Meet Mystic Seaport Horticulturist Steve Sisk

Mystic Seaport’s greenhouse takes on a totally different look during the winter months. Just a few trays of seedlings dot the benches. However, according to the Museum’s Assistant Horticulturist, Stephen Sisk, all that changes by the second week in May when the greenhouse incubator transforms into a nursery full of plants waiting to welcome spring outdoors.

1. How long have you been employed at Mystic Seaport?
SS:  June 2010 will be my 40th anniversary of working here. I actually began working part-time during the summers when I was a junior in high school. I continued my schooling at Mohegan Community College in Norwich, (now Three Rivers College) and at Boston’s Arnold Arboretum. I also took classes to achieve the title of Master Gardener.

 

2. What’s the best part of your job?
SS:  I love being outdoors, and a side-perk of that is meeting and talking with visitors on grounds. I get asked all kinds of questions regarding their own home gardening and gardening problems. Sometimes it’s a little hard to diagnose the problem without seeing the patient, so to speak, but I try to help if I can.

3. What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?
SS:  We’re dealing with living plants and want them to look their best when planted in our Museum gardens. It’s very gratifying to see the fruits of our labor thrive during the growing season. Kara, our terrific volunteers and myself all strive for the same goal; we want our Mystic Seaport gardens to look beautiful. We try to visualize the Museum gardens through visitors’ eyes and work towards giving them a fresh look each year. We’re already looking at seed catalogues to choose what we might plant this season.

4. What’s the funniest or most notable on-the-job experience you’ve had?
SS:  I’ve got one of each. It was some years ago; I was laying down sod when a school group came by. The kids were fascinated; they had never seen grass in a roll before. I decided to let them lay down a section of sod themselves. Boy, did they love doing that! Who knows, maybe that little experience whetted their interest in gardening.

On a more poignant note, some 20 years ago, when I was working at the Buckingham House garden, an elderly German visitor approached. He saw the gooseberries growing there and tears came to his eyes. They reminded him of home in Germany.

5. What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
SS: Photography!  When you see Mystic Seaport’s 2010 calendar, one of my photographs is on the cover. The Museum store and area stores carry a book of my photographs called Mystic Memories. Aside from photography, I enjoy watching old black and white movies and reading history books that teach you something. Basically, my two cats run my life. There’s “red-headed” Lucy and sidekick Ethel. You can guess where their names originated!

Steve was interviewed by Trudi Busey and photographed by Museum photographer Andy Price.

Pick Your Favorite at Garden Days at Mystic Seaport

I must confess, gardening is not my strong suit. My attempt to grow herbs didn’t work; I’m nervous about dividing my humongous hosta plants come fall; my one healthy African violet plant also should be divided, but I fear killing it totally. You get the picture.

So….Garden Days weekend at Mystic Seaport, August 21-23, may provide just the inspiration and confidence I need. There are so many interesting demonstrations and talks to choose from, for novice gardeners like me as well as seasoned gardeners whose passion for getting down and dirty in the soil is their idea of heaven.

The Burrows Garden at Mystic Seaport.

Tovah Martin, a regular on the PBS series Cultivating Life, will be the featured speaker for Garden Days, talking about houseplants and terrariums. She will be available for signings of her authored books after her 1 p.m. presentation on Saturday, the 22nd.  

Who hasn’t enjoyed the sight of colorful butterflies? There will be a lecture on how you can create your own backyard garden that attracts these beauties of nature. It’s just one of the myriad of activities and presentations offered in the Demonstration Tent on the Museum’s Village Green.

Overall, an impressive roster of Master Gardeners, landscape designers, plant science educators and vendors knowledgeable in various aspects of horticulture, pest control and invasive plant species will all be on hand to answer questions and give demonstrations.

As always, there are activities geared especially to kids – like a garden scavenger hunt in the Children’s Museum. Also, the first 150 youth visitors each day during Garden Days weekend will be given a free sapling to take home and plant, courtesy of Sprigs and Twigs Landscapes.

For a complete listing of all the demonstrations and activities, log on to   www.mysticseaport.org/gardendays. Then plan your visit  – August 21-23. I suggest you come equipped with paper and pencil so you can jot down all the great tips from the experts on grounds!

Blog written by Trudi Busey.

May Flowers

Our copious April (and May) showers have done the trick–Mystic Seaport is positively bursting into bloom!

Museum garden volunteers have been hard at work alongside garden staff Kara Franco and Steve Sisk, as well as our facilities team, and their hard work shows in all the beautifully cared for beds, and the lush, glorious planters now making an appearance around the grounds, now that the risk of frost is past in our coastal climate (three cheers!).

We know—if you’re a gardener, the only place you want to be right now is in the dirt. But if your aching body needs a brief respite, why not spend a few extra moments at your computer, touring through the (always growing) garden section on our site. We’ve got weekly garden tips from Supervisor of Grounds Kara Franco, an online plant list for each of our many gorgeous gardens, a collection of articles on gardening by the sea and some “Garden Delights,” a closer look at some of our noteworthy growers in each season.

If you enjoy learning in the company of like-minded gardeners, you won’t want to miss our continuing Spring Garden Symposium. This month we’re hosting Master Gardener and author Susan Munger. She’ll discuss the ease of creating sustainable gardens and landscapes with the use of rain gardens.

And finally, if you want to join our dedicated crew of garden volunteers, we would love to have you!

Just click here to sign up . (Make sure to check off the gardens/landscaping box.)

Piloting our way

Pilots hard at work, despite the damp weather!

Get any of those spring projects done this weekend? We did!

Fender making

This past weekend, May 9th & 10th, was the 73rd Pilot Weekend at Mystic Seaport. Mystic Seaport Pilots are special Museum volunteers who devote an on-site weekend of service twice a year. These dedicated folk come from all over the country to roll up their sleeves and work side by side with Museum staff on a variety of projects.

What did  75 Pilots accomplish this weekend?

They spread one ton of mulch on our peerless gardens

They created one new garden

They planted 45 plants

They dug 22 plants for replanting

They built three floats

They launched eight boats

They deployed 25 fenders

They scraped eight davits from the Charles W. Morgan

They sorted and cataloged 900 rowing magazines

They made four muslin patterns from 1871 pattern books, to be used in the creation of role player costumes

They rehoused 2100 Rosenfeld images

They scraped 50% of the bulwarks on the Charles W. Morgan

They created three rope fenders

They serviced two antique engines were serviced

They scrubbed the decks of five small craft

President Steve White and his wife, Maggie, joined the 75 Pilots who spent a weekend doing service projects for Mystic Seaport.

Scrubbing the decks

Recognize this Shipyard volunteer? It’s former Museum President Doug Teeson, an active Museum volunteer and member of the Pilots.

This hearty crew built three floating docks last weekend!

Supervisor of Grounds Kara Franco and her helpful garden crew.

*          *            *

Our Fall Pilots’ Weekend is October 17-18 and we’d love to have you be part of the crew! To join in the fun, go to  http://www.mysticseaport.org/pilotprogram
or e-mail chris.freeman@mysticseaport.org.

And to all our Pilots, a simple thank you just isn’t enough for all you do. We are so deeply grateful for your continued service and hands-on commitment to your Museum.

Majestic

I have the best seat in the house. Actually, I’d argue that I have the best seat in the whole Museum. I’ve endured wind, rain, sleet and snow. I’ve worn the ugly, durable shoes all winter. I’ve stared at brown, barren trees and cold, gray skies. And it has all been worth it. All for this…

Grab your camera. Get over to the Thomas Greenman House. Experience spring in all of its majestic, Mystic Seaport, Magnolia glory. And when you look up, you may even see me waving down at you from the window.

Calling all Gardeners!

Yes, there is still snow on the ground. Yes, there’s a chance there might be more. But to quote the great Hal Borland, “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”

Spring is coming and we’re more than ready. In preparation, the Membership Department at Mystic Seaport is hosting a Spring Garden Series at Seamen’s Inne to help you get your gardens ready for the coming season.

The three-part luncheon series begins Friday, March 13, with Anne Duncan, owner of the Salem Herbfarm in Connecticut. Anne will explain the most cost-effective way to grow, maintain, preserve and enjoy popular culinary herbs.

On Friday, April 10, the Museum’s Supervisor of Gardens Kara Franco will detail the flowers and vegetables that are grown in Mystic Seaport’s greenhouse for the Museum’s period gardens (betcha didn’t know that we even grow our own veggies, huh?!). After lunch, attendees will visit the Museum’s greenhouse to check out the new seedlings and plants.

County Master Gardener Coordinator Susan Munger wraps up the series Friday, May 15, with a discussion about the ease of creating sustainable landscapes with the use of rain gardens, a low-maintenance feature that allows surface water to return to the underground aquifer. Copies of Munger’s book, Common to this Country: Botanical Discoveries of Lewis and Clark will also be available.

Gardens, history and much more. All waiting at Mystic Seaport.

So replace those mittens with gardening gloves and those shovels with trovels. It’s all about sunshine, fresh vegetables and plentiful gardens from here on out…we hope.

For more information, times and prices, visit our Membership Department online or call 860.572.5339.

Searching for a sign

Spring, I know you’re out there.

The calendar may say February 24 and the thermometer may read a bone-chilling 26 degrees this morning.

But spring, you can’t hide forever. I caught a glimpse of you this morning, and I know it won’t be long before you’re really here, showing off your stuff.

Signs of spring, you ask? Sounds crazy, I know. This time of year in New England, the skiers and snowboarders and sledders are reveling in the deep snows of late winter while the rest of us wonder how many more days before we can put the snow shovel away for good.

I examine the lilacs outside my front door and the glorious magnolia tree outside my office each morning for signs of swelling buds. Today I brushed aside the layer of leaves in the daffodil border to confirm my suspicions—tiny green shoots emerging! (I covered them right back up.)

But as I walked to my office in Thomas Greenman House, I witnessed my very favorite sign that spring is truly on its way—the bright yellow blooms of the Witch Hazel outside the Planetarium.

Gotcha, spring. I know you can’t stay away much longer.

Anna Sawin is the editor of Mystic Seaport magazine.