On July 1st, Quiet Village Landscaping employees had an informative, fun – and very wet field trip to Missouri Botanical Garden and nearby Tower Grove Park. Our talented and knowledgeable landscape designer, Rebecca Eisele, led a tour through parts of the garden to point out proper installation, maintenance, and pruning techniques to ensure that our staff is well informed about best management practices.

An inspirational tour through the Japanese Garden focused on the precision of maintaining straight pruning lines and balanced design forms. By examining expertly trimmed Japanese Maples, Rebecca was able to show how pruning techniques can achieve an open, graceful look with selective pruning – carefully removing individual branches to keep the plant’s natural form. The group also observed various evergreens and learned how properly timed shearing allows new growth to come in and disguise cuts while also providing time for cuts to heal before the stress of winter.

The tour moved on to the Blanke Boxwood Garden to see the proper shaping of boxwood hedges with the base being wider than the top, allowing sunlight to reach the entire plant, resulting in a fuller shrub. At this point, the skies opened up and our tour came to an abrupt end. The concert scheduled for the evening, as part of the Whitaker Music Festival, was cancelled, so the team wrapped up and headed to a covered pavilion in Tower Grove Park to enjoy our picnic. We had a nice bonding moment, huddled under the pavilion, watching the intense lightning and storm encompassing us, while eating smoked pulled pork sandwiches and savory sides.

While the St. Louis wet weather put a damper on things (pun intended), we had such a positive reaction from our team, that we are making this an annual team-building event.

Check out the photos from our inspirational tour below!

Checking out the different varieties of grass @ MoBOT

Strolling ground the Missouri Botanical Garden grounds.