A Time to Plant: Southern-Style Garden Living

by James T. Farmer

Overview

A VITAL YOUNG VOICE IN THE GARDENING SCENE teaches a new generation of Southerners to love gardening and to make it a focal point of their lifestyle. James teaches respect for the age-old rules of flower and vegetable gardening in the Deep South (e.g., May is the time for pruning), in a fresh voice that resonates love of life and entertaining at home. Also included are delicious recipes for seasonal meals, as well as suggestions for floral arrangements and centerpieces.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423623465
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	08/01/2011
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	431,380
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

James Farmer Designs was launched in 2005, a small design firm specializing in residential landscape design, floral design, and interiors. James's work has been featured in Traditional Home, Southern Living, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and The Private Gardens of Georgia. He lives in Kathleen, Georgia, and has a storefront in Montgomery, Alabama.

Read an Excerpt

If you learn nothing else about pruning, remember the May Rule. This rule applies to the Deep South as well as to broad sections of the country. If the shrub blooms BEFORE May, then prune the plant immediately after the shrub has bloomed, or while it’s blooming, to bring the blossoms inside for arrangements and enjoyment. This rule bodes well for azaleas, spring-blooming spireas, forsythia, camellias and sasanquas, quince, dogwood, red bud, Japanese magnolia, tea olive, winter daphne, English dogwood, and other “blooms before May” shrubs (early spring bloomers in general). In the Deep South, our “month” of May can start in March and end in May proper, so the quintessential early spring bloomers are those to keep in mind for this section of the rule.

If the shrub blooms AFTER May, prune the plant during dormancy, or in wintertime. This goes for hydrangeas (except Oak Leaf: prune those immediately after blooming or during bloom for arrangements), crape myrtles, vitex, roses, althea, grapes (prune on the coldest day of the year), Confederate rose, pyracantha, liriope and small fruit trees.

Table of Contents

9 Foreword

15 Introduction

19 A Time to ...

22 A Time to Make a Plan

25 A Room with a View

26 A Time to Prune: The May Rule

29 A Time to Edge: Crown Molding for the Garden

30 Green: Nature’s Neutral

35 A Highlight on Hydrangeas

38 Meet LEONA, A Profusion of Blooms for Months

39 Drying Hydrangeas

41 Remember the “Hydra” in Hydrangea

44 Wardrobe Change for Hydrangeas

44 A Time to Cut and Arrange

49 Powerhouse Perennials

52 Plants with a Past

53 A Time for Peace: Companions in the Garden

54 Consider the Lilies

57 A Time to Plant

60 Points on Perennials

63 “Herban” Gardening

66 You Are What You Eat

69 Bouquet Garnis

73 A Time for Tea

77 A Time for Color

80 A Tone-on-Tone Scheme

84 Annual Color

88 A Few Color Tips

91 Inspiration

93 A Time for Pansies

97 A Time to Harvest and Eat

97 Peaches and Blackberries–

106 Savory Crops

113 Garden Living for Each Season

114 A Wintertime Menu

118 A Springtime Menu

126 A Summertime Menu

136 An Autumnal Meal

149 Entertaining with Garden Style

152 A Time for Garden Giving

154 Entertaining in the Garden

157 Appealing to the Senses

163 The Social Gardener: A Time to Embrace

165 Here Comes the Bride: A Time to Wed

176 A Time to Build Up: Dinnerware and Centerpieces

181 A Time to Gather: Collecting and Stockpiling Your Storeroom

182 A Time to Think Outside the Vase

188 A Time for Setting Your Standard of Garden Living

190 Resources

Editorial Reviews

Georgia's James T. Farmer III keeping state 'in the news' and moms 'in the know'

On Saturday, May 11, just one day before Mother's Day, James T. Farmer III was nowhere near North Georgia, but the acclaimed author, gardener, floral and interior designer—who also happens to be a cook and table-to-garden lifestyle expert—was still influencing moms there that day. In fact, he was influencing two moms, and he didn't even know it.

As the Douglasville Patch was reporting on Saturday that the upcoming Hydrangea Festival in Georgia was just around the corner, the Atlanta Top News Examiner and her mother were making their way through an estate sale looking for the perfect hydrangea vase to use for Mother's Day.

Hydrangeas just happen to be one of the favorite flowers of James Farmer, who says in his A Time to Plant book that when it comes to flowers, "there is hardly another family of flowers that can be cut, dried, arranged and enjoyed more than the hydrangea clan."

This Atlanta writer's mother would agree with him, which is why she was insisting on displaying her blue, purple and green blossoms for her Mother's Day lunch guests on Sunday. But she needed the right vase for them, and she found it.

When it comes to hydrangeas and the right vase to use for them, James Farmer might be something of an expert. However, it appears from the attention he is receiving in the media that he knows a lot more than how to grow, display and arrange hydrangeas.

In fact, so far in 2013 the Georgia boy has published another book (his fifth), titled A Time to Cook, he has appeared on Paula Deen's "Paula's Best Dishes," which aired in April on The Food Network, and—in advance of Mother's Day—he was asked to offer Mother's Day table tips to WAGA-TV viewers on Fox 5's "Good Day Atlanta." And the year isn't even half over yet.

If you didn't watch Farmer's Fox 5 appearance you might be interested to learn that he used hydrangea flowers in his floral bouquet for his Mother's Day table decor example. So mom feels vindicated in her own choice!

Next up for the savvy seasonal lifestyle expert is a presentation at the Magnolia Springs Garden Club luncheon one week away, on Tues., May 21, at 11:30 a.m.

The editor-at-large for Southern Living magazine will be talking about A Time to Plant at the one-day event in Alabama, but the garden club will also hold a book signing afterward, so guests can also purchase A Time to Cook books, which he will be glad to sign as well.

Examiner.com - Smith Radell