Dr. Penny Njoroge

Ms. Senior St. Clair is personification of empowerment

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Graham Hadley
Submitted Photos

Growing up in Kenya, Dr. Penny Njoroge wanted nothing more than to get an education. The oldest of 10 children, she longed to learn and had big dreams, but they seemed to be out of reach.

“In my village, girls were raised to get married, raise families and serve the extended families in the communities – never to go to school,” she said. “I pestered my father until he got tired and registered me in school at age 11. As a result, he was kicked out of his family and clan, disinherited and forced to take us from our ancestral home. We ended up in the poorest slums of Nairobi.”

In the decades that followed, Dr. Penny, as she’s known to most people, survived domestic violence, depression and other hardships before finally starting college in the United States when she was 56. The reigning Mrs. Senior St. Clair County, she’s a psychologist, counselor, mental health advocate, award-winning motivational speaker and life coach.

“My desire is to empower, equip and encourage people not to quit,” said Dr. Penny, now 74. “I want to inspire people to dream big and pursue their life goals, regardless of how old or young or how rich or poor they may be.”

The path from Kenya to Trussville, where Dr. Penny lives with her son and his family, was filled with challenges and heartache, but her experiences have equipped her to be a compassionate advocate. “I can understand,” she said. “I’ve been there. Things may be bad today, but they can be better tomorrow.”

Life in Kenya

Dr. Penny’s desire to go to school cost her family, and life was hard. There was no sanitation in the slums they called home, and they constantly struggled, “selling scavenged bones and metal pieces for food, clothing and tuition.” She had promised her father he would never regret sending her to school, so she worked hard, became a top performing student and earned a spot in her country’s top girls’ high school.

Flagging a group to climb Mt. Kenya, the highest in the country.

“Being the first of 10 children, my parents couldn’t afford to send me to college, so I started educating my siblings and working in the corporate world,” she said. She married at 22 and had four children – three boys and a girl. She loves her children dearly – “they are my backbone,” she said – but she endured a lot in her marriage.“ I survived 30 years of serious domestic abuse and violence, 25 years of depression and two attempted suicides until I ran for my life,” she said.

Her escape came by way of Servants in Faith and Technology (SIFAT), a Christian nonprofit founded by Ken and Sarah Corson, an Alabama couple who were missionaries in Bolivia. They started SIFAT in Lineville in 1979 and have trained church and community leaders from more than 80 countries to help meet basic needs in developing countries.

Dr. Penny’s church sponsored her 6-month community development training at SIFAT, and while she was in Alabama, she met some fellow Kenyans, including one who worked at Carraway Hospital. She was inspired to become a hospital chaplain, and after getting a visa, she moved to Alabama permanently in 2000 and began training at Carraway.

New Beginnings

Dr. Penny enrolled in college at 56 and earned a bachelor’s degree through distance learning from Carolina University and a master’s degree in Christian Counseling Psychology from Carolina University of Theology. She also earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychiatric Counseling Psychology from the Cornerstone University of Louisiana and worked as a board-certified trauma, hospital and psychiatric chaplain at St. Vincent’s East Hospital for 16 years before retiring as lead psychologist. 

“The U.S. has been a God-given home for me; it gave me a second chance in life,” said Dr. Penny, who became a citizen in 2017. “I have loved Alabama. To me, it is a place of healing and advancement.”

Dr. Penny with her Most Motivating Woman Award

Not one to sit still, Dr. Penny opened Angel Counseling Services. “My greatest passion is to remove the shame and stigma of mental illness,” the trained telehealth provider said. “Given a chance, anybody can survive and make a difference. People have a great sense of endurance if they have just a bit of a chance. I want to be able to offer compassion, to give a listening ear to someone, to give hope to someone.”

Some of Dr. Penny’s co-workers from St. Vincent’s encouraged her to enter the Ms. Senior St. Clair County pageant, and after winning that she was first runner-up in the Ms. Senior Alabama event. She also won Ms. Congeniality and People’s Choice honors.

“They said they were not looking only for beautiful faces, but also a beautiful story,” she said. “I wanted to share my inspirational story of great struggles, shame, rejection and deprivation accompanied by a spirit that refused to quit on my dreams.”

Dr. Penny said her children and grandchildren are her biggest supporters and sources of strength. “I would not be anywhere without that team,” she said. “We must intentionally cling to our families so we can face storms. I’ve gone through many storms, but it has been worth it because I am able to stand with people today and give them hope.”

Creedon Creek

Andy and Creed Stone keep legacy, craftsmanship alive

Story Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Graham Hadley
Submitted Photos

Andy Stone has developed an eye for beautiful wood. He sees character where others see beetle tunnels and discolorations. He takes so-called faulty pieces and turns them into unique tabletops, floating shelves and mantels. It’s a gift that propelled him from a hobby to making a living with wood, despite starting his business during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I started woodworking as a side business in 2006, while I was with Bill Harbert Construction,” says Andy. “Later, while I was at Coca-Cola, I prayed about it for two years, then in October of 2020, I stepped out on faith, trusted God and decided to do it. It was kinda scary, starting a business at that time.”

His Creedon Creek Woodworking began near his home in Trussville, but he quickly outgrew that shop. He moved to the Leeds headquarters of W.C. Wright Heating, Air, Plumbing and Generators because he needed more space. “Wright is a longtime friend who has plenty of warehouse space,” Andy says. “But we’re looking for something closer to home, in the Trussville or Springville area.”

From live-edge shelves to cutting boards, if it is made of wood, Creedon Creek can make it.

The “we” to which he is referring includes his father, Creedon, who works with Andy and for whom the company is named. It’s just the two of them right now, but they hope to hire a helper soon. They build dining room tables, custom furniture, outdoor furniture, built-in bookcases and cabinets, mantels, conference tables, office desks and more. They do a lot of charcuterie boards, which are glorified cutting boards, because they are “all the rage now,” says Andy’s mom, Brenda Stone. “Most of them are out of hickory and walnut,” she says.

Epoxy tables are quite popular now, too. “Wood will have a live edge (where the bark was) and a straight edge (cut side),” Andy explains. “You put the live edges together and use resin to fill the gap between them. It can look like a river flowing through the length of the wood.” He says “Welcome” and scripture signs are also popular for dens and front porches, and he has done a few mudroom benches.

“We built a mantel from a pine log that came from the bottom of Lay Lake,” says Creed, the name the elder Stone goes by. “We like to have never got a hole drilled in it, it was so hard.” Andy wants to get into the wedding industry by making custom wedding gifts as well as serving pieces such as cake platters and tabletop risers for caterers to use at receptions.

Some people go to Creedon Creek with photos of what they want, others with only vague ideas and dreams. Andy will draw something up or send them to the internet in search of a picture for inspiration. “If you can dream it, we can make it,” is Creedon Creek’s motto.

 “I keep a folder of plans that I draw for people, in case I need something to reference,” Andy says. “I’m the only one who can read them, though,” he adds, referring to his drawing skills and penmanship.

Most of their machinery is portable, i.e., shop tools mounted on wheels. They have the usual table saw, router, planers and sanders, drills and track saw, as well as a fiber laser machine that’s used to cut out designs or cut them into a piece of wood.

They would love to own a portable sawmill and just might try to buy out their supplier when he retires. “We use a sawyer named Larry Ferguson of Cook Springs to cut wood from logs,” says Creed. “Ferguson Sawmill was started by his daddy, and my daddy bought from him.”

They use a variety of wood, including hickory, walnut, pine, cedar, maple and teak. They know the difference between ambrosia, curly and spalted wood and used all of those in a dining room table that is Andy’s favorite achievement so far. “Ambrosia wood is where you see little tunnels made by the ambrosia beetle,” Andy says. “Curly refers to the way the piece is cut: it’s quarter-sawn. Spalted is a discoloring caused by a fungus.” Then there’s “buggy blue” pine, where a fungus that grows on pine trees causes a blue stain in the grain.

Andy and Mackenzie

Teak and sapele are their choices for outdoor furniture, because both are highly weather-resistant. “Sapele looks like mahogany but it’s as durable as teak,” Andy says. “We seal our outdoor furniture with Thompson’s Water Seal, like you would a deck, although they don’t need anything.”

 Stacks of boards are scattered about the workroom, along with piles of cross-cut timber or “cookies.” Andy puts the latter together to make end tables and coffee tables. One particular flame-box elder cookie displays a red coloration that was made by love bugs. “We’ll probably put together two slices, a large one and a smaller one that broke off, using epoxy and pieces of wood cut in the shape of bow ties and inlaid between the slices,” Andy says.

He’ll set the bow ties opposite to the grain in the pieces he joins, to keep the wood from expanding and contracting too much. “You never know how wood will act,” says Andy. “Certain wood goes this way or that, and you have to tame it to go the way you want it to by the way you cut it and finish it. We’re just glorified wood tamers.”

Under one of his work benches is a small tool bag that belongs to Andy’s daughter, 3-year-old Mackenzie. It contains real pliers, a hammer, ear protection and safety glasses. When Mackenzie visits her dad at the shop, she pulls out her tool bag and pretends to work right alongside him. When she tires of that, she zips around the room on her plastic car. “She’s the reason I stepped out on my own, to make her proud, to leave a legacy,” Andy says.

Prominently displayed on one vertical support beam is a 3D map of the United States, with each state recessed. Fifty pieces cut out of the map are in the shape of the 50 states, and they fit together like a puzzle. When someone orders such a map, Andy donates the pieces to a school or day care so the kids can paint them and learn about the states. “My silent business partner came up with this idea,” Andy says. It was his idea, however, to donate a tree to onetreeplanted.org, an organization that plants trees around the world, for every product sold.

“My great-grandfather was a master woodworker, and he and my grandfather were contractors,” says Andy. “One of my main goals is to start a mentorship program. I would love to teach some younger kids the trade, so it doesn’t die off.” l

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Hemp Farming

Odenville farm family pioneer new crop

Story by Scottie Vickery
Submitted photos from Tiffany Roach, TNR Creative,
and Scott McLeod

There were days not too long ago when Bobby Isbell looked out from the front porch of his Odenville farm and saw lost opportunity. Years before, the family had dabbled in running a Christmas tree farm, but the fields had been dormant for a while.

“All we had out here was grass,” the poultry farmer of 32 years said of the six acres that make up his yard. For Bobby, who has a love of agriculture running through his veins, it was a blank canvas of sorts. The more he looked at the land, the more he could picture a lush green crop dotting the landscape.

That’s why he decided to join the first wave of farmers in Alabama to grow industrial hemp, a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant species harvested specifically to make an assortment of products – everything from paper and clothing to paint and biodegradable plastics. In addition, cannabidiol, or CBD oil, is made from industrial hemp and is widely used as a natural remedy for issues such as pain, inflammation and anxiety. 

“I got to reading about it, and I thought we’d give it a go,” said Bobby, who opened Baldrock Hemp Farm LLC in 2019. The business, like all of his endeavors, is a family affair, and after two seasons of growing hemp and selling it to processors, the Isbells recently launched their own line of organically grown CBD creams, capsules and oils. The oils, available in different strengths, are offered with lemon, peppermint, spearmint or natural flavors. There’s even a pet food supplement with a bacon and herb flavor.

“Bobby’s always looking for an opportunity to benefit his family,” daughter-in-law Haley Isbell said. “He saw an opportunity to get us in on the front end of something, and we all trusted him. We knew if anyone could do it, he could.”

The education process

Before 2019, it was illegal to grow hemp, which comes from the same plant species as marijuana, in the United States. The Farm Bill of 2018, however, reclassified hemp from a controlled substance to an agricultural commodity. The main difference between the two is the level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical usually associated with getting high. Industrial hemp has a THC level of 0.3 percent or less while marijuana has higher levels of THC.

“We spend a lot of time answering that question,” Haley, who coordinates marketing for the business, said with a laugh. “No matter how many times we say it’s not the same thing, we still get the wink-wink, nod-nod sometimes.”

Before they could educate their customers, they had to learn more themselves. Bobby’s son, Bobby III, who is also a poultry farmer, jumped in with both feet. They were among the first Alabama farmers licensed to grow or process hemp in the state’s pilot program in 2019.

Bobby Isbell shows off a young plant, below

Growers, handlers and processors must be licensed by the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (ADAI), and the regulation process is strict. According to Gail Ellis, hemp program manager for the department, the state issued 173 grower licenses for 2021, including three in St. Clair County.

Bobby’s wife, Lynn, said that her husband and son participated in seminars and conferences in Tennessee, Kentucky and other places to learn more about the industry, the products and the methods for growing hemp. “We tried to pick up as much knowledge as we could before we got into it,” Bobby said. “You can read all you want, but you have to learn by doing it. The first year was all work and no play.”

Besides following state regulations, the Isbells have also earned organic certification from Food Alliance. “My generation wants a more organic product with fewer chemicals, so we went through the process of being certified,” Haley said. “We wanted to offer a hemp product that was locally and organically grown so that we could provide our customers with the most natural way to address health and wellness issues.”

Learning curve

In addition to growing hemp, Bobby and his son are both still poultry farmers. Bobby raises about 125,000 chickens while Bobby III has about 127,000. “That first year, we were like single women,” Lynn said. “We didn’t really see them that much.”

Bobby and his son worked from daylight to dark, plowing the field, tilling the soil and preparing to plant hemp seeds in six acres. “That was way too much,” he said. “Now we just grow four acres, which is about 10,000 plants.” The planting process takes place in late May, and the crops are harvested in September or October.

The first year, they planted the seeds by hand. Last year, they germinated the seeds in the greenhouse and planted the seedlings. “That way you know you’ve got a plant in every hole,” rather than a seed that may or may not grow, Bobby said.

Like the vast majority of hemp grown in Alabama, the Isbells’ crop is grown for CBD oil. “Once the days start getting longer, they start sending out flowers and buds,” he said. “That’s what we want – the flowers to produce the oil. Out west, a lot of hemp is grown for the fiber. Carmakers make seats out of it.”

Drying the plants

This year’s crop is the Isbells’ third, and they’ve learned a lot along the way. The first year, they planted the rows too close together and couldn’t get a mower through, so they had to cut the grass with a weed trimmer. This year, they made sure to leave enough space for a riding lawn mower. 

Although the Isbells use organic methods to control bugs, Alabama hemp farmers have to be careful about the types of pesticides they use. “If you spray with something you’re not supposed to and take it to a processing plant, they’ll kick it out,” Isbell said.

In addition to approving seed sources and pesticides, the ADAI tests each crop in the state for THC levels, as well. If the level is higher than 0.3 percent, the field will be destroyed, according to information on the agency’s website. Growers must also submit GPS coordinates, which are forwarded to law enforcement so that officers can differentiate between a legal hemp crop and an illegal marijuana crop.

Bobby said he talked with the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department, the district attorney’s office, and the Moody and Odenville police departments before planting for the first time in 2019. They also put up a fence with a green screen to keep animals out of the field and to discourage curious visitors. “Lots of people have stopped and looked, but we haven’t had any issues so far,” Lynn said.

The final product

Once the hemp is ready to be harvested – about 100 to 110 days after planting – the workload really increases. Last year they hired extra help, and it takes about two weeks to get it all out of the field. “We cut it by hand, and we try not to ever let it hit the ground,” Bobby said. “We unload it by hand, and then we hang it in the drying shed by hand.”

The Isbells hung netting from ceiling to floor in the climate-controlled building and they stand on scaffolding to hang the hemp upside down in the nets. The crop dries for 7-10 days, and it takes two or three cycles to get all of the hemp dried. “It’s like cooking. If you rush it, you don’t get a good end product,” Bobby said.

Once dried, the hemp is stripped by hand, and they collect the finished product in 75- to 100-pound bags. The first year, they loaded up the bags and took them to a processor in Colorado since there weren’t many options in Alabama at the time. Last year, they used a processor in Huntsville.

The Isbells launched the Baldrock Hemp Farm line of CBD products in February, and the oils, creams and capsules are produced from their hemp by Sustainable CBD in Selma. “We definitely believe in what we’ve got, and we have lots of repeat customers,” said Haley, who designed the label and launched the website, baldrockhemp.com. “It’s a natural product that a lot of people have found relieves anxiety, joint pain and other symptoms.”

The family is some of its own best customers. Bobby III has found it helps him sleep when his body can’t shut down after a full day of physical labor. Bobby’s 87-year-old father uses the cream for joint pain, and Lynn takes it every night. “Sometimes, if I’ve been anxious, I’ll put a dropperful of the lemon flavored oil in my tea, and the anxiousness just goes away.” A family friend with a stressful job said that it helps keep him calm, Bobby said.

Although adding a hemp farm to the demands of poultry farming has been a tremendous undertaking, the Isbells said they are glad they took the leap of faith. “I enjoy it,” Bobby III said. “It gives me something to do in the summer.” The comment doesn’t surprise his wife.

“They can’t sit still,” Haley said of her husband and father-in-law. “If they hadn’t done hemp, they would have found something else.”

LakeLife 24/7 Magazine Coming to St. Clair

St. Clair County-based Partners by Design, creators of Discover St. Clair Magazine and the LakeLife 24/7® brand of lake apparel and accessories, is launching its newest venture, LakeLife 24/7 Magazine® on May 7.

This magazine will capture life along Logan Martin and Neely Henry lakes. “These incredible treasures of the Coosa River in St. Clair, Talladega, Calhoun and Etowah counties are just that – treasures – to be discovered, enjoyed and savored,” said Carol Pappas, president and CEO of the company. “And that’s precisely the aim of this new magazine and its digital components.”

This lake lifestyle magazine will be unrivaled in its content, bringing you the essence of life on the lake as Partners has already shown it can do through Discover St. Clair Magazine, now in its 10th successful year of publication. In addition, Partners created its own LakeLife™ and LakeLife 24/7® brands several years ago, and it has grown into an e-commerce website, lakelife247.com, featuring apparel and accessories for 15 Alabama lakes along with the national brand. A brick-and-mortar LakeLife™ shop opened in historic downtown Pell City three years ago.

“With the growth of our LakeLife 24/7® brand, we saw the magazine as a natural next step. It is an opportunity to open another avenue of telling the story of life on the lake and who better to tell that story than a group of veteran journalists, photographers, web and graphic designers?” Pappas said.

“In addition to this high-quality publication you’ll be proud to display on your coffee table, award-winning writers will bring you the stories of life on Logan Martin and Neely Henry that you’ll savor for a long time to come,” she said. “Beautiful photography, stunning video, digital advertising, digital page-turning edition, web extras, social media promotion and electronic newsletters will focus on life along our lakes as no other can. It is truly going to be a multimedia experience that keeps our readers abreast of the goings-on up and down our lakes.”

The print magazine will be published and distributed free of charge on the first Friday every two months, beginning in May and on the opposite months Discover is published. “We chose May as our beginning date for this inaugural issue because this is yet another new beginning for our company. It also coincides with what is traditionally seen as the beginning of ‘lake season.’” As a lake resident herself, Pappas noted, “Of course, lake season really lasts all year long. Spectacular sunsets, inspiring sunrises and shimmering water – it’s something you never grow tired of.”

Thousands of LakeLife 24/7 Magazines® will be distributed in high traffic areas around both lakes, reaching readers in St. Clair, Talladega, Etowah and Calhoun counties. Like Discover, it also will be available by subscription at a nominal annual cost.

Content in the magazine centers on the people, places and things that set lake life apart from other lifestyles. Every issuefeatures an historic piece, the story of days gone by on the lakes and the river before them. It takes you inside the kitchens of some of Logan Martin and Neely Henry’s best cooks and out on the open water as B.A.S.S. pro and fishing guide Zeke Gossett offers tips on how to catch the big ones.

The magazine strives to keep readers up to date on the latest trends in boating, water toys and lake life activities. Want to know about events on and around the lake? Pappas predicts Take 5 will be the go-to source in print and digitally.

“We are tremendously excited about this latest step for our company,” Pappas said. “Since we opened Partners by Design as a boutique marketing firm 11 years ago, we have always dubbed ourselves ‘the storytellers’ because the story is at the heart of everything we do, no matter the platform, no matter the messaging.

“This magazine gives us yet another opportunity to tell engaging stories of life on our lakes, and we hope readers will be drawn to them for years to come – just like our lakes.”

400+ azaleas and one spectacular home

Butch and Martha Walker’s amazing property

Story and photos by Joe Whitten
Submitted photos

Southern souls start longing for spring in January, and by February, they check daffodil rows each day to see if they have awakened from winter sleep and begun stretching toward the sun.

Soon, rows of golden joy grace tended yards and old homeplaces where house and barn no longer stand. March and April find trees on Beaver and Bald Rock mountains leafing out and underneath the trees, native azaleas blossom pink and white. Rural folk used to call these azaleas, “mountain honeysuckle” or “bush honeysuckle.”

Azaleas line the walk

Azaleas. This springtime glory of the South brings myriad colors through quiet boulevards of old towns and acres of gardens tended by horticulturists. This beauty calls to mind Mobile’s Bellingrath Gardens, 283 miles from Pell City, and Callaway Gardens, 118 miles from Pell City. However, within five miles of the St. Clair County Courthouse in Pell City, Butch and Martha Walker’s unique house sits on reclaimed strip-mine land planted with over 400 azaleas.

Butch’s azaleas and seasonal plants complement the home designed by St. Clair County native Randy Vaughan, who grew up in Eden. After graduating from Pell City High School in 1975, he went to Auburn. “He was studying architecture, and this was his senior class project at Auburn,” Butch recounted. “He graduated No. 1 in his class.”

Since then, Vaughan has enjoyed a successful career as an architect. He noted that he had worked in nearly every scale of architecture, from custom-designed private residences to large-scale projects.

 As a student, Vaughan designed a two-level home for the Walkers with the great room, dining room, and kitchen on the lower level and three bedrooms and two baths on the upper level. “We both really liked it when we first saw it,” Martha said, with Butch adding, “We were debating whether to build in front of this strip mine cut or behind it, and Randy decided to put the house on piers and span the cut. Originally, it was open underneath, but later we closed it in and poured a floor.”

Butch and Martha have added two upper-level rooms – a sunroom across the back and a living room across the front. The focal points of the living room are Butch’s grand piano and the arched double doors, which were a serendipitous find. Martha spotted the doors at Mazer’s in Birmingham and told Butch about them. 

“I worked just over at O’Neal (Steel),” Butch recalls, “so I went over there at lunch, and they wanted a big price for it. So, I asked the guy if he thought they’d take less. He said, ‘I don’t know, but this guy riding up on the cart can tell you.’ So, he pulled up and I asked him, and he said, ‘Would you pay so-and-so?’ I said, ‘No,’ and I told him how much I’d give. He said, ‘Well, let him have it for that.’ So that’s how we got the doors for about 75% less than he was asking.”

With her eye for color and detail, Martha has made their home a warm and welcoming one for family and friends. Whether it be a Sunday afternoon of music in the living room or a holiday meal at the dining table, guests are made to feel at home.

Back to his roots

Butch had finished college and served in Vietnam when he and Martha Kirkland married in 1974. They lived in two or three different places, but eventually moved into Butch’s parents’ home on Highway 174. Butch and Martha’s property lies not far from his parents’ original 23 acres, where their son, Kirk, lives with his family and enjoys about over 100 azaleas Butch has planted there.

In some of his college work, Butch studied horticulture. When asked how he became interested in native azaleas, he replied, “My cousin in Mobile, Glen Burnham, collected them. He and a friend of his had gone all over the Southeast collecting and hybridizing. He had azaleas at his house, and when they were in bloom, the traffic would be backed up for miles.”

“He had some connection with Bellingrath Gardens, because once when we went down for a visit, he said if he had known we were coming, he could have gotten you in to see the gardens free,” Martha recalled. “Glen Burnham also designed a portion of Disney World’s gardens.”

Early planting

Before he married Martha, Butch had planted his first azaleas on the homeplace where he grew up. When he and Martha moved into their Vaughan-designed home in 1981, Butch pruned back those plants, dug them up, and moved them to the reclaimed strip-mine property. Now over 50 years old, those azaleas still burst into variegated glory every spring.

The annual show of colors traveled much before taking root in Pell City. “I’ve dug them out of the woods, and I’ve bought ’em out of Georgia and Mississippi and south Alabama. And one of my cousins worked for T.R. Miller’s lumber company down in Brewton, Ala., and I have some transplanted from the Brewton area.”

Some of his 400 plants result from Butch’s propagation of azaleas. “I’ve done some by cutting, but I do mostly by seed, and that’s a long, drawn-out process because you’re talking about three or four years from seed to bloom.”

Another way to propagate is tissue culture, which Butch describes briefly. “It’s done under sterile conditions. You take a small piece of the plant – the tissue – and put it in a medium under sterile conditions, and it will start multiplying and keep on multiplying. From one little piece, you can get thousands. You keep dividing it. I’ve never done it cause it’s not something you can do at your kitchen table. I do have some plants from tissue culture that I bought out of Pennsylvania.”

With tissue culture, the resulting azaleas’ blossom color will be exactly like the tissue donor plant. However, seedlings can result in myriad colors depending on how cross pollination has occurred.

“With seedlings, you don’t know what colors you’re gonna get until they bloom. One year, I did some cross pollinating and collected the seeds and planted them in my basement. When seedlings have two leaves, you can transplant them into individual cells. I had done that – had 600 seedlings in cells, and they were up about an inch or more tall. Well, we had a nice warm day, and I thought, ‘I’m gonna set them out and get them a little more light and warmth.’ I did. And out of the 600, I killed 599, but the one that survived was a keeper.” Butch aptly named that azalea, “Walker’s Survivor.” When in full bloom, it caused one friend to say, “It’s a confection, whipped cream and peaches.”

“Some people might say we lead a boring life,” Martha comments, “but we are workers and do a lot of work around here. Our life has been an adventure in hard work.”

One of those adventures came when Butch decided a tree limb needed to go. “Well, this was in 2011. I was walking back to the barn, and this tree limb was hanging out there – and it could have stayed there a hundred years without hurting anything. Well, I looked at it and decided it was time for it to come down. So, I got my ladder and put it on the tree. Got my chainsaw, and I went up and I cut. When it fell, it sprung back, and I fell 15 feet, head down. I held onto the ladder, and that kept me straight and probably kept me from getting badly broken up. I had thrown my saw when I saw what was happening and it landed on the ground still running.

“After I could breathe again, I got up and turned the saw off and came to the house. I turned the fan on and sat in my recliner a few minutes. Then I got in my car and drove over to my neighbor’s, and he drove me to the emergency room over on Hospital Drive in Pell City, and a helicopter took me to Birmingham.”

“They called me at Kennedy School,” Martha added, “and said, ‘Mrs. Walker, you need to leave as soon as possible. Your husband has taken a significant fall.’ I said, ‘What!?’ And they said, ‘We are airlifting him out now, even as we are speaking.’ And I told the school receptionist, ‘Bye. I’m gone!’

Martha could see the helicopter whirling ahead of her as she drove to the hospital. “We finally got to see him and Butch really looked awful. They were trying to pull his arm back in place.”

Fortunately, Butch fared better than Humpty Dumpty did in his garden wall crackup, for the doctors got Butch put back together after a five-hour surgery on his wrist. Butch wore a cast for five weeks, then went to physical therapy.

He asked the therapist if he would be able to play the piano again, and she thought he was pulling the old piano joke: “Doc, will I be able to play the piano?” And the Doc says, “Yes.” And the patient says, “That’s good! I wasn’t able to play it before!”

When Butch convinced her that he indeed played the piano, the therapist said, “That will be good therapy.” So, with short periods at his grand piano, he started playing the Southern gospel songs that he had loved playing all his life.

Some of those old songs may have flitted through Butch’s mind as he fell from the tree – “I’ll Fly Away,” or “Precious Memories,” or “I’m in the Glory Land Way.” However, one of the first ones he played after the fall must have been “Precious Lord Take My Hand,” for Butch and Martha agree that God’s hand was with them during that event and throughout their lives.

After some months, Butch was back to his gardening and propagating azaleas, and from early spring to late autumn, his and Martha’s place is awash in color by blossom and foliage. A place of peace and contentment. Home.

Experts offer tips on choosing the right plants

By Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Graham Hadley

As anyone who has ever tried to grow a plant knows, there is a science to it.

 Local experts offer the following advice for creating and maintaining attractive landscapes and successful vegetable gardens.

 The first three tips are so crucial that, together, they determine whether a plant will live through the first year.

Do not assume the soil is good. St. Clair County soil may contain clay or be compacted. Topsoil, compost and a supplement specific to that plant are likely to be necessary. (For soil-testing supplies and direction, check with St. Clair’s Alabama Cooperative Extension Service office, St. Clair County Soil and Water Conservation or St. Clair Farmer’s Cooperative.)

Be mindful of moisture requirements. Each week, plants need at least one inch of moisture that soaks down to the roots. If a plant dries out completely one time, it dies. Overwatering is just as detrimental as underwatering.

Place the plant in a hole that is neither too large nor too small.

Bury the plant to the same soil line as it had in the container from which it came. As a general rule, it is better to have the plant a little above the soil line than too deep into the soil.

Choose plants that are right for the climate zone. St. Clair County falls within zone “7” and “7B” of the climate map for plants. Plants acclimated to one zone might not thrive long in another. For example, a West Coast plant is not likely to survive in the South.

Select a plant that, at maturity, will fit the space allotted for it.

Choose a plant that is right for the amount of sunshine or shade it will experience. A plant meant for shade will not do well in direct sunlight and vice versa.

Distance plants from the house or building. When the plant matures, the homeowner should be able to walk between it and the house.

Replace bark or straw regularly. Bark lasts two to three years. Straw breaks down quickly and has to be replaced twice a year. Other possible “mulches” include shale, pea gravel, river rock and brick pieces.

Use weed barrier cloth and pre-emerge herbicide to prevent growth of weeds and germination of unwanted seeds. Weed barrier cloth and pre-emerge herbicide are especially needed with rock-type mulches.

Research how to cultivate and harvest vegetables and herbs. Successful vegetable gardening comes with knowledge and experience. It may take years to develop the expertise and to discern what grows best in the garden area.

Purchase plants from a nursery or garden center. Employees of nurseries and garden centers are knowledgeable about plants, trees, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides and can give advice on landscape issues and plant deficiencies. The information they provide is specific to the climate zone in which the homeowner lives. Nurseries and garden centers offer a large selection of trees, plants, fertilizers, supplements, bulk materials (mulch, sand, gravel etc.), statuary and decorative stones for pathways and hardscapes.

Understand that plants new to the market come with limited information. New plants are studied only three years before they are put on the market. Therefore, their growth potential beyond that may not be known initially, and they might outgrow the space allowed for them.

Buy mulch and other bulk material by the truckload. Buying by the bag is more expensive.

Periodically inspect plants and trees in the yard to see if they remain healthy. Lichens growing on a plant, for instance, can indicate poor health.

Learn how and when to prune each kind of plant. (Pruning a crape myrtle too severely is called “crape murder!”)

Editor’s Note: Sources for this story were Crawford Nursery, Odenville; Hazelwood’s Greenhouses and Nursery, Pell City; Landscapes by Shelly, Pell City; Warren Family Garden Center and Nursery, Moody.