Faces of Green Spring
by Ivy Sinaiko
Brenda Skarphol. (Photo credit: Fred Blott)In 2003, when my family was planning a driving trip in the Dakotas, I was surprised to discover that I could get expert advice on North Dakota from a member of the Green Spring staff, Brenda Skarphol.
Now how does someone from North Dakota end up in Northern Virginia?
Brenda came to this part of the country to get a master’s degree in horticulture at the University of Maryland after graduating from North Dakota State University. She had seen a tourism film in grade school about Virginia that made her want to visit someday, but her interest in gardening had begun much earlier. She started gardening when she was about 4 years old with her mom and was placed in charge of her family’s first vegetable garden in third grade. In her youth she belonged to both 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA). She participated in many judging competitions in FFA, including a horticulture competition at the national meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.
She came to Green Spring in December of 1987 as the education coordinator and has now been there longer than any other employee. She has worked with five permanent, full-time Green Spring managers: Hollen Johnson, Don Humphrey, Chris Strand, Mary Olien, and now Nicole Mitchell. Some acting managers also worked with her to make significant contributions to the gardens, including Cindy Brown and Sandy Rittenhouse-Black.
Virginia and Green Spring feel like a home away from home to her now. The parts of the garden that she has worked on and loved have changed many times over the years. Here are some of them:
- The back of the Shrub Border behind the Historic House with its old hemlocks and white pines, also a Persian parrotia and an Osage Crape Myrtle that she planted;
- The Mixed Border behind the Historic House with its Beatrix Farrand elements;
- The Entrance Garden and Overflow area where she has incorporated many trees and shrubs in the design, including many witch hazels. She helped build the national witch hazel collection over the years, starting it with Green Spring Director Chris Strand;
- The Arbor Garden, essentially a cottage-style garden that is a magnet for pollinators and birds, including hummingbirds, thanks to the native Major Wheeler trumpet honeysuckle;
- The Virginia Native Plant Garden and the woodlands leading to the ponds. She loves the peaceful sounds of the birds and the stream;
- The Vista Garden, the area along the parking lot that includes the Beatrix Farrand stone wall, and the grand old white pines and oaks above the wall;
- The Spring House Overlook, with the many witch hazels, camellia cultivars, Big Joe flowering apricot, flowering shrubs, and wonderful view of both the Historic House and the Spring House.
- Special treats are, of course, the Historic House, the jewel-like Spring House (an affection I share), and Green Spring history.
Brenda enjoys working on both the plant records database for all the gardens and plant labeling. She is excited to share information about the plants in our collection and has taught many Green Spring classes. She has also spent much time freeing up natural areas from invasive plants and is now working on making a shallow bio-swale opposite the stop sign on Witch Hazel Road.
When not at Green Spring, she enjoys gardening (surprise, surprise) in her home garden in Hyattsville, Maryland, where she has a cottage-style garden that includes a rain garden, a rock garden, some containers, and many vegetables during the growing season. She has also been working at her son’s rowhouse in DC, where they have constructed a rain garden and a small lawn area.
Before the pandemic hit, she did more things in her free time. (Didn’t we all!) She enjoys reading, going for walks, hiking, dogs, bicycling, traveling, fine art, music, history, and nature.
I honestly have never talked to anyone who seems to love Green Spring more than Brenda does. She has loved designing gardens and then staying long enough to keep working on them and seeing how they develop. It has been fun for her to keep moving and to garden in an eco-friendly and sustainable fashion.
To Brenda, the strong sense of community at Green Spring shared by the volunteers, gardeners, interns, FROGS board members, staff members, and visitors has made it special over the years.
She has also been happy to have contributed to helping so many people have some beauty and peace in their lives from our lovely gardens and natural areas during the pandemic. Volunteers and visitors have been happy to have Green Spring be so flexible and available outdoors this year. And, says Brenda, everyone likes the new porta-potty!
So that’s some of the story of the young gardener who came to Northern Virginia from North Dakota and stayed. We’re glad you did, Brenda!
