The Garden Guru will return to Lucedale on May 4 and promises to be both entertaining and informative. This guru, Felder Rushing, is a guy who begs you to get dirty.
You might recognize his name from National Public Radio where he hosts the Gestalt Gardener or you might have heard of him on Home and Garden Television (HGTV), whose producers rely on him for expert gardening advice and have featured his gallimaufry garden. Perhaps you’ve read one of his books or his gardening columns. If you’ve missed all these opportunities, shame on you; however, there is an opportunity to glean his gardening gamut next month. Rushing will be the keynote speaker at the Lucedale Ivy League Garden Club’s biennial fundraiser. He was a featured speaker last year at one of the club’s meetings and is graciously coming again to share his garden interests with others.
The event, “A Morning with the Garden Guru,” will take place Sat., May 4, from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. at the Warehouse, a unique venue owned by Dena and Craig Vincent located at the end of DeVaughan Road off Mississippi 613 between Lucedale and Agricola. Coffee and light breakfast snacks will be served. Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased at Century Insurance on the corner of Oak and Winter Streets or online at eventbrite.com by searching “A Morning with the Garden Guru.”
Southern Living magazine named Felder as one of the “25 people most likely to change the South.” He is a longtime member of the American Horticulture Society, a fellow of the Garden Writers Association, a member of the English Cottage Garden Society, and past president of several garden organizations including Mississippi’s native plant society.
Rushing travels coast to coast giving lectures. He owns a cottage in Jackson and has a Victorian terrace house and herb garden in Lancashire, England. He has written or contributed substantially to 33 gardening books including several national award winners. One of those is titled Passalong Plants and was honored by the Garden Writers Association as the “best written” in the country when it was published. His most recent book is Maverick Gardener: Dr. Dirt and Other Determined Independent Gardeners. His articles and photographs have appeared in countless magazines and other publications, including Fine Gardening, Landscape Architecture, Better Homes and Gardens, Horticulture, Garden Design, Organic Gardening, and National Geographic. His personal garden has been featured in many of these publications as well. His books will be available for purchase for $20 to $30 at the Ivy League show.
Rushing is non-stuffy and non-assuming. Yet he has been recognized and praised by the big leagues. He professes to be an 11th-generation American gardener and can prove that fact along with plenty of credentials showing his ancestors’ ascension to North America in the 1650s and 1700s. His people have been in Mississippi since the 1800s. He has traveled to all 50 states and has lectured in 36 of those. He has also traveled across five continents looking for interesting gardening angles to share with others throughout his lecturing, writing, and broadcasting. He is a horticulturist and former university professor whose syndicated newspaper columns have informed readers for 40 years and whose live radio program has been a hit among National Public Radio listeners for the past 15 years.
Rushing is down to earth, no pun intended. He just wants to get dirty.
