Total Landscape Care Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/85696
Inspired to Smile W An award-winning landscaper says it pays to have a sense of humor. hen we rolled onto the renowned Barber Motors- ports Park road course with an Exmark mower to photograph this issue's cover, more than a few heads turned. But Mark Whitt's was not one of them. In his eight years as track manager for the park in Leeds, Alabama, Whitt has seen his share of unusual events. The facility hosts Indy car, Grand- Am and AMA Superbike Series competitions, but they've also "hosted weddings and the spreading of ashes for a deceased racing enthusiast," Whitt says. No wonder. The 850-acre facility and its 2.38- Mark Whitt has seen some unusual events at the Barber Motorsports Park, including the cover shoot for this issue. mile road course, which draw thousands of people from around the world, are known as the Au- gusta (as in golf course) of road racing courses, and it's received numer- ous awards for its awe- inspiring landscaping. Whitt, who has a degree in landscape con- tracting and 25 years of professional experience, designed the landscape and supervised its con- struction, which included 137 acres of turf grass and planting 16,000 azaleas, 9,000 dogwoods and more. He attributes his success to the vision of the park's owner, George Barber, and his own knack for "designing landscapes with maintenance always in mind." After observing us photo- graph a mower on the road course with a Porsche in pursuit, I asked Whitt if it also pays to have a sense of humor in managing such a huge en- terprise as the park. "Surely, humor is a saving grace," Whitt says. "We spend so many hours at the track, and it can be intense during racing season." It helps that at many focal points around the course, there are whimsical sculptures, ranging from those at a turn known as Charlotte's Web, adorned with a giant steel sculpture of a spider and "We've hosted weddings and " the spreading of ashes for a deceased racing enthusiast. numerous offspring spread across the hillside, to another where steel ants appear to be carrying off a motorcycle. "You can't help but smile when you look up just about anywhere here and see all these examples of creativ- ity," Whitt says. Our thanks to Whitt and the management at Barber for allowing us to shoot our "Mow Down" cover at the park. It surely shows they have a good sense of humor. We hope the Mow Down feature, page 28, with its rollicking racing theme that compares this year's premier new mowers for contractors, makes you smile for a moment, as well. February 2012 / TOTAL LANDSCAPE CARE 9 Billy R. Sims, Editor billy.sims@rrpub.com