Author: Alice Massey

Football and hurricanes are taking center stage again; that’s how you know it is fall in the Lowcountry. The Friday night lights are ablaze in every small town and the rest of the time all eyes and ears are glued to the weather channel. As I write this we are once again waiting to see where Hurricane Florence is headed.

Recently a gardening friend adopted a new golden retriever puppy. Adorable as this sweet thing is, she is a digger and has already torn up several formerly lovely garden beds. She is fast; turn your back for a minute and she creates horticultural havoc, smiling as only golden retrievers can and wagging her tiny tail.  

Well, I promise I won’t dither on any more about winter damage in the garden. Dealing with it is hard enough. However, that seemed to be the topic of conversation at every garden I visited last week.

It was time for a final clean up in the garden. For the past two months I have been doing snippets here and there like trimming a stray branch or perennials I was pretty sure would return after our endless winter of 2018.

I am such a sucker for gardening symposiums. If the logistics can be worked out, I’m there. Earlier this year I traveled to Greenville to listen to forecasts of the latest and greatest plant material. Turns out the new darlings of the garden centers will be dwarf plant material.

Remember that show, A Gardener’s Journal, on television? It was by far my favorite TV program on gardening; naturally HGTV took it off the air. Except for a few good PBS programs run by individual states that are only aired in the home states there is a dearth of good televised information for gardeners.

There was a time when almost every house had indoor plants. Homes have always been adorned with...

Despite recent weather related onslaughts, October will always be my favorite month to be working in the garden. Hummingbirds and butterflies are providing plenty of fleeting color, and did I just feel a slight breeze? Yes, I think so. It is the time of year to say Ahhhhh.

Honestly, I thought I would be whining about all the rain we have been having this month; it has made it difficult to get out and dig. The soft soil has made it easy to pull weeds but it has been too muddy to even do that. Then I looked out the window and saw how unbelievably beautiful the marsh is right now.

Gardeners are a hearty lot. We have to be. Nothing is ever finished in a garden; change is constant, inevitable and often frustrating. One never has control over the plants, or enemies of the plants, yet we persevere, stumbling along and smiling when that perfect rose opens or tomato ripens. It is the process that holds us and keeps us out there doing foolish things like trying to grow plants not zoned for this area and always finding a spot for just one more. Well, that’s my problem anyhow.