|
camellias
in early September and from the azaleas and rhododendrons several weeks
later. But I’ve slowed that down some. It takes four to five years to
get blooms when you start from seed, and at my age, that’s a long
time," said Corley.
While
Tom and his wife Mary, both in their eighties, still live in Auburn,
their daughter June recently moved into the log house in Loachapoka.
"I
don’t know what I would’ve done without her help. I’d probably
have sold the place," he said.
"It’s
been so dry this year that we’re spending about three hours a day
watering, and dragging water hoses is exhausting work. I’m just glad
my dad’s healthy enough at his age to still work so hard, but I guess
all that gardening is probably the reason he’s in such good
shape," said June.
According
to Tom, he also cross-pollinates and grafts to produce new plants, a
process that yielded a beautifully variegated camellia blossom he named
for his wife, Mary Corley.
He’s
also been adding several varieties of Japanese maples to his landscape,
creating swaths of brilliant color that billow in the autumn breeze.
"That’s
my newest project," he said as he makes his way into the clearing
he created and then dotted with the diminutive maples.
"It’s
tough work planting through all those old roots," he said, though
the satisfaction in his eyes belies any trouble it took to accomplish
the task.
While
Tom spends his weekends working on the plants at his home in Auburn, he
makes the ten minute drive to his Loachapoka property every weekday. And
even though he spends much of the day working in his spacious garden, he
also relaxes a while inside the log house.
"Now,
it’s not a cabin," he said, and he pauses mid-thought,
interrupted by the drumming of a group of hummingbirds flooding the
enormous begonia next to the front porch steps.
"Anything
this size is a house. Originally, the kitchen was a separate
outbuilding, and two rooms had been added later to join it to the main
house, so when we moved it, we left them out and moved the kitchen up to
the house," Corley said.
He
purchased the structure in 1982, and hired a crew to disassemble, number
the logs, move it to his Loachapoka property and reassemble it there.
"My
brother owned the property in Coosa County where the house was, and he
sold it to a poultry farmer who didn’t want the house. He told me he’d
sell it to me for $200. I tried to talk him down to $150, but he wouldn’t
budge," said Corley.
The
building now is a charming fixture in the midst of a garden decades in
the making, and while Tom Corley may be a serious gardener, he’s
hardly a serious man.
"Looks
pretty good for something I started last year, huh?" he jokes.
Tom
said he shops the Taleecon Farmers Cooperative for fertilizer and
herbicides.
"I
use Crossbow on tree stumps to keep them from coming back, and I use
lots of Round-Up around my plants to keep the weeds from taking
over," he said.
Corley
adds that the Co-op is significant to him for personal reasons as well.
"Peter
Garrett was a friend of mine, and his son too. He was one of the men who
got AFC started, and he believed in it," said Corley.
Garrett
was the first CEO of Alabama Farmers Cooperative for whom the E. P.
Garrett Manager of the Year Award is named.
Always
a local attraction, Corley and his garden have been featured in numerous
publications, but he said an article on his native azaleas that appeared
last year in Southern Living drew more attention than he could have
imagined.
"I
had phone calls and letters from Texas, Colorado, Michigan; I’ve had
visitors from over 30 states and several foreign countries," he
said, adding humbly, "not just to see me, but because I’m close
to Auburn University."
And
that humility and graciousness is what makes a trip to his garden more
special than all the beautiful blooms and charming trails he’s
cultivated there.
Kellie
Henderson is a freelance writer from Troy. |
