I have something to say with plants.

The way I put plants together, feed them, layer them, let them fall and flow; it’s all about saying that plants and nature hold their own beauty, majesty and life force. I hope my gardening helps other people see the auras that I see. But, I have something to learn from, to absorb from plants too. I never know what that is…until I get it.

I have something to say, yet the media and the GOP is in South Carolina this week looking under every log and on the porches of every cracker-breakfast place to find a haranguer with a crazy accent and a deer on his hood.

Should I stay away from all that? Is gardening political? Recently, someone asked me to join a study group on the ethics of gardening. I declined. It’s serious, gardening can be politically charged, especially for someone like me who runs a business, it can be ethically challenging and I think all of that is worth examining—personally.

But all of that, all the administration and sales pitches and contracts, is not why I garden. In fact, I’ve left jobs and just recently turned down a client who insist on too much of those processes. I just want to see the dirt.

Winter Garden Chores for Plants

Here’s what I’m out there doing on these sparkling winter days:

1. Pruning: did some summer flowering shrubs like Confederate Rose & light work on Japanese Maples.

2. Seeding In: No, its not too late. Ive recently seeded in a giant new project, an Italian Villa where goats will cut the grass, larkspur, flax and poppies.

3. Planting Perennials: From the nursery, Ligularia, Eucomis Sparkling Burgundy, Artemesia, Bletilla, Salvia Jenks Farmer (!) and from divisions in the garden Hemerocallis Autumn Mineret, Artemesia ludoviciana, Aster Fannys Aster and my favorite and the really rare, blue spring flowering Adenophora lilliofolia which I put with spring flowering Crinum bulbispermum.

4. And, Im really excited about this border we just put in Augusta — Salvia Jenks Farmer, Georgia Collards, Allium christophii, Gaura Siskiyou Pink and Eucomis Sparkling Burgundy.

5. Cut back — so much. You can cut back any summer perennial now. Even, the sub tropicals like salvias, cyperus and crinum.

6. Compost — I top all my crinum and many other perennial beds with organic compost. There is heat and warmth in compost, especially, if you have great, fresh stuff.

Besides that gardening stuff, I’m cooking! Well, trying to figure out how to make a cocktail from Crinum Tea (from Vietnam). We’re going to have a Crinum Cocktail Party this summer — If youre not, join our email list, and youll get an invitation. We send out once an month with a few little tips as well as dates that you can visit our little country farm.
www. jenksfarmer.com