Final Exit Interviews

Here are the final exit interviews from the Resort reviewing the work I carried out during the last 5 weeks. The most important part for me in Eustace's words, "I wish we had met earlier, let us know as soon as you come back because we would love to have you work for us again!"

You could not ask for anything better then that!

Chef Orlando


Eustace


Allen

HEART & SOUL

If you have a lick of sense and you are in business and have employees you know that it is a Gestalt relationship, the parts are the sum of the whole. Unless your business is solely reliant upon yourself it is the people who you work with that are your greatest resource. I arrived at this resort a little under five weeks ago and was assigned ten employees on the second day. I barely had time to collect tools or get the lay of the land, I hit the hill with both feet running. What needed to be done was obvious, how to do it required some finesse, ingenuity, and my reliance on the ability of ten men who rarely spoke English to me. It was a learning experience, an education and boost to my confidence that we accomplished so much and with such great pleasure, humor and no conflict. To a person I feel we are had a great sense of accomplishment and spirit. I was rapidly able to assess skill, expertise, quality of workmen ship and job performance pairing skills to tasks in order to complete each area to the best of our ability.

Several challenges were presented early on, locating materials, learning what and where I could find what I needed, transporting said materials and delivering them to each site. Additionally we had to respect the privacy and comfort that the guests of a five star resort expect. I went to five different nurseries and it was the last that offered the greatest product diversity, size and quality. With that said I even changed some of the plantings once I went to this new government nursery. The men bore with me as they carried 200 pound pots up and down staircases, swapped three small shrubs for one nice plant and fine tuned boulder outcroppings by hand. I learned that a cutlass is as formidable a tool as a weapon in the right hands It really was a pleasure to landscape in such a beautiful location with such beautiful and happy people.

Craftsmanship knows no language barrier and transcends cultural differences when a common goal is sought. I hope one day to come back to St. Lucia and see the fruit of our labor mature and blossoming above the Pitons.

EXIT INTERVIEW WITH RAY, THE GARDENER


SUPER GROOVY GOOD BYE

Kicking Up The Entrance

The importance of curb appeal can not be denied, we all know first impressions are lasting. Bougainvillea hedges are often magnificent creating drama and providing a thorny deterrent for unwanted guests. Unfortunately waiting for bougainvillea to mature into the desired effect takes patience and the in between period is not attractive. Given time the hedge that runs along the road entrance to this resort will look lovely. In the mean time I thought we could take it up a notch by adding larger royal palms from our back acreage, replacing some struggling bougainvillea and completely redoing the entrance island. The results are pleasing. Likely additional improvements will be made when the resort closes for fall maintenance.

BEFORE INSTALLATION OF ADDITIONAL LARGER ROYAL PALMS



DURING INSTALLATION OF PALMS





AFTER INSTALLATION OF LARGER ROYAL PALMS



The parking island in front of the guard shack was very modest with only some grass and three very small ixoras. The ixora were not growing will because of poor soil and compaction. We removed all the soil, brought in some great organic medium from a local farmer and installed new plants.

THE NEW PARKING ISLAND

A Beautiful Umbrella Stand

Our umbrellas stands were functional but certainly not 5 star resort quality. The simple addition of matching tile left over from out patio tile dramatically improves the umbrellas stand. These simple concrete homemade stands are something you can easily do yourself.

Two Before Tile Pictures




Two After Tile Pictures

The Return Of The Canary Island Date

Dressing up the pool area began with recovering a canary island date palm that was much neglected. This was definitely a case where function over took form as the CID was allowed to flourish because it provided grand privacy. But the unkempt appearance was no longer acceptable as the area had become unsightly. Our first task was to uncover the trunk of the palm and evaluate the bed. It was no longer feasible to plant beneath the tree as the root structure now dominated the immediate soil. The solution was a raised bed. By building a wall we now have adequate soil to install plant material. My plan is to install a bed of white begonias. I went to the local nursery to purchase the begonias as soon as the wall was complete. However I was denied their purchase because they had just sprayed all the plants with insecticide, I was told to come back Monday. Canary Island Date Before Canary Island Date In Progress

The New Bed Ready For Planting

The Herb Garden Collection Begins

This week I stopped at a popular resort LaHaut to lime for a couple of hours by the pool. They have a great view of the Pitons, a sweet little pool and the gardener, Julian has been developing some new gardens. He has collected a few plants that we do not have and he has an established herb garden. We started chatting and I asked him if we could get some starts from his herbs, he graciously complied. We dug some basil, dill, rosemary, lemon basil and thyme. I took them to work the next day and removed the temporary ixora's from the pots and replaced them with new herbs. So we now have nine herbs for the kitchen garden and the chef is happy once again. The chef offers a cooking class on Saturday mornings and loves to walk the gardens sharing the aromas, textures and experience of freshly cut herbs with the guests.

The Pitons Peak Out Behind Purple Fountain Grass At LaHaut



Julian Sharing From His Herb Garden




Herbs Ready To Transplant



Basil Flowering At LaHaut



Beautiful Pineapple Julian Grew

Completing The Herb & Orchid Garden

The completion of the bamboo fence to conceal the kitchen area and trash disposal provided a unique opportunity to create a hanging orchid garden which offers beauty and fulfills the resort owners desire for orchids. One of the few requests he made when hiring me. As previously stated I intended to install a herb garden in this area close to the kitchen. Some of the herbs we saved from our tear out did not survive transplant or had "accidents". Herbs are difficult to obtain here and our best bet is for Ray, The Gardener to gather them slowly from local farmers. In the meantime I have potted some of our containers to enhance the garden, as herbs become available Ray will replace some of the potted material with new herbs. Additionally I used a broken barrell pot and saucer to create a birdbath which was nearly immediately occupied by blackbirds. The mulch used under the transplanted plumbago are wood shavings from our woodshop. The addition of crotons to hide the entrance to the employee canteen also provides cover for birds and much needed color for this garden. Smooth small stones gathered from a local beach define the space from the road and illude to a sense of motion and water. The tranformation of this area has been positive for both staff and guests.

Bamboo Fence Completed, Installing Birdbath



Installing Steps To Birdbath



Orchid & Herb Garden Near Completion



Another prominent area we worked was the entrance to the restaurant. It was over run with infrequent blooming, leggy plumbago. There were several pipes underground which required frequent service so I chose to use potted plants and easy to replace ground cover which we transplanted from another area. Additionally the stone wall hollow concrete blocks were filled with plumbago which I replaced with a miniature cactus/succulent garden. These plants were more appropriate based on space and water requirements. The cactus/succulents add a charm of there own to the space. Already we have caught the interest of our guest with these prickly, colorful, draught resistant beauties.

Restaurant Entrance Before Photo



Restaurant Entrance After Photo & Block Wall










The entrance to the new units from the restaurant was an additional smaller project that we completed this week. We used bamboo to create retention for a small landscape bed. New precast stepping stones were installed for a fresh walkway with ground cover borders to stabilize walk and soil. An obsticle course of pvc which is barely below the surface often requires creative solutions, a hollowed out bamboo cover sleeves a water line. The wood shop will produce a 2x3' carving on the exterior wall that will complete this area.









A Picture of Me & The Crew

Patio Garden Complete & Starting the new Herb Garden

The herb garden was removed and our first foundation plant was a royal palm. The planters on the patio are filled with a variety of material. Plumbago anchors the color theme with some help from ti plants, copper plant, broom palm, crown of thorns to name a few. The large locally made pots were kicked up by adding moss rose, lady's fingernail, purple fountain grass and some much needed rearrangement. This new patio garden will eventually offer a moderate privacy screen between adjacent patio's while providing a cacophony of color and texture sharply contrasting to the original mish mash of herbs and plain Jane potted plants.

The Next Project Area: Hide the Back of the Kitchen/Rubbish Transport

The next area to tackle is to hide the kitchen and rubbish area from the tourist view as they come down the new road. I have decided that since we are working in an area near the kitchen this would be an excellant place to establish a new herb garden. My design takes advantage of native materials as we are going to use bamboo to create a large fence. We will also use crockery, orchids, boulders and some lovely iron work to create a much needed facelift for this high traffic area. It is fun for me to walk the grounds of the resort in pursuit of materials rather like a scavenger hunt.

Patterson Builds a Bamboo Fence

Bamboo Fence in Progress: Front and Back