Stories About Gardening
A Farm Cycle too Brief; Beyond Our Understanding
Our farm crew is changing drastically. New interns joined on while two guys who’ve been part of it since they were early teens moved on. Jacob and Tyler, seemingly, suddenly men, moved on to career jobs. In 20 years of managing interns, there have been bad times. But not this bad. Young Tyler, settling…
Read More“Opportunity is Like a Lovely Lady”
Quoted from Helen Keller’s address to the Lions Clubs. At the cool museum that is her birthplace you’ll see some nice gardens one of which was designed by a new friend. Phillip Oliver lives nearby. I didn’t know Philip but when I tweeted recently, “who can help me have some fun in northern Mississippi?” He…
Read MoreTwo Tours, One List of Plants
Monday was my first official day at the farm, and so far we’ve visited clients and explored in Augusta and given two tours. It doesn’t really sound like much, but given the heat and dryness of the past few days, it’s a relief today to be enjoying the indoors of Starbucks. On our tours, one…
Read MoreDeep Rooted Wisdom Reviews
Y’all don’t need to read this. It’s just plain tacky, but a PR person told me I needed to do it. Therefore, for the sake of “link love”, which apparently means you stroke my back and I’ll stroke yours in the social media world, here are all the places that Deep Rooted Wisdom has some “online…
Read MorePhiladelphia Quick Garden Trip
[Not a valid template] Just some pictures from yesterday’s quick trip that started in the 18th century garden of America’s first plantsman, John Bartrum. The second group of pictures is the joyful Chanticleer and, finally, the elegant Barnes Foundation’s original home. (Later, we’ll get a tour of the new downtown home of the Barnes Foundation…
Read MoreSouth Carolina Safari — Walterboro, SC
Here’s a great little road trip y’all can join in on– it includes romance, food, car culture, farming, blackwater swamps and book stores. Thursday evening, I’m doing a book reading (ok, sometimes it comes off as save-the-earth-preaching) at the Walterboro Farmer’s Market/Colleton County Museum. (click for time/directions). For Columbia, Beaufort, Charleston, Savannah friends, make an…
Read MoreSugar Cane Mill. What Goes Around…
Before I went, I thought that working in Haiti might be depressing. But it wasn’t. I felt connected to my daddy– like I was living life off the land, the way he grew up– and that was amazing. The biggest day of connection involved an old style sugar cane press. We stopped on a little…
Read MoreMomma and Her Machete
How many people do you know who still have machete skills? And how many use them in everyday gardening? When I was writing my book, the Timber Press editor laughed when I wrote half a chapter on this noble tool. Of course, my Momma knows how to use one, and to make the best slaw…
Read MoreNo Better High
I got credit and joy but all I did was to deliver the good news. A few pictures and an update and Yvrose face was shinning with pride. Her homeland, her country, the place of peaceful memories— like being put up on a mule to walk the farm roads was looking good. I can only…
Read MoreRemarkable people on a road trip to the Haitian/Dominican Frontier
We traveled about 200 miles today. It took over six hours. The map makes it look easy and smooth. But this is Haiti where sometimes pavement turns into goat paths and sometimes street rioters block the entire road with felled palm trees and burning tires. Well, that was a tiny part of the adventure of…
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