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A Response to a Fellow Blogger

Category: gardens and old home renovation | Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:55 pm

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As a result of the couple of blogs I have penned, I got a response from a reader who is involved in a very creative undertaking involving gardening, and she asked me to clarify my thinking on the kind of things I'd like to do. Responding to that person has forced me to sharpen my focus a bit more, and what follows is what I sent that person. Thanks for letting me share.

This will likely be far more than you want to know, but it may be helpful is understanding where I am coming from and where it is I might want to go. For several years I have occasionally addressed the question of what I want to be when I grow up, or, to put it differently, what will I do when I retire? I have never answered those questions to my or anyone elses' satisfaction for reasons that only a therapist could untangle.

But now I am 64. And I have no interest in asking, as the Beatles did, will you still need me, will you still feed me....? Daily I get mail from Medicare and from Medicare supplement companies reminding me in no uncertain terms that I really am 64, a number which is always followed by 65, and thereafter, by ever higher numbers (if you're lucky). I suppose I ought to be grateful that I am not getting mail from the company that makes Depends. But I suppose that is only a matter of time.

I have quite a good job and after I retire, I can reasonably look forward to a decent lifestyle. But that's not the issue. The issue is that when I step down from my currrent role, what will I do that is meaningful to me, that makes a contribution to others, and that, at the end of the day, leaves me with a feeling that I am doing more than occupying space.

For more than 30 years, the one thing that has given me the greatest pleasure is developing a series of gardens. So, it has been a common theme for me to think in terms of doing something related to gardening as I enter what amounts to a new career. For a long time, I could not decide on that that "something" is, and even now it is too shapeless for me to give a definitive answer to the question, "what are you going to do after you retire?" But, at least I know the general direction where the answer to that question can be found.

In the meantime, another factor have entered the picture that influences my thinking. It is a factor I have raised in my blog- the restoration of old homes.

My interest is not just in seeing that gardens are more available for people to see, or that garden events are better publicized, or that resources for gardeners are better known, or that people involved in old home restorations share what they are doing and celebrate their successes- my interest is not in any one of those things. It is in all of those things. And a good bit more besides.

I cannot overstate the impact that reading the British version of Country Living magazine has had on my thinking and outlook. The mix of articles, subjects, art work, etc. that I find there speaks to me in a very meaningful way. My response is always to feel like "gee, I wish I had something like this, but telling me the same kinds of things concerning the Carolinas or all of the South."

I do not know whether I would have eventually started the blog you have seen. But I was prompted by a colleague in the PR business who suggested that to do so might be a good first step in deciding how to proceed with my interests. And I do think that is going to happen.

If there is something I am moderately good at, it is coming up with an idea and then turning that idea into some kind of reality. That was the case a few years back when I created a radio program on the South, and kept it on the air for five years. But if there is something I am not good at, it is turning my ideas and realities into some kind of cash flow. I am no entrepreneur, or, if I am, I haven't discovered it yet. Maybe I don't have to be. I could fulfill my vision without payback, but payback sure is a nice side benefit.

I like what I see you trying to do with your online magazine. I hadn't thought of trying something like that before, but it is an intriguing concept. I'd even like to do a TV program on gardens and old homes in the Carolinas. I'll just have to see. But by virtue of having connected with you and others on GardenStew, I am already ahead in my thinking, and new areas of thoughts already have opened up. thanks!!

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Open Them Garden Gates

Category: gardens and old home renovation | Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:07 pm

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Blog 3

Across the Carolinas, there must be dozens and perhaps hundreds of gardens that are in private hands, and that would make really fine places for gardeners to visit. I have read many times in various publications that information is made available to those living in Britain on when and where private gardens are open. This is done in convenient booklets for people to use throughout the year when planning day or weekend trips. I'd love to have something like that for the Carolinas or for all of the South..

A booklet like those I have read about presupposes that the owners of gardens are ready and willing to share their gardens with fellow gardeners. Sometimes a small charge is made for entrance into a garden, but other gardens are open free of charge. Finding gardeners willing to share their gardens, and then having a means of communicating that would require something of a cultural shift in the good ol' US of A. But it sure would be nice.

Once in awhile, I hear about a garden tour that is arranged to raise money for a charitable organization. Such tours so often are linked to a "tour of homes" which are certainly nice, and I'd hate to see them go away. But all too often the gardens that you see as part of a homes tour are really an afterthought and the real star of the tour are the interiors of those homes. Garden tours also tend to focus on the biggest, or the best being taken care of by a local lawn and garden maintenance company. Again, nothing wrong with such tours and they are certainly enjoyable, but I think that the world of interesting gardens is not just populated with big, professionally maintained gardens. That's a bit like the thinking which gives us tours focusing on just municipal, or university or corporate gardens. Enjoyable tours to be sure, but they only scratch the surface of what I suspect are the number of wonderful, albeit likely small gardens that individuals have created by the sweat of their gardening genius and maintained by their sweat of their brows.

I have heard and read repeatedly that gardening is the number one hobby in the United Sates. I take it as gospel that the gardens are out there. We have to find them. I also think it is a certainty that people- mostly but not confined to gardeners- would enjoy the opportunity to do some visiting, to see what others are doing and perhaps even to ask some questions of fellow garden owners about what they do and how they do it.

Through this blog, I'd like to urge gardeners to open their gardens from time to time, and to facilitate development of some communication piece that lets others know of when gardens are open. I'd also like, during my retiring but not reclining years, to create a program for public TV access channels where private gardens are visited, gardeners are interviewed, and the world of Southern gardening could begin to open up.

The fact that I have no television experience is no deterence. I one had no radio experience but went ahead and created a half-hour radio program on teh South called SouthernCurrents, and it aired for five years.

As a result of my first two blogs, I have gotten a few questions about subjects I have alreadt raised, and in my next blog, I will address those questions, as well as trying to add a picture of the 200-year old shack name Melrose.


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Melrose On My Mind

Category: gardens and old home renovation | Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 4:35 pm

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Melrose On My Mind

Awhile back, in the presidency of Garfield (the man, not the cat), I had a deep interest in history and really expected to follow that interest into the profession of teaching. But, because God has a sense of humor, he may be responsible for leading me first into journalism and then into public relations. So, while history was shunted into a drawer titled "awaiting another life," I did nothing of consequence with things historical in nature (though I admit to having done some things hysterical in nature).

I should first point out that in matters of family history, mine came primarily from Ireland and our likeliest greatest claim to fame would have been horse thieving, or finding ways to make whiskey undetected by the occupying British army. Marrying, as I did, into a family with deep North Carolina roots, especially in Eastern North Carolina, brought a certain slice of history front and center to me, and for many years, I enjoyed learning not only about the broad sweep of the state's history, but also a great deal about its deep cultural history, especially Eastern North Carolina culture. From the sidelines, I watched and learned the history that was opened to me, and contented myself with the idea that this history wasn't mine to chronicle or pass on to future generations through family stories. I was a spectator.

Two years ago, my wife died, and my being a spectator at someone else's historical drama ended. My wife had been an only child and an only grandchild. The history that had flowed over hundreds of years down the generational highways and alleyways had pooled at the feet of one woman, and out of nowhere, long before "her time," she died.

That's where Melrose comes in. It's a 200-year old antebellum home in the historic farming community of Murfreesboro, NC. It's an old house, but not in any way an ordinary old pile in the country. It looks as if it was taken from the set for Gone With the Wind , with great two-story columns rising from the front porch, topped by classical pediments, walls of brick 18-inches thick, wavy old glass, high ceilings, and a resident ghost whose acquaintance I do not care to make.

Had my wife lived, she would have happily spent the remainder of her life bringing Melrose back to life, for she was a talented interior designer and had the time and inclination to see the job was done right. It would have been a labor of love for her because she had wanted since she was a little girl to one day live in Melrose. One of her long-ago ancestors had owned Melrose, and my wife never lost sight of her interest in bringing Melrose back into the fold.

All of this means that Melrose is now on my dance card, which has not been an altogether unblemished blessing. Let me put it this way-- Melrose and I are not yet at the point where we'd be described as a "couple" along the lines of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.

From the outset of our relationship, I was intent on keeping things strictly platonic. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had only amounted to having a few drinks, a few laughs, and then a parting of the ways. After all, I knew from day-one that ours would be a challenging relationship. Melrose is AR (agro-rural); I'm SUSR (semi-urbo-suburbo-rural). Not even Dr. Phil can make ARs and SUSRs cohabitate successfully. Plus, Melrose is four hours from where I live and work. Not exactly easy commuting for a weekend tryst, assuming of course that I wanted Melrose for that reason. And, sad to say, Melrose is a bit dowdy. Hardly anything spoils a relationship more than dowdiness. It hasn't been updated in any serious way since the 1960s. Now, I remember the 1960s (in a hazy sort of way), and one thing I am sure of is this- it was a long time ago. 60's wallpaper. 60's bathroom and kitchen décor. The only thing missing was a bust of Timothy O'Leary, shag carpet and a refrigerator the color of avocado.

It wasn't long before I began feeling overwhelmed. This wasn't going to work out. I could feel it. I imagine it's a feeling lots of people have experienced when facing the job of learning to love and restore an old place.


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The bug that flicked me onto the blog

Category: gardens and old home renovation | Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:07 pm

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To begin somewhat closely approximating the beginning...

As I dive mouselong into this blog business, I look at two right-off-the-bat questions. Why am I doing this? And why would someone read it and respond? Fairly succinct, if I do say so. The answers likely won't be.

On the gardening side of this blog, I can say that I am a gardener with a nice garden who likes to talk gardening, likes sharing his garden with others, and likes enjoying the gardens others have created. I've been out and about this gardening business for nearly 40 years, and my interest in plants and such predates the actual start of digging, planting, backaches, liniments, etc.

But, as circumstances have dictated, I only recently came to own a nearly two-hundred year old home that looks like it was lifted from the pages of "Gone With The Wind." It is a wonderful old place in the rural wilds of peanut-draped Eastern North Carolina, but like anything else its age, it's a bit weepy in the rafters, somewhat crackie in the walls and decidedly creekie in the floor boards. It also is reputed to have its own resident ghost, about whom I know very little and about whom I could stand to know even less.

But being a gardener with a full fledged garden, and owning a ancient pile-in-the-country in need of renovations great and small are only a part of the bug that has flicked me onto the blog. To be totally truthful, which one normally should avoid at all cost, I have a growing need to talk with others about these things and, if nothing else, to make myself more aware of what others are doing and thinking along these lines. If others enjoy that same benefit, it'll be pinto beans and collards for New Years.

It has been an interesting trip to an understanding of the need that I mention above. I begin with an admission that will likely stab my Irish maternal great grandfather to the marrow (assuming someone who has passed over minds being stabbed or has marrow for that matter), I must confess to being an Anglophile. Second, I am a closet Southern nationalist and fanatic, meaning that whenever the feeling overwhelms me, I go into the nearest closet to hum a few bars of 'Dixie' and to salute a picture of Robert E. Lee found on an antique fan I bought in Newbern, NC Indeed, the name of this blog, Southern Currents, is the same I gave to a radio program I had for five years in which I traveled via radio signal from one end of the south to the other,.

Because I am an Anglophile, I have for many years read a magazine titled Country Living (the English version, not the American model). If you have read Country Living, you already know that it promotes the English countryside in all of its manifestations, including gardens and old homes. The fact that it goes on to address such topics as the environment and saving small English villages, and that it features individuals and families who are moving to more rural settings, thereby simplifying their lives and making valuable contributions to rural life–all of that and much more only makes me love the magazine. But when I read the articles each month, it also makes me ask "why not here?" Why are we not doing something like this?


When I read stories that put the spotlight on wonderful, almost always private and therefore less well known gardens, when I see people lauded for successfully starting small businesses in smaller towns and villages, increasingly I ask myself why do we not do something similar? Why we do not celebrate such things here in the South. No doubt, other regions of our country have so much to celebrate as well. But someone who is a self-described Dixie humming, R. E. Lee saluting fellow and who knows the difference between the Confederacy's battle flag and the Confederacy's 1st National Flag (now gracing the front bumper of my Mini Cooper), I'm best advised to keep my focus on the hominy and fatback side of the Mason and Dixon Line.

In my next outing, I'll let forth some thoughts on why renovation of old homes and SouthernCurrents go together



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