Spring always lures Hammock folk outdoors, and after this particularly long, cold grey winter, we are all hungering for some sunshine and balmier weather.
That hunger is pretty literal for a number of us who like to put in gardens or who participate in the active and—dare I say, growing—community supported agriculture, or CSA, movement, or who have a few square feet to put in their own garden.

Barbara Logan – who shared a photo from 2009 of their plantings – says she and her husband, Fielding, “don’t have any intentional set rituals, but we are starting to create them. Around now we turn to our yard which means new plantings.

“We are hoping to plant a few new bushes and trees and few magnolias in the backyard.” Which in a few years will be shady spots for their daughter, Reed, to play under!
“We also need to (have not started yet) working on our garden,” says Barbara, our director of marketing. “We don’t plan spring greens and lettuces though, we focus more on summer vegetables and herbs. We are still debating on whether we are going to plant with seeds this year. We should, but I am a little intimidated!”
Digital Media Director Megan Morris has added CSA participation to the usually active outdoor lifestyle she shares with husband, Ian: “Spring for me usually means weekend camping or hiking trips, but this year also brings my first spring/summer participation in a CSA (community supported agriculture). I am just now finishing up the fall/winter season and have gotten some really good items, so I can’t wait to see all of the great fresh fruits and vegetables from the farm this spring!”
Designer Lynne Boyer notes that early spring in Middle Tennessee can be tricky for the yard warrior: “March is a cruel month. One day it is 70 degrees with blue skies, and the next day it’s back to winter temps and gray skies. Still, I am hopeful. Miraculously, the Viola tricolor survived the winter in the flower boxes on the front porch and are blooming. This was a motivator for me to take advantage of a warm Saturday and start my Spring ritual of working on the shrubs around the house and plotting my schedule for the bales of pine straw I know are in my future.
Lynne and her husband, Dave, enjoy trail bikes and hiking and other outdoor sports, which now also include the national pastime. “Spring also means baseball for my son, Luke, (go WNSL Mets), bike riding with friends, summer cuts for the Spaniels, grilling and dinner at the patio table.” The bottom line…Lynne will be outside as much as possible!

Rex Hammock, our eponymous founder, has long been a devotee of square-foot gardening. And the squirrels near his home have long been a fan of his tomatoes. Last year, he cobbled together a “Tomato Gitmo” that foiled the furry fruit filchers. This year, he is thinking of letting his land lie fallow, though the lure of homegrown tomatoes remains strong. Don’t be surprised if he relents and plants a few — and also snaps GPS collars on all the squirrels so his iPhone will alert him when they approach. (Surely, there’s an app for that).
Spring means it’s time for Production Director Patrick Burns to take more time to appreciate how well the greens have survived at various golf courses. He and his wife, Aimee, also enjoy camping. And, last but not least, spring heralds at least six months of Red Sox mania!
Editor Bill Hudgins enjoys the bounty of daffodils planted over a number of years in the backyard of his and his wife, Wilda’s, home.

He doesn’t raise a garden anymore, but because he and his wife pasture some horses and donkeys, he frequently asks his gardening colleagues if they’d like him to bring a few (sealed) buckets of natural fertilizer. “Like James Taylor’s ‘Handyman,’ they’re busy 24 hours a day,” he says of his fuzzy fertilizer factories. Bill also works on his fences and tries to keep weeds and shrubs under control along his fence lines, in part so his neighbors can better enjoy watching the horses laze about in the sunshine.