It
doesn’t just happen by itself.
Jeanette
Summers, botanical gardens specialist for the Town of
Carefree, has been quietly going about her business tending
the flora and fauna in the center for going on five years
now.
You
see her everywhere about town pruning, digging and watering
the plants she lovingly cares for on a daily basis.
“When
I came on, the idea was to expand the botanical garden
aspect,” Summers says. “We’ve made a lot of progress.
I’ve still got a lot of ideas on how to improve things.
My bosses usually go along with my ideas, but I still
have to get approval. They’re pretty open to suggestions.
“Lately
I’ve been having pretty good luck getting suggestions
approved.”
One
of her current projects is the planting of signs to identify
the many species of plants growing
in the center.
“I’ve
been wanting to do that for a long time,” Summers says.
“Each sign will have all the information
about the plant.”
Summers
is especially proud of her living pond creation across
from the Carefree Amphitheater.
“There’s
a few koi and some goldfish, plus a lot of water plants,”
she says. “It was my idea to stock it with fish and plants.”
The
extreme weather conditions are the biggest drawback to
her job, Summers says.
“Probably
the heat is the worst part. The best part is giving the
garden seminars. They’re horticulturally related. We do
a lot of plant identification and I answer questions.
“Sometimes
the tourists ask about the plants, but usually they want
to know where the restroom is or where is the Sundial.
I give a lot of directions.”
Being
a woman doesn’t deter Summers from getting in the thick
of things and getting her hands dirty.
“I’ll
work with the men,” she says. “Some may resent my being
out here, but they never show it. I helped lay all of
the flagstone by the amphitheater.
I
had to weigh every bit of it. Then I did all of the grout
work.
“I
think you have to have some kind of artistic talent to
lay out new designs. My real passion lies in the creation
of new things.”
Summers
earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University
of Arizona with a minor
in landscape architecture.
“I
was originally going to major in meteorology,” she says.
“I’ve been watching and recording the weather for about
30 years. I like to record lightning data. I monitor the
static electricity and can tell you just about where each
strike hits within a 300 mile radius. Sometimes I get
as many as 700 strikes in one day. It’s just a hobby but
it’s a lot of fun. I even maintain my own Web site.
It’s
www.pepperidgenorth‑valley.com.
“My
favorite time of year is the monsoon season. You get some
real radical data during that time,” she says. “I’m planning
on adding the weather info to the town’s Web site so people
can
keep up with the weather in their gardens. That’s a work
in progress.”
