Schovanec’s garden shows beauty in hardship
Located a block away from Texas Tech, a symbol of regrowth lives through Tech President Lawrence Schovanec’s garden, containing hundreds of plant species.
Growing through the ashes of a garage fire, which burned many family memories, the garden is now a place where Schovanec can be found sipping his cup of joe, admiring the greenery and getting lost in the distant sound of the Goin’ Band from Raiderland’s tunes.
“I’ve always been a great admirer of the beauty of nature, and I was raised on a farm, where you really connect with nature,” Schovanec said. “If you were raised on a farm, you know what the smell of soil is, and you can be out there all day until the evening when the sun is going down. Sometimes, nature will cause me to stop and look around, and utter ‘thank you.’”
After moving into the property in 1989, Schovanec has continuously made his thumb a hue greener by turning his once barren yard into a symphony of flowers and greenery.
“I have no artistic talent. I can’t draw. I can’t sing, but in a way, gardening, to me, is kind of a form of creativity, and some mornings when I’m leaving, I’ll stop and look, and think ‘yeah, this turned out the way I wanted it,’” Schovanec said. “It’s a form of creativity that’s awesome and a way to create some beauty.”
Schovanec, while appreciative the beauty of nature, is also deliberate and precise when it comes to the germination of new seeds for his garden. He keeps a black-bound journal to document the specific care process for each seed type needs.
“I love to keep records. When I first started gardening, my friends would give me lilies, and I would keep track of every day until it would bloom,” Schovanec said. “When it comes time to plant. I put the date when I planted them. I put the kind of soil I used, and I keep track.”
While the president enjoys crafting the garden, it also serves as a way to connect with students and faculty from Tech’s Horticultural Garden Department. He uses the department to add new species to the garden and learn how to germinate in Lubbock’s climate conditions
Schovanec recounted how, during walks with his wife, Patricia Schovanec, they usually find their way to Tech’s Horticulture Gardens to see the wide variety of plants.
“I just love to talk about flowers. I try to learn from them. I’m amazed at some of the stuff they (Horticulture) do over there. It’s really cool. They have plants that I think would never work in this sun,” Schovanec said.
Schovanec, who has tended to the garden for nearly 3 and half decades, finds peace within nature’s creation. However, it is also a place to remember how life and loss can coexist as charred bark from the garage fire sits next to new growth.
While the garage fire burned many pictures, memories and trophies from his kids’ childhoods, a book, given to the president by a Tech alumnus, also helped Schovanec see the losses in his life from a new angle, he said.
“Sometimes I’ll sit here and I’ll say, thank you, God, for this beauty. I do this because nature is a way to connect with something much bigger and deeper than you, and life is full of loss,” Schovanec said.