Volunteers bring Doug Tallamy to Polk County—and start a movement
Excerpt from an article originally published on the front page of The Hendersonville Times…
“I’ve been a gardener forever,” says Donna Wise. She grew up in a family of gardeners in South Carolina. They grew plants for food and beauty and they would travel to see picturesque gardens in Charleston and other places. Now in her 80s, Donna says, “I’ve always liked a perfect garden—you know, pine needles, structure, mastery. And my gardens have been on home tours. So, I thought I was doing it right.”
Donna Wise at her home. Photo by Corrie Woods.
Then, her friends at the Congregational Church in Tryon convinced her to join a webinar with the author Doug Tallamy. There was supposed to be some connection to the church’s justice work—gardening as care for the Earth. Donna felt like she had a pretty good handle on gardening and didn’t need to hear from some entomologist—a scientist who studies bugs.
“When I heard him, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, how much I don’t know!’ Which also makes me think how much I don’t know about many other things,” she says. “It was absolutely a life changing experience. I got off the Zoom meeting and I said, ‘He’s coming to Tryon.’ And people just said, ‘Yeah, sure.’” …
Read the entire article written by Rose Jenkins for Conserving Carolina’s Stories of the Land series.
Rose provides details on how the Gardening for Life Project began with that one idea to bring Doug Tallamy to town. In addition, she introduces you to our founding Leadership Team and she describes how one idea has blossomed into a full blown community initiative called the Gardening for Life Celebration, happening March 4th.
Learn more:
Conserving Carolina is a lead community Partner, Exhibitor and collaborator.
See feature on GFLP Leadership Team Member Corrie Woods and her images from a native plant gardening, including samples of her trail camera videos.
