Deep-Rooted Wisdom

February 3, 2014
With a relaxed, Southern charm evocative of lush greenery, muddy swamps, perfumy hedges, hidden lanes, and steamy backyard gatherings, Farmer, who farms crinum lilies and designs gardens, invites readers into his community of plants, people, and landscapes, gently urging readers to adopt old gardening ways and adapt them to 21st-century life. He covers trendy topics, such as layering functions, no-till gardening, building the soil web, saving seeds, and favoring hand tools and imperfections over machines and pesticides. Yet unlike many other authors in this genre whose roots are relatively recently planted, Farmer, who’s been digging, foraging, and planting since the third grade, consults old-timers in his neighborhood—especially his mother—and ventures further afield to glean advice from “fellow ‘dirt’ gardeners” about such diverse topics as rooting cuttings, the art of machete-wielding, and opening the senses in order to discover and work with the spirit of place. Although the practical advice may not be all-new to many dirt-diggers, garden clubbers and permies alike will find inspiration in Farmer’s gently, richly passionate stories of natural and cultural history embedded in gardens and the gardeners who create and inhabit them.

February 15, 2014

Farmer, who is part-owner and operator of LushLife Nursery in Columbia, SC, which specializes in growing Crinum (a subtropic genus of the amaryllis family), is also a garden designer and lecturer. Here he advocates going back to a simpler time in gardening and shares wisdom from the past, updated for today's gardener. His topics include stacking up (gardening with multipurpose plants), tilling, sowing pass-along plants, building soil, watering by hand, saving seeds, creating handmade garden structures, using hand tools, scavenging plants, controlling pests and weeds, and telling stories through gardens. Each chapter is divided into three parts: introducing a past commonplace and commonsense garden idea and sharing how it has become complicated over time; introducing people who have shared the old ways and their gardening techniques with him; and how he has updated these techniques for today's gardener. VERDICT Farmer's enthusiasm for sharing his and his mentors' knowledge shines through the text, and the color photographs are beautiful and useful. One reservation: he suggests composting animal products, including pets' waste, which most garden experts strongly discourage. While the general topics covered apply to all gardeners, many specific examples are for Southern gardeners, making the book most useful to them.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove P.L., IL

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2013
Many how-to gardening books these days are heavily slanted toward providing readers with state-of-the-art cultivation techniques, from seed selection and soil analysis to optimal planting times for every climate zone. For this refreshing, down-to-earth handbook of traditional gardening methods, South Carolina horticulture expert and organic flower grower Farmer takes another approach, offering a cornucopia of old-school wisdom from peers and mentors who often developed their plant-growing skills through trial and error. In 11 engaging chapters, complete with abundant illuminating photos, Farmer covers topics such as building fertile soils, preserving heirloom seeds, shaping gardens around handmade structures, and reviving essential but neglected hand tools. Each chapter describes a time-honored skill or idea, introduces people who have mentored Farmer in these older ways, and shows readers how these practices can be adapted for modern times. Together with the author's wry humor and overflowing enthusiasm for his chosen profession, this treasure trove of homespun botanical advice will remind growers why they fell in love with gardening in the first place.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)