The Otherside of the Web Page

I’d like to introduce you to three fellas who keep our website running. They are important in our life. And in your life too. Without the guys who do tedious, frustrating and creative web stuff, I couldn’t focus on growing good bulbs, nor could you read about or buy them for your garden. What’s behind…

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Plant Sale For Crinum Farm Field Day

Leonotis menthifolia ‘Savannah Sunset’ Bright orange, fuzzy flowers in a perfect whorl around the stems.  Loves hot dry places and flowers all summer.  Perennial in warm parts of zone; great annual in other parts.  $10               Crinum ‘Bradley Giant’  This is a big growing lily, reaching 4 feet tall…

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I Will Survive! Flowers for a Disco Queen

When a horticulturist (or anyone) comes up with a new plant, they get to name the plant.  Older, more genteel generations named plants to honor their wives or Alma-matter.  Think of Azalea ‘Mrs. G.G. Gerbing’ or ‘Clemson Spineless’ Okra. When I found a special crinum, I got my first chance at naming. Decades ago, I’d…

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Tom’s Notes on Purple Martins

This is our second spring with our purple martins.  Last year the first birds arrived on February 27th.  It was a thrill this year when our first purple martin was a day earlier on February 26th.  The rich, gurgling call heralds spring even more than the robins, who had been here for weeks.  Our purple…

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Parking Lots Become Parking Gardens

Form might follow function.  But too often in designing parking lots, many important functions get ignored. In parking lots, nothing but parking and getting customers in the door seems to matter.  Whatever happened to the very important functions of pedestrian safety, rainwater run off,  shading cars and providing beauty? And whatever happend to the function…

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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…

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Getting Houses Ready for Purple Martins

Believe it or not, they know us.  Not just that but they get all happy, they come out and sit on their perches, talking and greeting when they see us coming. Nothing animates a quiet day in the garden like a colony of purple martins.  These migratory birds have long lived in association with people. …

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What Lies Within. Why We Planted a Giant Pot of Bamboo.

We’re working with a client who thinks about the big picture in her gardening.  Including unpleasant stuff and what happens in the distance; the production and disposal of plants. We’re a perfect fit.  I often lament that the “green industry”, which should be a part of the solution, is often a part of the environmental…

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Winter 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,…

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