It’s a Wrap for the Year with GardenSmart

Last time I sat down to work on the book was a week ago. It seems like months. Now, it’s Saturday morning and too early to get up on a weekend. It’s down to merciless writing at this point. Every hour counts (as it did before), but with the deadline looming and much to do, there’s no time to spare. I hope you’ll forgive the infrequent blog entries in the meantime, as I focus on the book writing.

Last night, I returned home from a long week on the road. GardenSmart wrapped up the season for this year, as we taped three shows in Charleston, South Carolina. I recently saw that Charleston was named the third most popular city to visit in America, and I can see why. There’s plenty of history, some amazing buildings, and lots of great gardens. In fact, Charleston has quite a horticultural history, boasting Charles Audubon as one of its earliest residents.

On day one, we featured the Charleston Garden Festival, an outdoor event featuring designs from some of the top landscape architects and designers in the area. Organizers invite top national gardening speakers and create quite an event. The festival is held on the grounds of Middleton Place, a historic and former rice plantation that dates back to the early 1700’s. The gardens and views of the river are amazing, and October is the best time to visit.

We taped our third show there, as well, and focused on the grounds and gardens themselves. Middleton Place even holds claim to having the oldest formal landscape garden in America.

The second show was taped just down the road at Magnolia Plantation. If you like camellias and history, this is the place for you. Magnolia Plantation recently hired Tom Johnson, one of the top camellia experts in the country to restore the gardens to the showplace it was. This is one of the most photographed gardens in the south, and the gardens in winter are prime time.

That’s the lowdown from last week. Time to wrap this up, so I can get back to the book.