The Gardens have been fortunate over the years to have countless student employees. Occasionally we hear back from them, and recently Carson Brown called me out of the blue to tell me how much he appreciated and loved the Gardens. The following story is from that call.

Little did Carson Brown know that working at the UCR Botanic Gardens would mean so much to him. After four years of working 19 hours a week and three more months working full time after graduation, Carson says the Gardens changed the trajectory of his life.

Carson, 24, entered UCR in 2015 as an Environmental Sciences major. Always preferring to be outside hiking, Carson was impressed when he visited the Gardens for the first time. So impressed in fact that he “cold called” Theresa McLemore, former Gardens Manager, to ask for an interview, and ended up getting the job. He was impressed with Theresa’s knowledge of plants and soon became interested in California natives. Over time he developed a love for botany, horticulture, and landscape management. “It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Carson said. “Working there solidified the desire in me to do something outside with plants. I gained a whole new perspective.” He now works for New View Landscape in Calabasas, which deals strictly with large estate installations.

The Gardens also helped Carson through tough times and dark family issues and became a healing place for him. Instead of being stuck in a dorm room or an apartment, he was able to pick fruit in the orchard or watch butterflies with the Box Springs Mountains in the background. With the stress and pressures of college, the Gardens soon became a retreat from the world. Every activity was a lesson in Zen. He loved the watering, the weed whacking, all of it. You could give him anything—cleaning spider webs or even plunging toilets—and he did it with a cheerful, positive outlook. “The Gardens felt like one big companion, a brother or grandfather,” Carson said.” When in the Gardens, I felt safe from the world.”

Working at the Gardens also taught Carson how to interact with the public. Before that he had worked at mechanical jobs but never with the public. With his new knowledge of plants Carson would tell our Gardens visitors about the popcorn senna or about willows, the precursor to aspirin. He was not the only student worker to appreciate the Gardens. During his four years working here, Carson became fast and lifelong friends with other UCR student workers, including Ryan Klachko and Doug Castro, both currently working on PhDs at different colleges in Colorado. Carson attributes his lifelong friendship with them to the hard work they performed at the Gardens. “The best way to get to know someone is to do manual labor with them, like digging a hole or moving debris,” he added. In the age of the iPhone, iPad, and Netflix where one often sits all day, working at the Gardens was an opportunity to get outside and flex his muscles.

Carson remembers with fondness retrieving a duck from Turtle Pond and driving it to another location to set it free. Then the next day he was weed whacking and came across a snake, which he also relocated. Or the time when it was over 95°F and he and another student stacked blocks. But he loved it! He gained pride in gaining callouses as he learned how to use a shovel without gloves. The work was very satisfying, and each day was a new experience. “It was not easy work,” Carson added. “It is not for everybody. It is not for the faint of anything, but when times get tough you either get tough or you quit.”

As for the future of the Gardens, Carson would like to see more money invested in new cultivars, a new and bigger dome, and increased funding for the Gardens. “As you can tell by now, I love the UCR Botanic Gardens,” Carson said. “Working there was the best thing I did in college. It was the best job ever.”