Profiles in Business: Oliver Gardner: 4 Seasons Garden Center

Vermont Business Magazine, Dec 01, 2003 by Marcel, Joyce

"I was introduced under duress," he said. "I was always the one who seemed to have to dig up the new area of the lawn and till it and get it ready for her to plant the annuals in the spring. So my earliest introduction to agriculture and horticulture was by default. I had no real interest in it and certainly no enjoyment taking part in it."

There were 16 people in Gardner's high school graduating class. "And I'm very boastful that I was in the top 12, academically," he joked.

Gardner's character and goals were set at an early age.

"I was always very determined to enjoy every day," he said. "I always had a great sense of adventure. I always took pride in being resourceful and self-reliant. To this day, I work at that constantly. I enjoy challenge. Childhood was a challenge, for sure. Traveling is a challenge. I like to do things that offer a sense of excitement. I get bored very easily."

College

After high school, Gardner went to Boston to study photography at the Franklin Technical Institute, but found it too expensive, even coupled with a full-time shift mopping floors at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Since these were the Vietnam days, Gardner transferred to the Fort Kent division of the University of Maine to avoid the draft and earn a teaching degree.

Beginning his life-long pattern of mixing work with adventure, Gardner hitchhiked to Florida on spring breaks using $100 loans from the Northern National Bank. In 1969, he also hitchhiked to Mexico and back. And with one semester of college left, his adventuring bug took over.

"I quit school in 1970 with the ambition of going to Peru, where I could surf and ski in the same season," Gardner said. "So I left with a buddy of mine. We were driving a black Volkswagen Beetle. After making it a short distance into Mexico, it became quite obvious that we were never going to have enough money. So we turned around and sat on a curb in Brownsville, Texas, shared a bottle of wine and contemplated our future. My friend wanted to go to Hawaii and surf, and I wanted to go to Montana and be a cowboy."

They compromised by spending several months working and skiing in Aspen. But the skiing was terrible that year, and the jobs didn't pay the bills.

"We had a sweater and warm clothing sale and put together enough money to drive the car to Florida, where we were going to apply for jobs to sail windjammers in the Caribbean," Gardner said. "We got jobs with the Windjammer Corp, but we didn't have enough money for a round-trip ticket to Antigua, where the boats were. So we worked our way north, went back to our summer jobs in Presque Isle, and then I went back to school and finished my final semester."

Vermont

Gardner's intention was to return to Florida and sail, but in 1971, love intervened.

"The reason why I came to Burlington was a summer romance," he said. "I later married her."

Gardner arrived in Burlington with a degree in education, "a lot of romantic ideas," very little money and an adventurous spirit. "I pitched my tent besides the soccer field in the woods at the university and spent some time there," Gardner said. "I milked cows. I lived in an orchard in Grand Isle and picked apples that fall. I trained to sell Cutco Cutlery door to door - that was a failed venture. I spent my first winter working construction at the Apple Island Campground. And I lived in the attic of a barn there through the winter and nearly perished. It was 30 below at night and it was the same temperature in the attic of the barn."