Greetings from the southernmost member of this squad! I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech and Director of the Hahn Horticulture Garden, our fabulous 6-acre teaching and display garden on campus. Blacksburg is in the Blue Ridge mountains of southwest Virginia, USDA Zone 6-ish, elevation of 2,080 feet. I teach Herbaceous Landscape Plants, Greenhouse Management, Floriculture, and a Public Gardens course. My research focuses on nursery and greenhouse production of perennials. In both sharing my research and in learning what’s new and improved, I interact extensively with the state and regional green industry – growers, plant breeders, landscapers, and garden centers. I love the business side of things – and am a rabid plant shopper, so this works out well!
I’m originally an Army brat but spent most of my formative years (the 80’s and 90’s) in Athens, Ga. My B.S. (Agricultural Economics) and M.S. (Horticulture) are from the University of Georgia, and my Ph.D (Horticulture) is from North Carolina State University. So lotsa Zone 7 experience under my belt.
Professional credentials aside, I guess I would describe myself as a card-carrying plant dork (actually, I’m just a dork, period). Love, love, LOVE to garden, whether at work or at home. My partner and I have a 19-acre farm stuck on the side of mountain – we have four acres of u-pick blueberries along with Christmas trees, honey bees, chickens, a small greenhouse, veg gardens, and lots and lots of ornamentals, of course. Just in case you were wondering where I was coming from. I’m so pleased to be working with such talented and clever folks on this blog!
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Dynamite picture of you 🙂
You are not a dork and never have been! You are super cool!
Holly ~ I volunteer at the Georgia State Botanical Garden, which is the Crown Jewel of Athens! Never gardened until now & have learned so much at SBG. Do you ever return to give a talk in Athens? Hugs ~ Moms aka Eve
Once and for all, you gotta be Tia an orginal
Holly,
I just found this link. Also have a homestead on a mountain, nearby. Our family bought 62 acres in Appalachia’s North Carolina. Excited to read some of your post as you have some experience here. Planting huge garden in upper meadow that had tobacco years ago and nature had reclaimed for 15 years. Mostly overgrown my son had cut by hand area for garden in November before 1st freeze. We had a lot of moisture and snow so the ground is still soaked with moss on rocks all over the stream. We have rotated 32 chickens over all garden areas to eat all the clover and some top worms moved some larger rocks and branches. Let’s the chickens be chickens for 2-3 weeks in each area. The rain and snow has kept the ground like a sponge. We are experimenting using cardboard in one area and forest mulch in the rest of the garden. We would love to help with any comparative study if you let me know what data you would be interested in.
Thanks for the great work and study,
Amy