A Life And Livelihood in Gardens: Mark Saidnawey
How a professional tends his garden: with simplicity, color.
Gardening is in Mark Saidnawey's blood. It's his livelihood, pastime and heritage.
As co-owner with his brother, Tom, of Pemberton Farm and Garden
Center in Cambridge, Saidnawey spends seven days a week caring for
thousands of plants, touching possibly 60 percent of them every day.
Started by his grandfather, Tofic Saidnawey in 1930, the
third-generation family operation has grown over the years and now
includes a gourmet food store, full-service gardening center and online
gift basket business.
"The center is my garden," said Saidnawey, a life-long Belmont
resident. "Even when I'm not there, I'm always thinking about the
business and sending texts to my employees to check and water the
plants."
Despite the hours he spends at Pemberton, Saidnawey finds the time to
tend to a garden at his Belmont home. It's relatively simple, he said,
because he prefers to have a large lawn in the backyard where he can
toss a ball around.
So he compliments it with a border along the fence of an assortment
of evergreens and perennials such as hydrandrea, cimicifuga, hosta, and
bleeding heart.
There's also a Japanese weeping maple tree, a white birch that
Saidnawey carried home in the trunk of his car when he first got it and –
to provide color – annuals, a climbing rose bush growing over an arch
in a sunny corner of the garden and sweet autumn clematis which blooms
in the fall.
When he moved to the house in 2002, there wasn't one plant in the yard, Saidnawey said.
"When I thought of how to design the back garden, I assessed the area
and realized there's very little sun and that guided me in how to
choose the plantings," he said.
"I knew I wanted the keep the large lawn so just created the border
around it with an arch of climbing roses in the corner to provide depth
and some color. And I bring out a lot of patio planters in the warmer
months."
In the front of the house, Saidnawey has more sun so he mixes a
variety of flowering annuals and perennials such as Martha Washington
geraniums, Shasta daisies, arborvitae, zinnias, day lilies holly and a
Japanese maple tree. He also has a hanging hydrandrea covering a side
fence that leads to the backyard.
Saidnawey said his gardens are large enough to provide a border of
color and interest but small enough so that he can easily maintain them.
He weeds periodically and fertilizes the lawn in the spring, summer and
fall, mows it once a week and waters it approximately every other day.
Gardening has become Saidnawey's life with his own, the long hours he
puts in at Pemberton, being a member of the Belmont Garden Club,
writing articles for Lawn & Garden Magazine as well as producing
videos for a garden segment on WBZ TV.
He's been in the business for about 20 years, starting by helping his
father, Leo, sell plants outside the former Pemberton Market in
Cambridge. In 1993, the family decided to rent an empty lot across the
street to create a larger garden center. In 2000, Saidnawey and his
brother, Tommy, decided to buy the land and add the gourmet shop and
mail-order company.
Running a full-service garden center is a job Saidnawey loves.
"I like being outdoors all day," he said. "This is a retail business that provides people with a lot of happiness."
And owning a garden center allows Saidnawey to be a good resource to
the Garden Club for which he donates plants or, at least, discounts them
heavily. He enjoys working with the group and planted and designed the
memorial garden at the Burbank School for the late Cindy Hawkins.
Saidnawey's work at Pemberton is year-round. From April to December,
he d0oesn't take one day off. January and February are relatively quiet
months but he and his staff start setting up the center in March and
plants start arriving in April.
"My goal for the center is that a customer will never touch a bad
plant," he said. "And that means quite a few hours taking care of them
all."
If you have a green thumb with flower, vegetable or greenhouse
gardening, or know of a neighbor who does, please email us at
franklin@patch.com and we will profile your bucolic Belmont oasis
