Name: Gregory Smaus
Age: 35
Occupation: Gardener, Designer
Place of Employment: Owner :Native Root Designs, LLC, Poulsbo, WA
Maintenance Manager: Rock Solid Landscapes, Seattle, WA
Where you went to college: Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA
What is your earliest garden memory?
One summer when I was around 12 I called my dad complaining about being bored. I would come home from camp and spend 3- 4 hours in front of the TV. He talked me through planting my first garden. I dug out a little piece of lawn and amended the soil. I walked down to the local nursery for supplies and planted an herb garden. After my Mom moved, I visited the house about 4 years later and the garden was still there, and huge. That really made me happy.
What made you decide to enter the field of horticulture?
I moved out of my Dad’s house in the middle of West Los Angeles to the beach town of Santa Cruz. I enrolled in art classes at the community college. Weeks into my first semester I was calling my dad about how to take cuttings and start seeds. I was in withdrawal. I had grown up surrounded by a beautiful garden, an oasis in the city, a courtyard of bubbling water, fish, hummingbirds, and bees. Living in a rental house with only an overgrown lawn outside sent me into shock. I had no choice but to start making my surrounding beautiful on my own. Luckily the community college had an incredible horticulture program.
Please tell me about your current horticultural position?
As the Maintenance Manager for a design, build, and maintenance company, I manage approx. 70 maintenance accounts using entirely organic methods. I meet with new clients, bid on new maintenance accounts. I write the contracts and review them with the clients. I design and bid on small planting projects for existing accounts as well as new clients, discuss the priorities for the client, what sort of thresholds there are for things like persistent groundcovers or how tall certain shrubs can be. I then try to set a level of expectations that we can both identify and agree on. Most of the gardens I go to look at are far from our standards of maintenance. I usually begin with renovation to get the garden into a maintainable state. For the teams in the field I create the schedules, instruct them on horticulturally correct pruning techniques, mulch application, when and how to renovate lawns, etc. I also take new installations that we completed and bid on them for maintenance contracts. Trying to see our projects into maturity is very important to our company.
My own company is Native Root Designs. I offer consultation, design, garden coaching, speaking for Master Gardeners, landscape associations, and similar groups. I also write and take photographs, when I get a chance, on my blog.
How long have you been in the horticulture business?
16 years.
Tell me about your first plant love.
Salvia apiana, White Sage. This plant offers so much and it grows in some of the most rugged terrain in the US.. The Los Padres National Forest. The Los Padres National Forest outside of Santa Barbara, CA. was one of the last refuges for the Grizzly Bear in CA. and is home to the CA Condor. I love the leaves, their long slender elegance, the way they brim with oil in the dry dusty heat, their fresh scent when just barely brushed and how they curl when they dry. I love the inflorescense. It rises on a woody stem in a 4-6 ft. arch to the sky. It’s flowers attract bees and hummingbirds. The whole plant, leaves stems and flowers are a ghostly white which matches so well with its almost astringent scent and spiritual properties. It’s also a bear to grow!
Who inspired you in your career and how?
My Dad for sure. He was the Garden Editor for the LA Times for 25+ years and the west coast host of the Victory Garden. He surrounded me with gardens since the day I was born. He showed me how to take cuttings and pot up plants, how to plant and how to water. We would visit gardens together quite often. I helped out a lot in our community garden plots (we had four) in Venice during high school. Most importantly he showed me how to live your work; how to bring it in and make it part of your life.
What is your favorite planting style?
I don’t really like getting pinned into a style. I plant for function from the perspective of natural beauty and a total plant geek. Perhaps organic contemporary would be a better answer?
What advice can you give others considering entering the field of horticulture?
Be brave, be bold, make it beautiful. It’s a hard life style. You really have to make the most of your resources. If you have the resources then push the boundaries, try new things. Find good people and learn with them. I’ve been very blessed to work with some amazing individuals who brought me up in the industry. Lastly, you can learn something from every situation.
If you could go anywhere to see gardens, where would that be?
Anywhere, everywhere. England, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, the Mediterranean regions of the world, Japan.
If you could go with any one person, who would it be?
I would love to go with my brother, Matt. We have always loved going to art galleries together and bounce creative ideas off each other constantly.
What was your most valuable training?
The Horticulture program at Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA. I had a teacher named Rich Merrill. He taught me how to see the world. To read into everything around me and understand what was happening. He taught me the wonders of soil and compost; that insects are absolutely incredible; that everything interacts with everything else and if you know what to look for, how to see, then you can follow the story and be a part of it all.
How can people contact you: email, fb, LinkedIn, Twitter, website, etc.?
Email: gregory@nativerootdesigns.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/NativeRootDesigns
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/pub/Gregory-smaus/11/861/395/
Twitter: @gregorysgardens
Website: www.nativerootdesigns.com
Instagram: gregorysgardens
Anything else you would like to share?
I think that the wonderful thing about horticulture is that it involves so much. It takes all kinds of people to make beautiful gardens work. All of the different skills and expertise that go into a garden is always amazing to me. I think that finding your niche, where you feel most inspired, and collaborators that inspire you to do great work is essential. An old co-worker used to tell me on days that were especially difficult, “This is life!” So make it something that you enjoy!