Meet Our Team » Babette L.
Babette L.
Herb Grower
Babette's many hats:
In spring I am often trimming plug trays to get them ready for transplanting or I am moving plug trays from here to there to make room for finished flats. Spring is a constant shuffle. I will occassionally work on the transplanting line. When shipping season starts I pull herbs and keep up on herb and groundcover inventory. In the fall I order and manage herb and groundcover categories. Like my co-workeres I help with construction, greenhouse cleaning at year's end, and sticking cuttings the first of the year. I am also an occasional designer, writer, editor, HR assistant and as Suzanne's spouse, greenhouse emergency helper.
Babette's Rush Creek Growers story:
Rush Creek Growers is home to so much more than plants. While our plant friends are the focus, I have loved working in a place where a cardboard sign will go up over a few trays of Speciality Annuals that says, “Don’t pull these flats, toad house.” or an announcement at the morning meeting warns us, “Please watch out when you are pulling in Ethel (Yes the greenhouses are named), the Kingbirds are back and have a nest in a basket near the end of the house.” We are all called outside to watch a flock of Tundra Swans fly and yack overhead. Excitement springs out of the radio to herald first arrivals, “Hey there’s a humming bird in the West Wing!” “Toad in Peter!” “Check out the bees on the Lobularia in Lucy”. Perhaps our star companions are the barn swallows. Suzanne gave a heartfelt talk in June about all we could do to make the warehouse safe for them.: “Bring the cats in at night because the babies will fledge soon, keep the Oz door open and the garage door so they can fly in and out. They have been here longer than we have, please let’s respect their place in this landscape.” Happy to report every batch of babies lived this summer and the large ‘gulp’ of swallows swoops our fields. Getting to know the beneficial insects and critters Suzanne brings in to work with the plants to keep our growing range healthy, has added a whole new layer of beings to our neighborhood: tiny predatory wasps, ‘good’ aphids, ‘good mites’, nematodes and many more, but I can’t spell or pronounce them. When I say Rush Creek Growers I feel a rich sense of community in the largest sense of the word.