Jukofsky: Friendship blossomed over love of gardening

She was on the putting green at Dolphin Head Golf Course, very blonde and with a good figure and she bent way over the ball before she hit it. It never failed to go in the hole.

She looked up.

"I'm Peggy Ritchie", she said.

And so began an adventure that was to last for sixty-five years.

Once acquainted with Hilton Head Island, we began to explore the countryside around us. While husbands Bill and Larry fished and golfed, we drove northwest to Barnwell and beyond. We spent a day at the Vidallia Onion Festival and another at the South Carolina Watermelon Festival. We celebrated our birthdays with trips into the Carolina countryside. Once we were lost in the middle of the state and did not get home until well after dark.

We studied the South Carolina land and climate and rented farm plots at Hilton Head Plantation Farms. We grew all of our vegetables and some of our fruit there. We built a sexy female scarecrow between our farm gardens because that year, our plots were on the annual island St. Luke's Episcopal Church Garden Tour. We grew more than 100 varieties of edible plants. We introduced the island to herbs and sold them to the Big Star Supermarket and several island caterers. We called that venture Ellen Anne Herbs, using middle names.

We had so much fun. We gave luncheons and demonstrations to local organizations. We played the Member Guest Golf Tournaments at Bear Creek and Dolphin Head. We went on golf trips with friends. Colonel Bill Ritchie was a scratch golfer, Peggy had a low handicap, Larry and I had strokes.

Before Bill died, the couple moved to Ocala, Fla., where Peggy lives now.

Are we in touch? Who do you suppose sends me plants and seeds from her garden, and articles from the Ocala newspaper gardening section? Our climates are similar though our proximity to the ocean gives us a Zone 9 for hardiness; Peggy gardens in Zone 8.

A recent article in the Ocala paper reminded me to remind Peggy that her springtime flowering geraniums cannot tolerate our summer heat and humidity. Do not grow them in full sun, I reminded her. They will flower if grown in morning sun. It is best to grow, as do I, in containers and hanging baskets where you can control the temperature, humidity, and the amount of irrigation.

REMINDERS:

THANKS:

Thanks to the Hilton Head Island Garden Council for assisting the Southeast Federation of Garden Clubs during their meeting here. Thanks as well to the Hilton Head Island Beautification Association for helping to get the improvement of the road to the Hilton Head Island Airport underway.

Sixty-year master gardener and environmentalist Betsy Jukofsky has spent three decades on Hilton Head Island learning the peculiarities of Coastal Lowcountry gardening.

This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Jukofsky: Friendship blossomed over love of gardening."