BY OLIVIA CHIN | PHOTOS BY KRISTI MCMURRY WOODY

Featured in Vol 8, Issue 1: Jackson Grown

Spring in Jackson, Tennessee is often a season of contradictions. The most beautiful flowers bloom on dogwoods and Bradford pears, but they don’t smell as nice as they look. Rain comes to water the growing plant life, but severe weather can threaten both the outdoors and our own houses and roads. The temperature is finally high enough that you can wash your car outdoors, but beware of the green pollen that will soon engulf everything you hold near and dear.

Still, there’s something special about the changing of the seasons and the coming of spring. Even though you can’t always predict the weather, you can still plant seeds in your garden with the hope that, at some point, they will grow. It may take longer than you expect, but the growth is still happening, even when you can’t see it.

For Camille Sikes, spring is one of the busiest but most rewarding periods. As the Groundskeeper of the University of Memphis Lambuth campus, Camille and her labor are bound to the changing seasons. Spring is a hectic time of cleaning out the remains of winter leaves and sticks, mulching, and planting new native flowers and other plants. Summer is the time of watering, maintaining the grounds, and just trying to make it through the heat. Fall brings amazing colors but many, many leaves to work around. Winter is the slowest season but allows for time to plan ahead for new projects.

Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Camille moved to Jackson at age 15. She had always been interested in nature and plant life, and as a college student at the University of Memphis Lambuth, she worked in the community garden. Learning under the guidance of biology Senior Lecturer Dr. Rebecca Cook, Camille realized that working with gardens, plants, and landscapes made her thrive.

“I really liked gardening with Dr. Cook as a student worker; that’s where I got started,” Camille remembered. “I’ve gotten to plant a lot of trees with Dr. Cook.”

After graduating with her degree in biology, Camille worked for a Beech Bluff nursery. She considered pursuing a master’s degree and was accepted to the University of Tennessee Knoxville. However, Camille wanted to put her young son’s needs first and worried that the graduate student workload would be harmful to their relationship and her mental health. It was then that Camille decided to continue working outdoors, trading the mental load of academia for the physical load of groundskeeping.

Now, as the Groundskeeper at her alma mater, Camille is able to use her biology background as she identifies and plants native species throughout the campus. She strives to create habitats that attract helpful birds and insects. Camile explained, “From an ecological standpoint, I plant a lot of native perennials and try to make pollinator gardens . . . there are a lot of like, micro-habitats that you can create to encourage the wildlife.”

Further, she considers the needs and desires of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who walk through the campus each day. Part of her job is to make the sidewalks more accessible for them and to allow the surrounding trees, shrubs, and flowers to form a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere. This particular part of her work allows Camille to connect with the local community.

“It’s something you have to actually be here and maintain for it [growth] to happen,” Camile said. “And it gives me a place in the community, really, you know? . . . It’s been good to see it progress.”

Another integral part of Camille’s work is to maintain the Level 2 arboretum on campus.

The University of Memphis Lambuth became a certified Tennessee Urban Forestry Council Level 2 arboretum in October 2015. According to the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council, in order to be certified as a Level 2 arboretum, the campus grounds must house 60-89 distinct tree species labeled with both scientific and common names, a map of tree locations available to the public, and payment of dues for certification and recertification is required.

The Level 2 status could have been lost without the efforts of Camille Sikes and Dr. Rebecca Cook.

“We lost a lot of trees over the years and weren’t replacing them,” Camille mused. “We would have technically lost our arboretum status if we didn’t plant species to replace them. So we’ve tried to replace specific native trees that have died and add other beneficial or beautiful trees to our collection.”

The labeled arboretum trees can be viewed as you walk across the campus. Many of them are large and established, while others are still getting started. Camille hopes to see them all flourishing in the years to come.

As we head into the busy spring months, Camille encourages people who are new to gardening and outdoor work to slow down and take their time.

“My advice would be to take it slowly and not overwhelm yourself,” Camille said. “Now that we’re warming up out of the pandemic a little, and some people are nervous about that, I think it kind of goes along with growing things seasonally. Just slowly let yourself come out of the winter or this more internal season . . . I would definitely encourage people to get out in nature and connect with it. It’s just really good for you and good for your mind. Nature will always hold you.”

Spending so much time in nature has led Camille to understand how much the environment impacts our mental health. Our connections with the earth and with each other are vitally important to our lives. As Pulitzer Prize winning-novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday once wrote, “We humans must revere the earth, for it is our well-being.”

Camille has faith that the work she does has a bigger impact than she might see in one season or two. Rather, Camille’s work and nature’s growth will continue to spread joy and effect positive change in our native ecosystems for years to come. For visitors to the University of Memphis Lambuth campus, it’s easy to enjoy the fruits of years of labor; just breathe in deeply and take a look around you. •

References

Momaday, N. Scott. (2020). Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land. HarperCollins.

Tennessee Urban Forestry Council. (2022). Tennessee arboretum certification program. TUFC.com. https://tufc.com/programs/tree/arboreta/

University of Memphis Libraries. (2022). Lambuth history and archives. LibGuides.Memphis.edu. https://libguides.memphis.edu/c.php?g=1155948&p=8437614

Olivia Chin Originally from Medon, TN, Olivia Chin has worked in West Tennessee academic libraries for over 6 years. Her best Halloween costumes (so far) have been David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Her favorite hobbies include drinking local coffee, reading true crime novels, and going to emo concerts with her husband.

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