A quick blurb about the author of this blog (and thank you so kindly for visiting):
My name is DJ Wilson — Doris J. to my mother and childhood friends. I grew up in western North Carolina –out in the country, surrounded by a great diversity of plants and wildlife. A lot of Southern Appalachian culture rubbed off on me and I’ve had a lifelong thing for green, growing things.
I’ve lived away from the southern mountains — in New York, Maryland, Mississippi and the cities of Charlotte and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I did just fine in those places, but never lost my love for the Blue Ridge, the Smokies, and the Appalachians. These mountains are in my very soul and I’ve spent the last few decades traveling between east Tennessee and my family’s homeplace in western North Carolina.
After a career with non-profits — most recently as head of a charitable foundation — I immersed myself in all-things horticultural: studies, internship at a nursery, teaching, writing, and creation of my own garden design business.I’ve created a lot of gardens in my life – from the moss-lined tree stumps of childhood, to the two-hundred-plant menagerie of an early apartment, to the extensive, diverse gardens of today. All along, nature has been my inspiration and refuge.
