In the Garden with Dr Carver by Susan Grigsby

From our friends at the Bartlett Arboretum: George Washington Carver celebrated during Black History Month

Black and Indigenous farmers laid the basis for US agriculture and have been at the forefront of sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and preservation of the land. George Washington Carver is one of historical figures who was born into slavery in the early 1860s, but rose to become an agricultural scientist, inventor, and educator at Tuskegee University. He sought to revitalize southern soil that had been stripped by cotton, a nitrogen depleting crop. He developed a crop rotation method that alternated the cotton with legumes, like peanuts, that fix nitrogen and other edible crops. This method increased the soil’s productive capacity and also gave southern farmers another crop to produce and sell, thus diversifying the market. He also promoted the practice of using compost to reintroduce nutrients and organic matter to the soil and was a leader in environmentalism.

The Bartlett Arboretum shared In the Garden with Dr Carver by Susan Grigsby. This fictionalized account of how plant scientist George Washington Carver came to an Alabama school and taught the children how to grow plants and reap the rewards of nature's bounty. Includes factual notes about George Washington Carver. Audio recording via YouTube