Stalking Supple Jack on the Salkehatchie
Some guys go duck hunting on Christmas. Some people go to movies. Momma and I went in search of an elusive vine: Supple Jack. To be honest, the vine isn’t rare, but its home is in blackwater swamps. Special places, also home to cotton mouths and deep holes hidden in black water, but in winter,…
Read MoreGrangran’s Gumdrop Tree
My grandfather cooked. He set the table with “Old Britain Castles” china; he painted and gardened. Maybe because the lessons were so constant, from birth on, I don’t recall him teaching me gardening things. But I know the palmetto tree by the back steps was one he dug up on Hunting Island; I know he…
Read MoreTom Writes About Hay Day
Beech Island, South Carolina. The City of two untruths. There’s no beach, and there’s no island. There is a third untruth, but I’m ahead of myself. Jenks and I went to see our friend and neighbor Mark, on Friday morning. His Thanksgiving was as perfect as ours. Mark grows and bales a beautiful, healthy hay,…
Read MoreConjunction Junction; A Lady who Loves Her Function….
A young family who’s trying to mix modern needs into the garden of a historic Mediterranean Revival home. An 86-year-old gentleman, from the wrong side of the tracks, who enlisted in the US Navy at 16 having lied about his age. The person who organized fundraising events and presentations for the New Orleans Botanical Garden.…
Read MorePersimmon Trees in Gardens
Speaking with an elderly friend today, I asked about how to get around some issues of growing persimmon trees. He launched into a long story about an abandoned grove he recalled in south Georgia with a long aside about his old friend who’d discovered the grove in full fruit. At one point he said, “It…
Read MoreWhat’s Better Than Egg Souffle in Marrakesh? Mexicans at Waffle House and the Last Flowers of Frost
Gardening puts me in the middle of two very different groups of people: those with lots of cash who pepper their conversation with French and those with lots of bills, who speak Spanglish while we work. A late afternoon call from a client of the first group, then a text from a worker of the…
Read MoreLate Fall Flowers
My favorite thing in the garden today wasn’t a flower or a fruit, but a stem. Papaya stems. Back in April, I bought a papaya at the store, ate it, sowed all the seeds together in a 3 gallon pot outside, and waited for heat. (And yep, since papaya are genetically modified, I was breaking…
Read MoreHeart on the Farm
Since my book came out in April, I’ve been from Philadelphia to Jacksonville talking about it. I’ll continue this winter west to Saint Louis and New Orleans. But for a few weeks during the most beautiful part of South Carolina’s year, I get to do presentations and readings to my home state friends. And enjoy…
Read MoreSure-fire Bulbs for a Spring Show in the South
So many choices! And so many enticing bulbs in box stores right now. For so many reasons, I buy bulbs only from specialty bulb farms — the best value and the best chance for success and joy. Here’s a list of the sure to flower bulbs being planted at Historic Columbia today. Click on the…
Read MoreCool Plants of the Week
Just a quick post about some of the great plants that we’re working with this week while designing for the dense shade of the renovation of the Hampton Preston house gardens. ALSO: Tuberrose No other fragrance enchants like this tough bulb with long lasting leaves that NEEDS to grow in hot, dry, terrible soil. You…
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