HIS plant foraging expeditions have included nearly 100 trips throughout
the Americas and to Thailand, Montenegro, China and Bosnia, to name a
few of the countries he has visited.
Two of the prized items growing on his mountain, which is about
350 feet above sea level, are a Ben Franklin tree and a red spruce. The Ben Franklin
tree, originally from Georgia, is extinct in the wild and the red spruce is usually only
found at elevations of 5,000 feet.
“Red spruce is rumored not to grow down here, but because we built our
mountain and we grow it on the slope, it is growing beautifully,” Avent says.
Experimentation and research are main aspects of the garden. That includes
learning how plants live and thrive by finding out what kills them.
“In the 35 years we’ve been here, we have killed just over 50,000 different
types of plants,” he says. “We learn by killing. We don’t view those as failures,
we view those as learning experiences. Our goal is to kill them ourselves and
learn, so our customers don’t have to.”
Avent and his team enjoy sharing their knowledge during the open garden
dates. They are on hand to guide, suggest, and even do a little myth busting.
16 march 2022
WBM
“We think of ourselves as the
Myth Busters of horticulture. Give
us a good myth, we’ll bust it. You
hear, ‘Plants grow in the wild
where they grow their best.’ That
is a classic myth that absolutely is
untrue,” Avent explains.
Experimentation
and research are
main aspects of
the garden.
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