Planing Educational Events for Fall and Winter 2027

Plus a Cute Puppy Video

I was trying to make a video to add to my presentation — Getting a Meadow is Like Getting a Puppy — when my great nephew told me I’d shut his pinkie in the gate. He was in an emotional dilemma. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t because cute puppy Coco was flying through the meadow in pursuit of a bunny.

This is basically the whole talk in 30 seconds.

We imagine so many things to be serious. These days things are critical. But we must find a balance between true danger, those that we could let get the better of us, and truth. We still gotta make it through the day and laugh along the way.

Pop culture tells us we should be purists when it comes to native plants, turning lawns into meadows and not ever raking a leaf. But that gap, the need for balance and humility, for reality,, gets in the way.

The talk is fast, funny, and honest about native plants, lawns, meadows — honestly, there’s a lot of baloney being flung around those topics.

It goes with my book Secrets of Southern Gardening: Pro-Tips for Success, which is written for warm and coastal climates, but the lessons are universal.

I’m now booking keynotes and presentations for winter and spring. If your group is planning its symposium or educational season, I’d love to talk. Full info → jenksfarmer.com/about/our-events/presentation-info

Here’s the big chase scene video, and below is a bit from a previous post to help new readers get a feeling for who I am.

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This is the beginning of a longer post titled My Mantra for Environmentally Friendly Gardening;

I believe that horticulture, part of the ‘green industry,’ should work with our environment to be low-impact and promote the health of ecosystems. Unfortunately, the ‘green industry’ too often destroys our shared earth through destructive, profit-driven techniques and ignorance.

I try not to bully, rant, or preach, but to share through stories and examples of gardens and landscapes that I make and plants that I grow. I speak mostly to home gardeners and people who, even if they never pick up a leaf, care about the greenery, animals, dirt, water, and air around them. You are a part of the green industry, as are landscapers, massive nurseries, pinestraw farms, cut flower growers, and golf lovers.

Amazing researchers around us are addressing our environmental challenges. Not all researchers, plant nerds, or folks with great ideas possess honed communication skills. Sometimes I try to interpret, to connect the big picture with what we’re doing in our own backyards. For busy people involved, but without time to dig deep, I try to parcel things into easy, simple, shareable stories.