 WEB.jpg?itok=qdVzbtxF)
We gardeners manage to put plants in all sorts of challenging situations and expect them to perform well; four sites really stand out.
 (1) WEB.jpg?itok=vDKjTEZS)
What do you think the most popular passalong garden plant might be, world-wide?
I’ll give you a minute to think about it. But I’m not asking which one is sold the most, the one that people buy every year to plant, like tomatoes or marigolds. I’m wondering about the one most propagated and shared between gardeners.
 WEB.jpg?itok=AuCRdYH7)
Playing in the garden nurtures something that a lot of us have abandoned a long time ago: our inner child.
Think about it. Kids are okay with coloring exuberantly outside the lines. When do we stop?
Forget the snooty debates over “crape murder” pruning; it’s a moot point now. We got a real problem.
In my lifetime, a fast-spreading insect wiped out most of America’s elm trees, and a leafspot disease ruined millions of red Photinias. And nothing we threw at either helped much at all.
I got into a smackdown with an older, more experienced gardener over who grows the tastiest tomatoes. And I got owned. Totally owned.
A little background: Close gardening friends gauge my horticultural skills on tomatoes.
65 years ago, July 22, 1954
Whacking overgrown shrubs back hard, like changing diapers, needs doing occasionally and can be worrisome the first time. But it usually works out fine.
And it doesn’t harm plants. Ever see where a drunk driver ran over hapless crape myrtles, and the plants sprouted right back out and bloomed just fine?
65 years ago, July 15, 1954
Caption: In this photo from 20 years ago, June 26, 1999 12 basketball standouts from Marion County, seven from Columbia Academy and five from West Marion High School, attended the 1999 Pearl River Community College basketball camp.
Following their mechanic father, Magees do the work themselves
Darrel and Wesley Magee are brothers by blood and in the world of classic cars.
