Washington College Magazine
The serenity of a summer morning—and invading crabgrass—beckon President Baird Tipson into the gardens of Hynson-Ringgold House.
Gardener-in-Chief
It's well known that President Washington loved working the soil. It's a trait held in common with another president—Baird Tipson of Washington College.
President Tipson's horticultural hobby has followed him through his career, becoming something of a legend. He has been featured on alumni magazine covers bedecked in overalls, ready to dig and eager to plant things that grow. But he is quick to dispel the Baird-Tipson-Has-A-Green-Thumb myth. "I'm not a very good gardener," he insists, "but I'm an avid gardener."
His devotion to things botanical is evident on the presidential grounds, where he spends as much time planting, tending and watering as his job allows. "I love Hynson-Ringgold Gardener-in-Chief House" for its wall-enclosed yard space, which is great for gardening, he notes.
Tipson's focus lies mainly in perennials and flowering shrubs. He has his short-list of must-haves, but he admits to periods of passing fancies. "Most gardeners go through phases where you really get hooked on something." His most recent dalliance has been with native azaleas—though the drought of 2007 has been especially tough on azaleas.
But you always come back to your mainstays. Forced to choose just a single perennial favorite (or is that favorite perennial?), Tipson says that daffodils are likely his all-time number-one, but "old-fashioned roses would be a close second, and peonies would be third."
Of course, he likes to grow vegetables as well, and would like to do more with the pragmatic side of gardening. "If I were retired and had enough land I'd probably grow a lot of vegetables, but they take attention and they take space."
Meanwhile, Hynson-Ringgold House is flourishing with flora, courtesy of WC's Gardener-in-Chief. "The nice thing about gardening when you're president of a college," says Tipson, "is that someone comes to cut the grass." And as any backyard gardening buff knows, nothing cuts into your flowerbed time like having to mow that darn lawn.
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