October 1, 2018
by Rosalin Moss
Timothy Burress
Gardening Is Our Future
Timothy R. Burress, Master Gardener
Being an avid gardener myself, it was easy to talk with Timothy Burress, a master gardener living in New Albany, Mississippi. Since retiring from MSU as Assistant State Coordinator for the Master Gardening program, Mr. Burress now enjoys his love of gardening by doing gardening workshops and being a speaker at various gardening events. He does a daily (Monday-Friday) local radio show called “The Interchange” whereby participants can buy, sell or swap various items. He also hosts a Saturday gardening radio show, That Gardenin Guy Garden Show, on WNAU radio where he shares gardening information, answers questions and does gardening giveaways. You can listen in at 1470 on the AM dial, use the Simple Radio App on your device, or go to www.wnau1470.com. Burress has a real passion for gardening and he is just as passionate about sharing his knowledge with others.
Born and raised in Tennessee, Burress was a
senior in high school when he went to live with his father in
Mississippi after his parents divorced. His father owned a grocery
store and had a 1-acre garden where young Burress got his first taste of
gardening. He attended college in Senatobia, and although he obtained a
degree in civil engineering, he realized that an office job was not for
him. He moved back to Tennessee and worked for several years as a paint
and body man in the car industry, and later as a property damage
appraiser for an insurance company. He later established his own
property damage appraisal company called T&K Appraisals, which grew into
the second largest such company in the south. After managing a large
and busy company for several years, Burress decided that he was ready
for a slower paced life and he moved back to Mississippi where his love
of gardening developed into a career.
Upon returning to Mississippi, Burress began gardening for relaxation
and the joy of reaping from a labor that he loved. He also began
getting recognition for the beauty and bounty of his gardens. He
eventually went to work for Mississippi State University as Assistant
State Coordinator for the Master Gardening Program. He also had
the opportunity to write gardening articles for newspapers and several
gardening magazines such as Mississippi Gardener and Birds
& Blooms. In 2009, Burress along with his wife Janet created
and put on the New Albany Home and Garden Show, a two-day event that
drew over 3,000 attendees. The show, which took place on the
fairgrounds, included 20-30 gardener vendors and about 15 to 20
speakers. Activities would include a lunch & learn, floral
arrangements, and “the doctor is in” question and answer session.
The home and garden show was an event where you could learn almost
anything you needed or wanted to know about gardening, and where you
could buy various plants for flower and vegetable gardens.
Burress’s wife enjoys butterfly gardening and is known as the Butterfly
Lady. She is also known as Mrs. Christmas because of all the
decorations she loves to display at Christmastime.
When I asked Burress to tell me why he thought a person should do
gardening at all, he promptly said, “Gardening is our future. If
we don’t learn how to grow some of our own food, we will someday be
eating fabricated food from a tube”. He is passionate about
teaching kids about gardening and thinks it is very important because
they are the future. Burress says “It doesn’t take a large plot of land
to teach a kid a large lesson.” “Until we start growing some of our own
food, farmers will continue to be chemical growers because they cannot
grow enough organic food to feed the world”, he said. Burress
teaches his grandchildren the importance of gardening and how to
maintain a garden. He also volunteers at local schools, including
the New Haven School for Special Needs Adults, where he assists his wife
Janet with a workshop twice each month.
I can only imagine the wealth of knowledge one would gain at one of
Burress’s workshops, because during my short conversation with him, I
learned several things about gardening that I did not know. For
instance, a tomato plant is poisonous except for the tomato itself,
hummingbirds prefer tubular flowers like gladiolas, butterflies prefer
flat flowers like zinnias, and bees don’t care as long as there is
pollen. New Albanians are fortunate to have such a wealth of
horticulture knowledge within their reach! Burress has done workshops on
roses, butterfly gardening, what’s growing in your garden (poisonous
plants), composting, earthworms, what’s growing old and new, color in
the garden, salad table (raised beds), no-till gardening, building cold
frames, and rain barrels. He is currently working with the
Mississippi Urban Forestry Council on a grant program called Bloom Town,
a Mississippi pollinator community program that encourages communities
to get involved in planting pollinator plants.
Burress has retired from MSU but he is still as busy as a bee doing what
he loves to do. And, although he spends time doing workshops,
volunteering his knowledge and skills at local schools, writing for
magazines and newspapers, and doing his radio shows, I get the feeling
that what he enjoys most is working in his own garden where he reaps the
rewards of working with his hands, being close to nature, and the
quietness of plants that never talk back. “There is some work
involved, but it is relaxing and rewarding,” he said. “You don’t
need a big space to grow some of your own food. Grow beans along
the sidewalk, put veggies in your flower bed,” he continued. The
one big thing that I took away from my conversation with Timothy Burress
was that every able-bodied human being should know how to “grow
something.”
Mr. Burress is available for gardening speaking engagements and workshops and can be reached via the following:
Tim Burress
662-316-9755
--Rosalin Moss aka Mississippi Traveler
October 1, 2018