Distinguished Staff: Spexarth's energy, skill enlivens campus grounds

Kristen Spexarth

When Kristen Spexarth was trying to decide on a career path about 10 years ago, a Sufi poem hanging in a garden shrine tipped the scales in favor of becoming a professional gardener. It read, in part:

Let the beauty you love be what you do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
Rumi

At the time Spexarth, a Master Gardener, was studying horticulture and working part time in an organic production/demonstration garden. But deciding to try making a living at what she loved was a leap of faith, one that was rewarded recently when she was named a 1998 Distinguished Staff Award recipient.

Spexarth is responsible for about 20 acres of the 700+ acre Seattle campus, including about an acre at the President's residence, the Walker-Ames Estate, which she tends with the help of another gardener. It's not just a job for her, it's a passion.

"The spaces between buildings are the glue that holds the campus together. This campus is a remarkable treasure, yet it will be lost if it is not supported monetarily," she says. " If the campus were just buildings, sidewalks and parking lots, it would be a different place. And the people who spend time here would feel different. It's the grounds that give this place its energy. The outdoor spaces serve as classrooms, as places for contemplation and collaboration, for joy and creativity."

"And they are not just for the people who work and study here. Children, tourists, passers-by are always coming through campus. It is a real community asset, and I am very glad to be a part of caring for it," she said. "I just wish everyone cherished it as much as the grounds crew does. If there is a part of campus that is not well maintained, it is not because the gardeners are not working hard. They work very hard. But there are only 34 of us for more than 400 maintained acres."

Spexarth is full of enthusiasm and energy. There are only a few things she doesn't like—ivy is one of them. That's why in her area of campus—the acreage surrounding Hansee and Hutchinson halls—you'll find fewer and fewer ivy brambles under the evergreen trees. What ivy is there exists only because she hasn't had time to clean it out yet.

With only three days a week to care for her 20 acres and two days a week for the Walker-Ames Estate, high maintenance plantings are rare. And ivy, Spexarth says, is high maintenance, in constant need of control.

Her acreage is designated in the campus landscape plan for native and Asian plantings—what she considers the best plant pallet to choose from for this climate. Between Hutchinson Hall and the N-5 parking lot she's replaced ivy with varieties of Arctostaphylos, Amelanchier, Ceanothus, Corylopsis, Garrya, Helleborus, Physocarpus, Ribes, Tsuga, Vaccinium, ferns, rhododendrons, bulbs and others. All of which helps reduce maintenance costs by creating a self-sustaining environment. She replaced beauty bark with wood chips after discovering the bark created a nearly impenetrable wall between surface water and plant roots. Now she's mapping and documenting the plantings so they will be accessible for study and research.

"I'm very honored to receive this award, but it really goes to the entire Grounds crew, and some gardeners have been taking care of these grounds for 30 years," Spexarth said. "We work as a team and the whole grounds crew works very hard."

She points to clearing out the ivy is one example of effective team work. The backhoe operators and most of the crew helped on this project, and after one year, the ivy is almost gone. I can't imagine how long it would have taken if I had had to do it myself." Spexarth also has relied on several other specialty grounds teams, such as the mower crew, irrigation crew, nursery workers, truckers, arborists and the equipment repair crew.

Gardeners also team up during major projects. A work party that renovated a lawn and laurel hedge behind Hutchinson turned an area that was used only by the homeless as a campsite into one of the most popular new reception and barbeque spaces on campus.

The grounds, even at the President's residence, are designed and cared for with the University's missions of teaching, research and community service in mind. The residence actually is a community place. On average, one or two events are held there each week; guests dine on food from the garden in a home decorated with seasonal cuttings from the yard. It is a place where "best practices" in gardening are tested and described to visitors.

But it is also a family residence, and the tastes of the family give it seasoning. Mrs. Suzanne Lebsock, wife of UW President Richard McCormick, has been very supportive of the gardeners' ideas and the garden's needs while the McCormick-Lebsock children have shown a growing interest in the vegetables. Spexarth has put special effort into making the yard inviting for them. Her plantings of pumpkins, raspberries and giant green beans have been particular hits.

"There is evidence of Kristen's creativity everywhere and she has taken the initiative to improve so many aspects of the grounds," said one of the people nominating her. "She has completely reworked the perennial garden so that it reflects the tastes of the President's family and is also a showplace for guests to tour. She is incorporating edibles into the landscape that are used by the household and for events. She is working to improve the ecology of the garden by enhancing the tilth of the soil, installing new compost bins, using as few chemical products as possible, and upgrading the irrigation system to reduce water use.

So what does the Master Gardener do in her free time: garden for herself and others or take classes on gardening or teach about gardening and plants. As one nominating letter noted, "Kristen is very self-motivated." ¶

Nedra Floyd Pautler