I am brokenhearted.  Unless something miraculous happens, this will be my last week to publish this article, work as a County Agent, and serve the great people of the Pee Dee.  I am retiring from the best job on earth and the   memories flow like the Great Pee Dee River. One of my Dad’s favorite sayings was, “If I have done it one time, I have done it a thousand times.”   When I was young all I could think about was the thousand rows of crops he had for me to hoe and harvest, but I really didn’t understand the meaning of his words.  Now, after teaching a thousand Master Gardeners, writing a thousand news articles, and making a thousand presentations to community groups, I think I am beginning to understand a little.  Each endeavor is so very important, but with each event you learn much, improve a little, and continually move to another. 

            Doesn’t this sound a little like gardening?  Each plant is cherished, nurtured, and really babied but there is always more to plant, care for, and harvest.  Some are annuals, biennials, or perennials, while others, like the Angel Oak, are thousands of years in age.    My sometimes feeble attempt at gardening always includes picturing or placing myself into the life of the plant itself.  In other words, if I were this plant what would I require, want, and need to flourish?  Just like people, each plant has its own requirements to excel.  Azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, and camellias like a lower pH than most plants; however, tomatoes and peppers prefer a fairly high pH of 6.5. Turnips, mustard, cabbage, collards, and sweet potatoes require more boron while peanuts require more calcium.  We could continue in this vein for eternity, and this is one of the reasons I tell all the folks who take the Master Gardener Course that they will truly never be a master of gardening.  I have worked with plants all my life and every day I still learn.

            To mark my retirement, the great people in my office are giving me a party.  After all these TV shows, articles, and presentations over the years, many people introduce themselves to me and say that they feel like they’ve personally known me.  Well, I feel like I also know you, and, in fact, through all my appearances at many civic and community organizations we may have actually met.      Therefore, this is my invitation to you to come to my retirement party which will be held on   June 5th from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the Schoolhouse Restaurant in Scranton.  $7.50 is the cost of the meal, which you can pay at the door.  You may call my office at (843) 661- 4800 for more information. I hope to see you there.

Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

  When I was, as Daddy would say, “knee high to a grasshopper,” I slept on a small cot jammed between my parent’s bed and a window because there were a total of ten of us and only three bedrooms in our home.   At the end of my bed was a small upright chiffonier which I thought contained all the secrets of the world. Whenever I would get a chance  -- like during the middle of the one of those “pre-air” days when it was like Daddy would say, “Too blessed hot to do anything else,” I would forage through the treasures stored in that old chest.  I loved to reminisce over and guess who was in all those old black and white photographs.  One of my favorite pictures was of a young, strapping Army boy with his loaded pack standing on a pair of skis in deep snow.   Becoming a ski trooper deployed in Italy in WW II had to be tough for my dad, a flatland S.C. boy, where snow is rarer than a cold day in July.  Until he got mad, Daddy was a quiet man, and he seldom talked about his war times.  However, I would listen wide-eyed when my brothers and sisters expounded about all the war memorabilia stored in that chest. The string of machine gun rounds ignited my imagination of how Daddy fought hard against Hitler’s and Mussolini’s armies.  The Italian and other foreign coins took me around the world in my dreams. The pump-up flashlight --- oh, it must have been dark during those long nights.  The fold-out camera brought Daddy’s war to me.  But I puzzled over the pen wrapped in electrical tape in the special heavy-duty pen case.  My siblings told me about when Daddy’s squad was in a real fight and the bullets were flying.  The bullet heading for my Dad’s heart hit and ricocheted off the pen in his shirt pocket.  This explained the other reinforced box in the chest which held my father’s Purple Heart.

            How ironic the pen being mightier than the bullet.  Daddy lived, and therefore so do I.    Even though I joke a lot, and hopefully it makes these articles interesting, I seriously share with you my love for plants, people, and the Pee Dee of South Carolina (my home). Both Mom and Dad are gone now, and, by the way, we have a copy of the snapshot of that Army boy proudly mounted on their tombstone.

During WWII people started planting Victory Gardens.  With today’s increased interest in vegetable gardening many have asked me if we are going back to the Victory Garden, and I hope so.  Those days were hard but experiencing some of the basics of life, like knowing what is required to produce our own food, may be what this country needs.

Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

I have gone no-till with an organic mulch in my vegetable garden and so far I love it.  Many things steered me in this direction including the fact that my garden is near my house (10 feet away), on a slope, and I don't want any erosion.  No-till simply means none or very little tilling of the soil.  To accomplish this I sprayed the area with glyphosate (Round-up) to kill the exiting weeds, then mulched the soil with a 5 or 6 sheet layer of newspaper and topped it off with about 4 inches of leaves. Thanks to the newspaper barrier, only a few weeds have popped up,  and I'll probably wipe them out with another application of glyphosate.

The next day, I can put in my seeds and transplants with no more equipment than a trowel. It's amazing how soft and moist the soil is under the mulch.  One of very few disadvantages of this system is that the soil stays  cooler in early spring, and my garden may bare its bounty a little later than regular tillage or no-till with a black plastic mulch.  If earliness is very important, you may want to use a black plastic mulch which warms the soil those first weeks of spring and can result in harvest-ready produce two weeks ahead of the normal expected date.

As I start to plant my little 300 square-foot vegetable garden, I can
picture my dad, who knew nothing about no-till, setting on that old Farmal tractor with his straw hat pulled down over his eyes.   His garden may have been only about ten acres, but when I was small it seemed to have been half of the world.  We grew enough to feed all eleven of us, to give some to family and friends, and have some to sell. Dad loved to garden and always had a gleam in his eye  this time of year. However, including no-till, a lot of things have changed since Dad last planted his ten acres of garden.

First of all, Dad had to plant on bottom land and count on rainfall, but
I have trickle irrigation in my garden.  With trickle you don't wet the
leaves of the crop; therefore, you don't encourage disease, you can
water anytime day or night, and you put exactly the amount of water the
plants need.  Also, you can add fertilizer through the irrigation water,
called fertigation.  This allows you to create the perfect environment
for plant growth and crop yield.

Next, Dad spread things over ten acres, but there will be no wasted
space in my garden.   Bare spots allow weeds to grow, contribute to
erosion, and can lead to leaching of nutrients.  Every gardening guru
seems to favor a certain specialized technique such as square-foot,
relay, interplanting, succession or vertical gardening,  I suggest using
a combination of all techniques; however, whichever system you choose, the important concept to remember is conservation.  Conserve light,
space, water, time, nutrients and the gardener's back. In other words,
do not allow anything to be wasted.

Finally, Dad had plenty of planters, hoers, pickers and eaters.  To tell you the truth my garden is very small because I am the only one who will do the work.  Were my mom and dad better, stricter or meaner parents -- I do not know.  I do know we were tired but happier, healthier, and less
stressed in those old days in McBee.  In your planning, always consider
who will be doing the work and eating the fruits.

   I guess I will be flat broke this coming year.  I forgot to have collards (for green cash) and black-eyed peas (for coins) on New Year’s Day.  I did not even have any hog jowls.  (Since hogs cannot turn there heads to look backwards, eating pork such as hog jowls represents looking forward to the New Year)  My ancestors are probably turning-over in their graves.
   With all superstitions aside, I love greens.  Collards are okay, but my favorite is turnips.  This fall I neglected planting my home garden but I have been able to feed my greens habit with mounds of greens from local farmers.  In fact, I have been advising one farmer who has over 2,000 acres of greens and harvesting over 10 tons of greens per acre.  Like daddy would say “Getting a mess of greens from him is like a drop in the bucket.”
   Winter or what little-bit-of-cold we call winter is a major growing season in S.C.  Harvest is in full swing and some type of green should be on everyone’s table.  Even if your garden is not full like mine, you are not too late.  With the warm temperatures we are having take a chance, the seed of most of these vegetables are fairly cheap, plant you a patch.  And if you want vegetables that are typically transplanted like collards, cabbage, broccoli, and etc. now is the time to plant the seed in trays for transplanting.  Just keep in a lighted warm spot like a window sill.
   You are deprived, missing-out, or just ignorant of southern delicacies, if you are not partaking of these and many other winter delights.  Many folks today seem afraid of traditional southern vegetables.  Its like turnips (lions), mustard (tigers), and collards (bears), “Oh My!”  Only grandma had time to cook them, they will stink-up my house, and they give me gas.  A pressure cooker works well and quickly, keeps down a lot of the smell, and take a pill.
   But, there is a short cut, just open a can.  McCall Farms is canning superb southern vegetables right here in Florence County. Already washed, cooked, and seasoned they are sold under the brand name of Margaret Holmes and only need to be heated and served. Watch out grandma.
   Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.  If you enjoy gardening and using flowers and plants in decorations, please watch Down Home with Tony and Amanda on Thursday nights at 8:00 pm on the SC Channel (ETV's digital station). If you don't get that channel, you can go to www.mig.org, select streaming video, and scroll down to where our shows are archived.

   If you haven't heard the news, Agri-Business is again the number one sector of our state's economy.  No matter how bad the economic news is, we all need food, clothing, and shelter.  Agriculture supplies us with these basic requirements of life.  In this list I would even include the non-traditional forms of agriculture like ornamental production.  I didn't understand this until I heard Mr. Larry Weeks, the owner of Long Acre Nursery in Florence, say , "The nursery business is really inflation proof; when times get hard, people stay home and garden."  Add to this our basic need for beautiful surroundings, environmental concerns, and the demand for Certified SC grown - maybe these are some of the reasons why we had an excellent turn out for the Fall Flower Festival at the Pee Dee State Farmers Market.

    Agriculture is as varied, beautiful, and colorful as the fall colors in our forests.  In fact forest products are a major part of agriculture.  It may surprise many folks but trees are a major crop that can be intensely managed to provide us with a vast array of essentials from houses to food additives.  Once I had to give an agriculture tour for a group of six graders and one of our stops was centered on forest products - even I was surprised to learn that forest products are used as a food additive in ice cream.

     I love the fall colors including the oranges.  Sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, and mums brighten and add spice to our lives.  In fact, I would probably not be here if it were not for the lowly sweet potato.   After harvest, Daddy would bed our harvested sweet potatoes and all winter long we ate sweet potato after sweet potato after sweet potato.  It took a few years and a lot of maturing, but now I love sweet potatoes again.

    I have to be bipartisan to the colleges in SC - so I even love the reds.  The reds in apples, tomatoes, and peppers seem to be connected to great health benefits.  The Certified SC Grown Program is really helping to promote many traditional SC products. For instance, even with the high prices associated with mountain land, apples are still being grown in SC because consumers prefer local fruits and vegetables.

    Finally, the colors of fall are endless but I need to mention the greens.  Turnips, mustards, and collards are called "Greens" simply because they are green.  Greens can be grown in SC all winter long.  Green reminds us of growth, prosperity, and life.  I love greens because they broke the monotony of sweet potatoes and even in the coldest, darkest, and toughest times we had greens.  Even in the tough economic times we are presently going through remember - in SC we have greens and maybe hope even in the middle of winter.

Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to
people of all ages, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer. If you enjoy gardening and using flowers and plants in decorations, please watch Down Home with Tony and Amanda on Thursday nights at 8:00 pm on the SC Channel.  If you don't get that channel, you can go to www.mig.org <http://www.mig.org>.