Yard sale a huge success: My mom and I spent the entire day Saturday selling our no longer needed items at PoJo’s outdoor yard sale in Midway. Marilyn Monroe was out on Highway 17 flagging down buyers.

Well, it actually was Polly Wolford, one of the owners, standing behind a life size cutout of Marilyn, but it worked. Hundreds of people stopped. I had 23 varieties of my plants there with a plant profile available on each one. A man who was driving down from Virginia with his six varieties of apples stopped and spent time with us. We also met people from Germany, Norway and a lot of tourists from Florida. The day was cloudy and a little breeze lingered that kept us cool. Patty from the Coastal Courier stopped by to say “howdy.”  We met a lot of new friends and saw a lot of old ones. This was a fun day for all. A big thank you to Paschal Brewer for donating two grape plants. Proceeds from their sales benefitted the Midway Museum. We all plan to wear crazy hats and use water guns to cool each other off — and have a little fun, too — during the next sale planned for the first Saturday in June. My personal thanks to Al and Polly Wolford for giving the people of Liberty County an inexpensive way to get rid of their yard sale items every month.

Plant update: Well, we had no April showers but here we are into the month of May and plants are still blooming. I have pink spirea, red coral bean, white oak leaf hydrangea, white gardenias, purple pineapple guava (blooming for the first time), yellow cactus from Edisto Island, purple Mexican petunias, white reseeding petunias, yellow daisies and all of my rescued butterfly milkweeds blooming. By the end of June, my yellow partridge peas and rattleboxes will bloom. Then, my magnificent cassia tree will highlight my yard with its breathtaking yellow blooms. I have three rows of carrots that are thriving in my vegetable garden, along side of 20 tomato plants, rows of multiplying onions, garlic, red bell peppers, russet potatoes and three hills of cucumbers. Unfortunately, the grackles stole my white corn seeds. I should have planted them deeper. I also have one banana pepper that produces so many peppers you only need one plant. Most of my pineapple pear blossoms dropped off because of a lack of rain, so I have a lone pear. I still have a few peaches  and my three grape vines are loaded. My pink grapefruit tree is also loaded, but so far no blooms on my massive-producing kumquat trees. I waited too late to pick the last crop. My “rescued” haw tree is also loaded with tiny apples. The birds got all of my mulberries this year before I could even pick the first one.  The two baby “parasol” trees Joanne Clarke at the Midway Museum gave me are truly going to be magnificent. They resemble my two tung oil trees. I never dreamed when I moved to Liberty County nearly 15 years ago I would have this many trees and plants in my yard. Every day is a treat just walking around and looking at them. My biggest pleasure involving plants is not only “rescuing” them, but sharing them.

Whose idea was this? Between $150,000 and $200,000 is expected to be used to advertise local tourist attractions. Tourists stop in Liberty County and read our “brown” signs advertising LeConte, Fort Morris, etc. Often, they drive to the sites, find them closed and become irate. Fort Morris is open only three days a week and LeConte one. Another thing that’s being contemplated is electronic, touch-screen kiosks to be used to explore some of the sites around the county. This money could be used for hiring more staff at the sites. Without volunteers and donations, all of these historic sites would have closed long ago.

Take a walk through history: I recently visited the Midway Museum and saw many new things had been added thanks to the efforts of volunteers. Flower boxes made out of an old pile of posts that now beckon you down the nature trails.  The museum is on eight acres and phase I has been completed with a picnic area. A plaque and a rose arbor will be placed at the entrance of the new trail in memory of Winston Walker, Bill Cox and Bernard Williams. The Historic Society has donated four benches for the trail. Coastal Electric, through the efforts of Mark Bolten, has provided water lines for areas along the trail and picnic grounds. Volunteers are needed to start clearing a trail in Phase II. Clearing of underbrush will be a major undertaking, so if you have equipment and the time, let museum curator Joanne Clarke know. Joanne wishes to thank Joseph Medina for the many hours he has donated toward the latest projects.