When to prune or not to prune: Ewing shares tips with Garden Club
Special to The Clinton Courier
Happy Gardeners are never disappointed as informative and entertaining programs are featured each month. Guest speaker George Ewing, dressed for the garden discussion and armed with trowels, saws, and rakes to demonstrate proper pruning methods, did not disappoint members, as he shared tips on plant care after the damaging winter freeze and the importance of sharp gardening tools. From the left are hostesses Sandy McGuire and Diane Eubanks, Ewing, and Janie Fields, program chair, who introduced the versatile speaker, whose talents include acting, singing, gardening, and catering, along with many community support activities.
George Ewing, master gardener and landscape architect, shared timely tips with members of the Happy Gardeners Club at a recent meeting. Arriving in appropriate gardening attire, Ewing came armed with containers filled with trowels, saws and other handy implements for yard growth and repair. The state of plants after the harsh winter freeze has left gardeners wondering whether to prune or not to prune, he pointed out.
Avoid pruning too soon after the freeze was a main point, he stressed, urging a wait-and-see attitude before pruning or completely removing plants.
Ewing stressed the importance of sharpened garden tools, as well as using brightly-colored tape on the tools to avoid misplacing them in the yard.
“Gardening is art, employing color, texture and balance. Whatever you want to plant is fine—if it makes you happy,” he closed, and then answered a variety of questions about numerous plants, from azaleas and crepe myrtles to gardenias.
Janie Fields, program chair for the club, provided Ewing’s introduction, noting that the versatile speaker of many talents recently received the 2023 Chamber Citizen of the Year. He is the founder and current president of Brick Street Players, Clinton’s local theater. He has served on the boards of the Arts Council of Clinton and the Clinton Community Nature Center. He was city landscape architect for the City of Jackson for over twenty years and oversaw improvements and construction projects within the park system and on all City-owned property. He has received the Mississippi Main Street Hero Award and the Clinton Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Service Award for 2012. His list of services and talents includes singing in the Providence Presbyterian Church choir.
