Posts Tagged ‘garden design Aiken South Carolina’
Farmer Explains Why He Changed to No-till Tractors
No-till agriculture helps stop our huge, hidden erosion issues. There are all sorts of advantages (and a few disadvantages). No-till is a serious change in our food production. I often tell gardeners that even at home, we need to go no-till too. Most of our garden design and installation is no-till. Our little organically managed…
Read MoreBulbs for the South & Artist In the Garden
I love when an organization ask me to return for more than one presentation. There’s so much more to say, do, talk about than can happen in the usual one hour format. These two presentations, with a break for lunch couldn’t be more different. But the first builds up to the second; the first is…
Read MoreWinter Cover Crops for Farm, Yard or City Garden.
On the farm, we do all the work by hand; no tractors, no plows, no till. Our crew includes interns, volunteer kids from down the dirt road, city cousins and some well trained farm animals. But we also use plants to do lots of work. All year long, cover crops do the tilling, pest control,…
Read MoreFall Pictures From Beech Island
Gardening is thinking ahead a few minutes, a few months or a few generations. There’s something about this little spot of red dirt, perched on the wooded hills above the river, with Augusta, Georgia, making noise and light in the distance, that helps people find peace and think in generations. Click here to see a…
Read MorePlanting a Perennial Border for Hospice Cut Flowers
Linda has a cool story. She’s cared for her parents, worked a lot and ready to retire. But not ready to slow down. So she bought a little farm house at the edge of booming suburbs and is planning a cut flower operation– specifically to give cut flowers to local hospice centers. She’s into nutrition,…
Read MoreLilies & Nocturnal Seduction. There’s a word for that and it’s a silly, fun, lovely word…..
As nights warm up, a flashlight reveals the fluttering cloud above dark lily fields. Millions of moths. The crinum lilies invite them. Daytime those moths hunker down in the straw mulch. But something more than shifting light calls them up from below. If you had a slow-motion camera and a fragrance detector, you could see…
Read MoreWhere Do You Grow Crinum?
Let’s build a Crinum map together! Send pictures of your crinum lilies. In the email subject line please type your city and state. (Send your town even if you don’t have pictures). We’ll mark your town and post the picture to our map of Crinum Lovers! (Don’t worry, we won’t post your name or address…
Read MoreA Good Excuse to Write
Why would a wildlife conservation magazine ask me to write for them? I don’t get it either — kept thinking it was some sort of scam. “Could you write on how gardening soothes the restless soul?”, they asked. Well that just struck a cord and I wrote a very person story. It’s in their magazine,…
Read MoreKill the Confederate Myths: 5 Better Vines for Southern Shade
When we started building Riverbanks Botanical Garden, 20+ years ago, we had to deal with a Pennsylvanian’s idea of southern architecture. The building, walls and walkways of some grandiose vision of antebellum structures that only ever existed in bad movies. It reminded me that, as a teen, I loved Aunti Mame as much as any…
Read MoreDreams of Milk and Wine aka Crinum x herbertii
A friend visited last weekend. He woke up in the night and wrote this little poem: “Milk and Wine,” the old man said. “It’s all I drink these days. Clarity of purpose, strength of bone.” “A strange request,” the waiter said. “But noble, and will do.” And he went over to the bar, to pour…
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