Schools Out for the Summer (appropriately, it’s about 90F!)
My final day of teaching small farm and garden design at Zamni Agricol CFFL school started with coffee and bread (typical Haitian street breakfast) and ended a few minutes ago with a last minute request for me to teach again Tuesday. Students presentations of their design project proved they totally got the idea of bringing…
Read MoreLittle Plantlets: Just Like Their Mother
Pink Heliconia is parthenogenic. That means it makes little plantlets on the dying flower. Daylilies and other plants do it too. All are exactly the same as their mother. You can take those off and put them in nursery pots. On the day we picked the pink ginger plantlets, my friend Gillaine gave them away…
Read MoreVoodoo Gardening
How to protect your garden from thieves in Haiti. Hanging on the tree is a Human Scarecrow. It keeps thieves at bay by tricking zombies into stopping and sitting at night. It calls out to them , Uncle wait for Aunt here! The zombie waits and if a thief comes around the zombie holds him…
Read MoreBare Root Pecan Trees
My Christmas presents came! Bare root pecan trees. I know some of you have read all you can from me about this topic so I’ll just post the picture and give a quick recap. You order now (or in the fall) and at some point in the winter, the nursery ships to you, in big…
Read MoreSleeping Students, Dog Penis Fungi & More from Intern Isaac
I was teaching a college level class the other day when one fella rolled up his jacket, made a pillow, took some sleep supplements, and went right to sleep. I thought, ‘Son; do you know what an ego blow that is to a teacher?’ But I did something else of course. For five weeks I’m…
Read MoreFabulous! Tritellia laxa ‘Queen Fabiola’
Isaac Introduces Himself….
So I guess I should get on it and go ahead and do this blog post. Let’s start off with an introduction. Hi, I’m Isaac Kirwan and I’m the first intern for the crinum lilies. I’m 19, live in Greenville, and I go to Spartanburg Community College for Horticulture. Now most people I talk to…
Read MoreTime or Money
Years ago, Dr. J.C. Raulston did a presentation for me at Riverbanks Botanical Garden which he called Time or Money. It was about how in gardening some people think the later can substitute for the former. He showed that you can plant little plants and take care of them and wait or plant big plants…
Read MoreWhen Modern Landscaping Practices Kill Perfectly Good Plants
I spent the day pulling up thousands of dollars worth of tea olive and other shrubs, then filling a 33 foot long dumpster with them. 15 feet wide and 250 feet long, the shrub border that failed was planted 5 years ago, with really nice plants, by someone else. It’s a shame, it makes me…
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