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.

This is my favorite country meal time of year.  My mouth waters just thinking about Mama scratching around those Irish potato plants to get enough red and golden jewels to boil a pot.  The skins were easy to remove with that special potato scraping do-hicky (Mama had - I think since the beginning of time) so we wouldn’t have to waste any with the peels.  Then she would cover them with water, plop in a whole stick of butter, and boil them until they started to fall apart which made what we called the pot liquor thick with the potato starch.  http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1638,131181-252199,00.html

While they were boiling she would have me slice the squash, mince the scallions, and coat them with a thin layer of cornmeal.  After heating the oil in the fry pan, she gently rolled this glorious mixture into the hot grease --   I can still remember the sizzle  By the way, today for health purposes, I leave out the cornmeal.  Then, I helped by slicing an entire fresh cabbage, nothing was wasted --  I would even eat the raw core.  Again she would heat oil but this time in a deep pot and sizzle the cabbage – what we called frying the cabbage – before adding water to boil.  

            After grabbing a piece of Mama’s pan-fried chicken (if only the Colonel knew how to cook chicken that good), a handful of Mama’s hot biscuits, and a fresh scallion, I would sit down and totally lose myself in a country-boy’s heaven.   

            Yesterday, I got, as Mama would say, “a mess” of new potatoes, squash, and scallions from a local farmer and  now I am waiting for enough time to fix and enjoy my slice of heaven – how did Mama and Daddy ever have enough time to grow and fix enough to feed all nine of us kids.   Today I am thankful for Certified SC Grown – Nothing Fresher Nothing Finer.  We have an abundance of great SC farmers ready to provide us with the freshest locally grown produce. It’s simple  -- always look for the Certified SC Grown sign and ask, “Is this locally grown?” when you are buying produce.   Also, we now have a new website called SC MarketMaker (www.scmarketmaker.com) that connects folks interested in the SC food supply chain. http://sc.marketmaker.uiuc.edu/index.php

The Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political belief, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer. http://www.clemson.edu/extension/

   It is Palm Sunday a time for triumphant entrances and I am ready to make one into my vegetable garden.  It has been a cold, dark, nasty winter and frankly I have done a pitiful job on my winter garden. In fact, the only winter garden I have is a late planted demonstration garden at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center, my home garden is bare except for (of course) the occasional weed.  I don’t know about you but I need a “gardening pick-me-up.”

   Hallelujah, next week is Easter the traditional start of the gardening season.   Call it natural, spiritual or whatever.  Easter is thought of as a new beginning - the beginning of spring, the beginning of growth, the beginning of life, and etc.  It seems to be indwelt into our nature that nothing is planted until Easter.  I guess this is why the Spring Flower Festival at the Pee Dee Farmers Market is always the week following Easter (April 16-19 this year) and draws some 50,000 people each year.

   In some instances, planting at Easter is beneficial.  First, in most years the threat of frost is generally past because our average last frost date is April 1st.  Next, planting early in the spring is very beneficial in South Carolina.  It gets very hot quickly.  Spring must be one of the few things unionized in S.C because many years it goes on strike and we head straight into summer.  Plants started early have a better chance of developing properly before it gets real hot.  Finally, insects and disease problems are generally not as bad when you plant early.  Most insect and disease problems tend to build and get worse throughout the summer.  As summer progresses cornearworms, pickleworms, aphids, whiteflies, etc. are worse.  Diseases like early blight, viruses, fungal leafspots, etc. increase.  However, there are some noted exceptions to this generality.

   In some instances, Easter is not the optimum time to plant. First of all, most trees, shrubs, and perennials do better if planted in the fall.  Fall planting allows these plants to develop an adequate root system to stand heat the next summer.   Next, cool season vegetables and ornamentals need to be planted in the fall or much earlier in the spring.  One lady called about how she could keep her snapdragons and pansies from dying in the summer; however, since they are cool- season annuals this is natural.  Finally, some plants do better if planted later when the soil is warm for the seed to germinate properly, including okra, peanuts, cotton, and etc.

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

This past week I did a garden club talk at a residence next door to the nursing home where my Mama lived prior to her death. Lord, I miss my Mama.  If was difficult, but as I spoke, I peered out the windows of this older home with its mature yard and stately old plants and reminisced about Mama’s yard.
Mama’s yard had a tough as nails Bermuda grass lawn which I remember as being almost as tough as nails to mow.  Unlike her mother, who had a wonderful swept lawn that exhibited the beauty of the sandy soil of McBee and glistened like diamonds in the sunlight, Mama’s yard had a lawn that was green and lush except when the sky withheld its rain.
Mama’s yard had many wonderful tried and true plants that are still the foundations of southern gardens today.  With all the new types of plants and varieties on the market today, we have a tendency to forget these trustworthy plants that will withstand our abusive summers.
Mama’s yard was filled with Abelias.  Abelia is a wonderful evergreen plant that flowers and flowers and attracts bees and then more bees.   Today we have wonderful dwarf cultivars, but the old standard was practically carefree with only a little pruning to keep it within bounds.
Mama’s yard was accented by the lowly Flowering Almond. Almost forgotten today, this low growing deciduous shrub is covered with beautiful pink flowers in early spring.  This plant deserves to be revived, and some local nurserymen are carrying it again.
Mama’s yard had Crinium Lilies growing in the foundation planting.  Today even small bulbs sell for extraordinary amounts of money.  Mama had two large clumps clustered on either side of the front door.  I forgot to save these beauties when we demolished the old home place, but a master gardener gave me a prized bulb at last year’s Southern Plant & Flower Festival so now I have that plant growing in my garden.   
Mama’s yard was awakened in the spring by Pearlbush, Redbud, and Flowering Quince.  Getting its name from the pearl-like buds that appear in early spring, in my opinion Pearlbush is really a pearl.  One of the first plants to flower in the spring, this tall, open shrub has a tendency to awaken bees and people from their winter rest.  Redbud, or what my dad called  Judas Tree, is a short-lived, small, early flowering tree that has made a comeback in today’s landscape.  Many new varieties and flower and foliage colors are available today.  Flowering Quince is another early blooming, bee- attracting, medium-sized shrub that wakes us up in the spring.  This plant deserves to be in the background planting of all gardens.
The center spectacle of Mama’s yard was a purple fountain of Wisteria.  Today many people are afraid to plant this invasive, early flowering vine.  However, my mother’s technique of maintaining it as a medium-sized shrub will keep it in bounds.  Just plant wisteria away from other and where you can mow all around it, prune it into a shrub form, and you can still enjoy its  blossoms without having to worry that it will take over your yard.
Mama’s yard was really thrifty and covered with Thrift.  This wonderful, spring flowering, creeping phlox is one of the toughest plants in the garden.  In May the old standard variety was covered with pink flowers but many variations in color are available today.  On ditch banks and dry spots where nothing else will grow, Thrift will flourish.
Finally, I must not forget the Azaleas, Cherry Laurels, Weigelas, Spireas, and many different Magnolias that glorified Mama’s yard. 

In my memory I will always love and enjoy strolling through Mama’s garden, and I know that she is resting in the greatest garden of all.

   One of my fondest childhood memories is going "Garden Getting" with my dad.    Daddy loved to garden and always had a gleam in his eye when we went searching for those plants, seeds, and tools to make our garden successful enough to feed us nine kids.  Our first trek on this important journey, made about this time of year, would be to buy supplies for our spring garden which not only supplied us with sustenance but lifted us out of the gloom and monotony of winter. McBee High School was the first stop where we bought vegetable transplants from Mr. E. B. Earle, our local agricultural education (ag-ed) teacher.  Mr. Earle is still living and is a legend in the McBee area.  I clearly remember pulling transplants out of Mr. Earle's make-shift hotbeds made from light-poles covered with plastic and heated with strings of light bulbs.  Today his son Pat continues his father's work in McBee, as he has taken over the reins as the ag-ed teacher. Pat, too, grows excellent transplants; however, he utilizes modern greenhouses and growing techniques.  Many ag-ed teachers all over the state have similar programs that not only supply excellent transplants to gardeners but also are excellent teaching tools for their students. Next, we would visit the hardware store in McBee.  Back then the local stores, although, small, carried as much merchandise as possible to keep the community functioning. Many times they would have that one item you needed to complete a job.  McBee doesn't have a hardware store at the present, but many local communities do.  In fact, for many years my son helped manage a hardware store in Bethune.  With the high price of gas today, these stores are returning as a part of the life blood of these small communities.

   Finally, we would head to Hartsville (the big city) and visit our local feed-and-seed establishment which I called the "Checkerboard Store" because of the checkerboard painted on its side advertising dog food.  If I close my eyes and think back, I can still smell the pungent onions and the musky potatoes, hear the seeds rustling as they are poured into sacks, and see Daddy smiling as he bought his brand-new version of the Farmer's Almanac.

   To learn more about decorating, gardening and country living watch both of our Emmy Award winning TV programs, Making It Grow (MIG) and Down Home with Tony and Amanda.  MIG can be seen at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday nights on regular ETV.  However, at present Down Home can be seen on digital cable and some satellite systems on the SC Channel (channel 802 on Time Warner Cable).  Also, you can view both programs on the web at www.mig.org. The Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service
offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political belief, sexual orientation, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity
employer.