Riverbanks Botanical Garden designer Jenks Farmer to speak at S.C. Book Festival Sunday, May 18, 12:20pm, about new book, Deep-Rooted Wisdom
May 14, 2014
COLUMBIA, SC – May 18, 2014 –
Renowned horticulturist and author Jenks Farmer, whose new gardening book, Deep-Rooted Wisdom, was released by Timber Press in March of this year, will be a panelist at the South Carolina Book Festival on Sunday, May 18, at 12:20pm at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Buy the book online, www.jenksfarmer.com/deep-
A gardening celebrity known for his impressive design work, Farmer has created some of South Carolina’s most iconic gardens, including the Riverbanks Botanical Garden and the Seibels House garden in Columbia, S.C., and Moore Farms Botanical Gardens in Lake City, S.C. His passion for gardening began the second he could hold a shovel on his family’s crinum lily farm in Beech Island, S.C.; over the years, he has garnered international recognition in the horticulture community and grown the 
farm into one of the country’s leading crinum lily nurseries.
While many gardening-focused books focus on “state of the art” techniques and capitalizing on the latest trends and fads, Jenks stays true to the lessons he’s learned from his Southern gardening mentors, as well as from contemporary celebrities like Felder Rushing. Jenks’ longstanding practices, such as plant scavenging, seed preservation and creating handmade structures reveal his genuine homegrown enthusiasm for the “sport” that has come to define his life’s work.
The gardening guide and oral history book encourages readers to return to simpler, more sustainably oriented approaches to gardening, while harnessing the power of both modern and time-honored techniques.
All S.C. Book Festival events on Saturday and Sunday, May 17 and 18 take place at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center and are free and open to the public. Farmer’s discussion will be part of a segment entitled “A Southern Sampler: Gardens, Literature, and Food,” taking place in Carolina Meeting Room A on Sunday, May 18 from 12:20 -1:10 p.m. in Carolina Meeting Room A. Schedule:http://www.scbookfestival.org/
A book signing will be held in the Exhibit Hall Author Signing Area. Purchase your copy of Deep-Rooted Wisdom to have Farmer sign following his presentation: www.jenksfarmer.com/deep-
About Jenks Farmer
Jenks Farmer has been growing and gardening since he could hold a spade. His work has been featured in HGTV’s Dream Gardens, Southern Living, Better Homes & Gardens, Royal Horticulture Society, Garden & Gun and other major magazines. He has served as Director of South Carolina’s two major botanical gardens – The Riverbanks Botanical Garden in Columbia, SC and the Moore Farms Botanical Garden in Lake City, SC – and he was a member of the Founding Board for Charleston, SC Parks. Past and current design clients include the Florence Museum, CFFL Agricultural School, Haiti, Connie Maxwell Children’s Home and private clients across the Southeast.
Presentations are a major part of Farmer’s work, and he has lectured around the country, from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and N.C. State University and the Northwest Flower Show in Seattle, WA and the U.S. Botanic Garden.
Farmer and his family operate an heirloom crinum lily nursery, farm and retreat center in Beech Island, SC, near Aiken. He authors a national gardening blog, Stewardship and published his own book series called Gardening with Crinum Lilies; Volume 2 was published in October 2013.
To learn more about Jenks Farmer, visit www.jenksfarmer.com.
