April 21, 2009 12:48 pm
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WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — While Clark Gardens Botanical Park receives wide acclaim in its ninth public year, you might be surprised to find its co-founder, Max Clark, digging in the dirt on any given day.
Max and his wife, Billie, started the gardens shortly after they moved to Maddux Road in 1972. They wanted a scenic backdrop for one daughter's wedding, so, in 1973, they developed an orchard and a vegetable garden — now their Century Garden — in the hard, red clay. Clark said they hauled in dirt for topsoil and cottonseed burrs from Perrin for mulch.
From its beginnings, Clark Gardens grew from the work and passion of the Clarks. Today, visitors from around the world come to see over 50 garden areas developed on 35 cultivated acres of hilltop land. These range from an English channel garden, largely inspired by features found in England's Kensington Palace Gardens and Wisley Gardens, to less formal experimental areas.
"All gardening is inspired by something in the past," said Clark, adding that gardening predates ancient Babylonian times. "I don't believe it's possible to have a brand new concept of landscaping." He cited that the opening of Japan to outsiders helped introduce to many the Japanese stroll garden.
"Without my wife, this garden wouldn't be here," Clark explained to a Toronto-based TV crew. "The sad part of all of this; Billie is in a treatment center (for Alzheimer's) in Wichita Falls."
This means that Clark works in the garden during the mornings and visits his wife three afternoons a week. He takes his two chocolate Labrador retrievers along — Billie gave him the older one, Chocolate Mathilda, which she responds to on their visits.
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In 1999, the Clarks created the Max and Billie Clark Foundation and donated 143 acres, including the gardens, to this nonprofit organization. In 2000, they opened their gates and gardens to the public — part time at first.
Then in 2003 they opened full time and "now it's 365 days a year. The gates are open seven weekdays," said Max. He added that they did not want people coming from distances to encounter closed gates or wonder if they were open.
Today, Clark Gardens is 80 percent endowed by the Clarks' personal investments. "My wife and I are putting everything we have back into the garden," said Clark, "The rest is supported by gate income."
Visitors will see that Clark Gardens is a dog-friendly place. In addition to the labs, one might be greeted by his daughter's pug that tries to take a ride in any car. Clark estimates there are about 10-12 family and staff dogs at any given time. He said they have all kinds of animals, from resident peacocks and a swan to visiting ducks and Canada geese.
One recent day, a flock of black-bellied whistling ducks were resting on one of the pond platforms. Living amidst the gardens gives Clark the benefit of seeing more elusive visitors, like bobcats, foxes and mountain lions, all of which he's seen 50 feet from his house.
Clark said the theme of the garden is "North Texas adaptables." It includes local native plants as well as nonnative plants that can adapt to this climate. "We're not organic, but we live up here without chemicals as much as possible," he added.
Other key words to the gardens are: low maintenance, many plants are drought tolerant; sustainable landscapes; experimental; educational; and scientific.
Clark said the gardens are involved in two separate rose studies. In one, they grow roses for two-year periods as part of an American Rose Society experiment for new, unnamed hybrid roses. They also judge the roses. After the time period, those roses are destroyed.
The other study, on "Earthkind roses," is both state and national in scope through Texas A&M University. Clark explained that this is a three- to five-year study, but they buy the suggested roses, report on them and keep them after the period until they die.
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A behemoth Tesmec 1000 rock saw sits under a cover on display to remind visitors of the garden's beginnings.
In the late '50s, Max and Billie Clark, along with Billie's brother, pooled their resources to begin a business, with "rag tag equipment building (telephone) pole lines." They became C&B Pole Line Contractors, which stood for Clark and Buck, Billie's maiden name.
Billie and Max then bought the entire company and buried exchange copper cable between 1963-1984. In 1984, now C&B Associates Ltd., they started specialized in laying fiber-optic communications cable using, among other equipment, a rock saw. Clark said they landed their first fiber optic cable installation contract with AT&T. At the time, they used a T-600 rock saw for this cross-country installation project from Weatherford to Snyder.
Like the ads for BASF, Max Clark did not invent the rock saw, he just made it better. He said they traced the origins of the first rock saw to Missouri. It enabled construction crews to work year-round because of its ability to cut through ice and snow in the winter. Clark said they contracted to build the Tesmec 1000 rock saw (the one at Clark Gardens is the second version ever built), which made the job of cutting deeply into rock easier.
"It was a phenomenal success for laying cable from day one," said Clark. "It revolutionized rock cutting. By this time I had 14 years of running rock saws. We were building on failures of other rock saws I built; overcoming our failures.
He also is known for developing a technique for cutting deep trenches in rocky terrain, employing what they fondly called a "conga line" of machines.
This type of line consisted of a big chain trencher, followed by three powerful rock saws. Each saw cut a little deeper until they reached the depth needed to bury the cable housing.
"It vastly increased our production. Two saws working behind one another could more than double the production of two saws working independently," said Clark.
From 1963 to 1999, C&B Associates buried thousands of miles of communications cable in Texas.
Clark said they sold the company in December 1999, but he stayed on as a consultant for two years before retiring. His retirement enabled him to work full time in the garden.
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What's his favorite area? "Any part I'm working on," said Clark, standing in a portion of the relatively new West Garden. "This is my section," he added, explaining he assigns crews to different sections. "There's no reason for me to be working in their section."
"This garden is important to me and very important to my wife," he said. "There were times when I was overwhelmed by problems in the field and I started digging in the dirt."
He said this either gave him peace of mind or, because of the break from the problem, "you were able to come up with a solution or at least think you had a solution. It was a great way of working some of the frustration and anxiety off."
Clark has developed a landscaping philosophy that includes starting with small plants. "Start with $3 trees; big trees don't work successfully in the garden. Ninety-nine percent (of the trees) we started from little saplings."
Some of the 1-foot trees are now 30 to 40 feet tall and Clark said he cannot get his arms around them.
In the meantime, he still gets down in the dirt, planting trees that are 12 inches to 14 inches tall and "no bigger than a No. 2 pencil" and which future generations might enjoy and learn from.
"(Clark Gardens) is one of the younger gardens in the U.S. and world. It is a raw garden and it's growing," said Clark. "It has a lot of room to grow and mature."
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