For the past 26 years I, Gail Barton, a self professed flower fool, have been teaching Horticulture
I consider myself fortunate to have collected a monthly check for doing something that I enjoy. My salary has made it possible for me to buy the land that I love.
But I’m afraid that I’ve forgotten how to be a gardener.
Teaching about gardening in a public facility is entirely different from gardening on my own land.
During my tenure I’ve felt it necessary to stay in the closet. I’ve never worn my real gardening clothes to work. I’ve tallied the grades, calculated the percent of achievers I’ve produced. I’ve daydreamed of blossoms and bugs and dappled sunlight through many a faculty meeting
I have been a gardener of sorts when time permitted – a part timer.
I’ve been a hit it hard on the holidaze gardener
I’ve panicked at times to realize that I never got around to standing underneath the wild azaleas and breathing and now they’re gone for another year.
So what do I want to do when I retire? I hope to become what I should have been all along – a gardener on my own land.
I want to finish projects, clear land, harvest veggies, pick flowers.
But mostly, I want to wander through my garden every day possible without thought or purpose.
Just gazing and inhaling the scented air.
I will be accompanied, of course, by a pack of happy dogs.

McLane Reel mowers are the top of the line mowers as far as home mowing goes. It would be hard to make your lawn look any better than you could with a McLane walk behind mower. A McLane 10 blade reel mower will make you lawn look like a carpet. The local golf course would not look any better.

Go Green in the bedroom. Bamboo Sheets are some of the nicest sheets I have ever used. So you can have some great sheets and take care of the environment all the same.

Before my husband and I can turn our basement into a fun game room, complete with a pool table, 50 inch plasma TV, and a wet bar, we must get rid of the boxes that have been collecting dust since we moved in 5 years ago. One of the boxes is clearly marked Georgia Bulldog clothing and I doubt there is anything in that box I’m willing to part with. I have so many awesome memories of my years at the University of Georgia. Not the least of which is meeting my beloved on my first day of orientation my freshman year.

I was wandering through the Georgia Bulldogs store checking out the clothing and merchandise. I was tyring to decide if I wanted to buy a grandstand polo shirt to send to my mother when this obnoxious boy bumped into me, nearly knocking me to the floor. I was irritated until I looked into his crystal blue eyes. I could not be angry at anyone with eyes as beautiful as his. When I saw that he was wearing Ole Miss clothing, I started laughing. Was he seriously sporting clothes for another school? I decided then that he was either very brave or very stupid. But then he told me that his high school sweetie gave it to him before they went their separate ways. And he gave her a Georgia Dawgs shirt. A little mushy even for this girly girl. At the same time, I figured he must be quite a catch if he was willing to admit he was taken by a girl in another state. Lucky for me, she found someone else that year and Iw as there to help mend his broken heart. And we’ve been together ever since.

I’m thinking rather than giveaway whatever is in that UGA box, we should use it to decorate our game room. I’d even hang the Ole Miss shirt as a reminder of the day we met!

I am beside myself trying to find plants to put in a brick flower bed. The flower bed was built with the house, in 1973, when we were 24 and built this house. I am now at the point of planting something lush, and perrenial, and not much maintenence. I see these split leaf plants in yards all around here in southeast Louisiana, zone 9, but don’t know what they are called. My bed is about 20 inches deep, and L shaped, about 10 x 6. It is 20 inches deep. What can I plant that will look good and not die out in winter completely? The 6 foot area is along the front porch and not against a wall. The 10 ft is against the brick. The bed faces the ENE.
Thanks if you can help. Jeanette from Louisiana

This weekend the Mississippi Native Plant Society will meet in Oxford, Mississippi. Registration will begin at 9:30 at the Oxford Public Library on Saturday 10/27/07. E-mail me at gail@gailbarton.com for details.

I am by no means a purist, but I do love native plants and I would guess that at least half the plant materials in my garden are native. When I first began to learn native plants, Caroline Dormon’s books were among my best resources. Caroline Dormon wrote Wildflowers Native to the Deep South and Natives Preferred. She was a very talented artist who illustrated all her own books with watercolors and line drawings. She also illustrated Elizabeth Lawrence’s Gardens in Winter.

After Miss Dormon passed in the ’60’s, her friends purchased her home and land near Saline, Louisiana. They established a foundation and turned the property into a nature preserve. Briarwood is managed by Richard and Jessie Johnson. The Johnsons live on the site. Richard grew up working odd jobs around Miss Dormon’s garden and knew her very well. He and Jessie are kind and wonderful people who tell great stories about Miss Dormon.

I am surprised by how few people have visited Briarwood. To plan your road trip, go to the Briarwood web site at http://www.cp-tel.net/dormon/

A few months after Hurricane Katrina, I had the bright idea to use some of the refuse wood to grow shitake mushrooms.

I did some research and found that I had plenty of the right type (hardwood oak, sweetgum, etc.), age (recently fallen) and size wood.  All the fallen wood that I wanted to use was in a good shady growing area with a source of water nearby.

I ordered the spores or spawn from www.fungiperfecti.com and they arrived incorporated into short wooden dowels. I drilled holes in the logs and tapped the dowels into the holes with a hammer.   Then I just left the logs alone.  Over the past couple of years, whenever the weather begins to get cool and we have a little rain, I harvest a bumper crop.  I gathered my biggest crop ever last week.  It is pictured here.  If I were more efficient, I could soak logs overnight and force a “bloom” of mushrooms more often.

Meanwhile we’ve given tons of mushrooms away to our friends.  Richard has cooked many wonderful meals including a righteous mushroom gravy with mashed potatoes a couple of nights ago.

Confederate roses are actually large hibiscus relatives that bloom in fall.

The normal form in my part of the state is the pink one pictured here. Notice the bumble bee dozing inside the flower.

I also have one that opens white and turns pink as the flower matures. This is quite appropriate since the Latin name for confederate rose is Hibiscus mutabilis which probably means mutating hibiscus.

These old fashioned flowes are definitely passalongs. In early winter, the cane-like stalks are cut to the ground. Most folks save a few, often in the garage in a bucket of water. Roots form in this frost-free area by spring and new starts can be shared with friends.

When this imposing perennial is in bloom, it can reach a height of 10 feet or more and be covered with dozens of flowers. It’s a traffic stopper!

This weekend I drove from Meridian to West Point down Highway 45. I saw large stands of narrowleaf sunflower all along the highway near Lauderdale. I also hear through the grapevine that Dr. Dirt’s majestic sunflower display is in full swing. For details about visiting Dr. Dirt’s garden in Edwards, Mississippi, check out his new soon to be website at www.dirtsgarden.com

Every year I optimistically plant a vegetable garden. I spend too much money on the seed and get to busy to do the high maintenance weeding required. I make a few harvests and then the garden ends up as a weed patch. Still - it is very satisfying to eat those $10.00 tomatoes and $5.00 peppers.

I have an ongoing argument with my husband Richard. He believes that a vegetable garden should only contain edibles. I always have to stick a few flowers in. I planted a row of zinnias in my vegetable garden last April. Now that the tomatoes have declined and the garden is full of weeds, I am still harvesting zinnias for my flower arrangements.

The varieties I chose were ‘Benary’s Giant’ which comes in mixed colors and ‘Envy’, a green zinnia. A lovely orange zinnia from the mix is pictured here.

They say that flowers are food for the soul. At this point the zinnias are the only food coming from my garden!