Panache, Northeast & fort worth editions

supplement to the fort worth star-telegram by elaine c. cole

photography by steve edmonds

 The following is a reproduction of the article which appeared in "Panache", an advertising supplement of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 2001, about Weston Gardens.

After several years of crunching numbers with his masters degree in math, Randy Weston chucked it all and traded it in for his green thumb.  In 1984, he and his wife, who also sports an accounting/financial background, opened a nursery on a raw piece of land.

            “It was a leap of faith,” said Weston, “but I wanted to try something different from my formal training.”  Weston had grown crops for years, so he thought that knowledge was easily transferable to raising plants.  Plus, his maternal grandmother was an avid ornamental gardener, and young Weston liked to help her in the garden.

            When he opened his nursery, little did he know that it was across the street from what once was known as Dripping Springs, a popular destination during the depression years when a wealthy landowner turned the land into a veritable Garden of Eden in North Texas.

            Since its hey-day, the creeks have dried up, the ship built of rocks has been struck by lightening, and the gardens became a jungle, overgrown and tangled.  The Westons bought it in 1988, renamed it Weston Gardens, and once again it is a Mecca for area gardeners.  “It was a labor of love to bring it back,” said Weston.  It took at least a couple of years to uncover the gardens and haul away overgrowth.

            Today, Weston’s 17 acres have been featured in Southern Living, American Gardener and Texas Highways.  “We call our style English Gardens Texas-Style, with plants acclimated to Texas,” he explained.

         Weston's philosophy is that he’d rather people know what plants will work in this climate, rather than trying something fancy they saw in a magazine and being disappointed.

          Weston enjoys the variety of his occupation, the diversity of new plants and new garden designs, discovering new ways of combining things, rather than repetitive tasks or programming computers or looking at financial statements.

         Of course, the down side is the weather’s unpredictability.  “It’s totally out of our hands,” he said.  “The last three summers have been murderous.  Trying to babysit acres of gardens and nursery, I now understand why my grandfather was up nights worrying about hail storms and droughts.”

            Weston hails from a little town called Spearman in the Texas Panhandle.  His wife is from Canyon.  They were married in 1977 and had their son, Jackson, much later because they were so busy starting their business.  “I always say our business is our first ‘bad’ child, and our ‘second’ child is delightful,” joked Weston.

            He enjoys that his son has a childhood more like he and his wife did in a rural town.  “It’s almost like a farm and ranch out here,” Weston said.  “We have animals, lots of cats and Cookie the border collie.  Jackson likes the life.  He’d rather stay home, versus kids who always want to be somewhere else.”