LIFE'S A GARDEN

This is the time of year at Garden Works that we run pretty hard getting everything set up for a great fall season. The growing operation is in full tilt boogie. The growers in the greenhouses are filling pots with soil and getting them laid out on the tables as fast as they can go. The germinated seedlings are going into the pots and roots are already beginning to look good. We’re growing lots of perennials this year since fall is the perfect time to plant them. I’ve seen lo

This will be my last article to write before October gets here. I felt like the time would never arrive. From what I can see the long range forecast is full of hope. I’m seeing 80’s and 60’s coming our way, of course they are upper 80’s and upper 60’s but I’ll take it, the spell has been broken. Fall is a time that brings relief and celebration. We have made it through another relentless, soupy summer is the relief part. The celebration part is that it is the end of one seaso

Mimi and I had 2 days at home last weekend. We were getting ready to fall garden with a plan and tools cleaned and sharpened so when we get that little cool snap that comes around this time we will be ready to hit it.. We will set the tent up in the back yard on the levee. On the nights that we yard camp we sit out on the patio near the pond and chat and eat our dinner. When it gets late enough we go in the tent to watch the full moon rise above us.(hopefully our snap will co

Six years ago Mimi and I found out the hard way that an imbalance in your ecosystem in your yard is starkly noticeable. We had a wedding party planned in our backyard at a time of year when the mosquito population would normally be very high. We didn’t want anyone getting bothered by the pesky mosquitoes so we found an organic spray that would take care of that problem. We felt pretty good about what we were doing because the spray was made of citrus oil, rosemary oil, lemong

September is upon us. We begin to think fall around this time of year. The normal things in fall are back to school, football, music festivals and spending evenings outside with friends. Fall is the unsung savior of the landscape world. It’s one last hurrah for your landscape before winter takes over and it marks the end of heat and drought during the summer. For those last weeks of September, October and November your lawn and plants can thrive again. You may have heard that

Last weeks article about our trip to Vancouver Island took up too much space so we had to split the article in half to make it fit. I am glad it happened because it allowed me a chance to declare that grandparenthood has now happened. Our son and his wife had a baby girl on Saturday, August 22nd. The birth went smoothly as far as any complications. They had a long 17 hour process so they were bushed by the middle of that day. Her family and our family helped to make sure they

One more week of August to go. It just feels good to say that, August feels like the hottest month of the year. I don’t want to let my guard down because September isn’t much different but it sure feels that way. Fall decorations are starting to show up in all the regular places and a few football games will probably start next month, anything for a little hope. I have definitely upped my irrigation game at home and at Garden Works. Earlier in August we were getting enough ra

We have made it to mid August! To me it’s been hot as regular, but not too bad with these intermittent rains that we’ve gotten from time to time. Just when I think we’re about to go into a drought situation, we’ve been getting a nice storm, at least in my Little 5 mile world that I live in. So far, we have gotten enough rain that I am barely using my irrigation system at home. Each of our storms have produced just under an inch of rain at our house, which is enough for the pl

Last weeks article Mimi and I had made it Bainbridge Island north of Seattle. We visited 2 gardens on the first day of our vacation. We packed up and left our quiet house in the woods. This would be the day that Mimi has dreamed of for many years. Mimi started following and keeping up with a plantsman named Dan Hinkley. Dan is a horticulturist, a naturalist, a teacher and a steward of Heronswood Gardens and Windcliff gardens, at his home high on a bluff over looking the Peuge

On July 16th Mimi and I found ourselves on a flight to Seattle. We use sky miles so we have to go to Atlanta to get anywhere. The flight time for the day was 6 or 7 hours, that’s a pretty big fly day. When we arrived we had rental car ready to ride. We had about 2 hours to get to the house we rented on Bainbridge Island, still in Washington state. By the time we crossed over on the ferry and demolished a pizza in the little town of Winslow where we would stay for 2 nights it

Back in 1991 I returned to Mississippi after a 3 year stint in the Caribbean. I was a peace corps volunteer on the island of Grenada. During that time I spent time on most of the islands in the eastern Caribbean conducting educational seminars for small scale farmers about growing non traditional crops. The agency that I worked for offered ideas to farmers who weren’t making it in the highly competitive world of bananas in that region. Together we developed varieties of papay

It seems like whenever we go out of town to visit another place. We get envious of the plants that we see. Whenever we go out of town we visit the local garden center and botanical garden. The garden center that we visit always seems to have things running a little smoother and a little better than us and we always think they display things a little better than we do. The plants that we see around the town that we’re visiting always seem a little healthier and better placed.