Great Growing: Businesspeople garden in downtime

Last year, Bottorf, a shareholder of Kirkpatrick, Phillips & Miller PC, broke his Missouri record with his 878.5-pound pumpkin.

“The pumpkins grow so fast they’ll actually pop themselves,” Bottorf said. “You’ve got to measure every day and make sure they aren’t growing too fast. They’ll grow 25 to 30 pounds a day.”

Bottorf, who grew up on a dairy farm, said he started growing giant pumpkins in 1992 because he thought it would be a unique hobby.

It’s not uncommon, though, for people to get their first taste of the art of growing as children helping in the family garden. Sometimes, that introduction leads to a lifelong passion for growing.

“(Gardening) was something my grandmother was always interested in, and when I would go to visit her, we would always walk around and look at her flowers,” said Terri West McQueary, a principal and interior designer with Interior Planning Consultants, who spends 10 to 20 hours a month tending her flower gardens.

“When I’m preparing an area, I get a sense of accomplishment from cleaning the weeds out and beautifying it,” McQueary added, noting that her favorite plant is zinnias.

Mark Bernskoetter, district supervisor for disability determinations with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said that his parents expected the entire family to help with gardening chores.

“Of course, I didn’t care for it much then, but I learned a lot,” he said.

These days, Bernskoetter spends an average of three hours a week growing everything from vegetables and herbs to flowers and native plants.

His favorite garden is filled with blackberries, blueberries and strawberries.

Barbara Lucks, materials recovery/education coordinator for the city of Springfield’s Public Works Department, said her father taught her about vegetables and her mother “liked anything that bloomed.”

After living in a dorm for three years during college, Lucks jumped at the chance to garden in her second-floor apartment.

“I still didn’t have access to soil, but I had a balcony, and the minute I had a place where I could grow something outside, I was growing tomatoes in flowerpots,” she said. “I can remember my dad always planted tomatoes – 40 or 50 plants – so I just can’t imagine having an open piece of dirt and not having a tomato plant on it.”

Lucks said gardening is therapeutic, noting that many of the plants in her current garden are reminiscent of her childhood.

“They’re just things that remind me of where I grew up and of my parents … besides just the sheer joy of seeing things grow,” Lucks said. “We live on a small city lot, so pretty much anything that doesn’t have the house on it is some kind of alternative to turf.”

Plant passions

Amy Tuggle, creative services specialist with St. John’s Hospital, recommended gardening for just the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve grown it plus the welcoming feel and curb appeal it gives a home.

Even with two young children, Tuggle finds time to garden up to six hours a week and serve as a board member of the Master Gardeners program sponsored by the University of Missouri Extension.

The Master Gardeners program has about 130 active participants, according to Gaylord Moore, the retiring horticultural specialist with the University of Missouri Extension. Moore, who has led the program since 1989, said that Master Gardeners are required to complete at least 30 hours of classroom training and 30 volunteer hours in their first year of the program.

After earning the designation of Master Gardener in that first year, participants stay active by volunteering 20 hours a year, namely by answering a gardening hotline that fields an average of 4,500 calls a year, leading public education programs and tending the Xeriscape Demonstration Garden near Phelps Grove Park or the demonstration garden at Nathanael Greene Park. The Master Gardeners’ hotline, (417) 862-9284, ext. 18, is answered 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday March–October.

Tending to teach

Friends of the Garden, another local gardening organization with about 120 members, also helps tend gardens at Nathanael Greene and Close Memorial parks. Secretary Bob Childress, a retired manager of labor relations for Associate Electric Cooperative Inc., said the group’s members planted more than 10,000 annual plants there last year.

“Certainly, if people want to learn how to garden, we’ll be happy to teach them,” Childress said.

McQueary noted that getting started in gardening can be easy, but it depends on which plants are chosen.

“One way to get an easy sense of accomplishment is to plant bulbs in the fall. That’s pretty much fail proof,” she said.

Tuggle is teaching her children to appreciate gardening.

She gives her toddlers marigolds to plant, and they enjoy playing in the dirt, picking up leaves and mulching.

Nurturing a love of gardening is important, agreed Bernskoetter, who shares his love of gardening with his grandchildren.

“Give them something simple that they can succeed at, because they’ll be the next generation of gardeners,” he said.

Gardening for Good

Ozarks Harvesting Hope, part of the Plant a Row for the Hungry national campaign, is an ongoing effort to encourage local gardeners to plant an extra row of fruits or vegetables and donate them to Ozarks Food Harvest or other local food pantries. For information, visit www.ozarksfoodharvest.org.

Gardening Resources

For beginner, novice and accomplished gardeners, there are plenty of online resources, including:

www.extension.missouri.edu/greene/mgg/ (Master Gardeners Web site)

www.ozarksgardens.com

www.friendsofthegarden.org

www.gardenonthe.com

www.grownative.org

www.hgtv.com

www.bigpumpkins.com

www.garden.org

Waiting Out Winter

I actually have a big pot of pansies that we keep over. We move the pansies in and out. They stay in the garage when it’s cold.

—Barbara Lucks, Springfield Public Works

(I do) a lot of dreaming and planning of what we’ll do different this year.

—Mark Bernskoetter, Department of Elementary & Secondary Education

I buy lots of flower and garden magazines and I dream and plan in my head. My biggest problem is I over-commit to what I can really take care of.

—Terri West McQueary, Interior Planning Consultants

I order seeds and get the ground ready.

—Richard Bottorf, Kirkpatrick Phillips & Miller[[In-content Ad]]