group’s interpreter. I helped his assistant Yvonne weed, water and plant some small bulbs into the Tennis Garden. I also got a chance to get some “hot tips” from Jenny, a previous photographer from Fine Gardening magazine. Thanks Jenny for the indispensable advice!
All in all I had a gratifying but ephemeral first week at Chanticleer and am looking forward to my next and last week there. Boo-hoo. :(
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