Sun City Sun June 21, 2023

PHOTO BY TOM MILLS

Tom and Barbara McCann enjoy volunteering to maintain the many gardens at their church, Bluffton United Methodist in Old Town Bluffton.

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Maintaining gardens at Bluffton church is a labor of love

By Katherine Mace

CONTRIBUTOR

“The gardens add beauty and invite people to stop, and members to get more involved with the church. I see folks pulling weeds, and building fellowship and relationships, and our kids feel a sense of ownership. It is a beautiful way to be aware.”

With these words, the pastor, Rev. Scarlett Hester, described the gardens at Bluffton United Methodist Church, located at 101 Calhoun St. in Old Town.

At the helm of nurturing the 11 gardens on the church grounds are Tom and Barbara McCann, Sun City residents and church members.

Tom, a Master Gardener through the Clemson Extension Program and leader of the team of about eight volunteer gardeners, has been involved with creating and shepherding these gardens for more than four years.

Developing the gardens involved buying some plants; but there was a great deal of transplanting and repurposing of plants already onsite.

“We found about 450 liriope behind some bushes and we transplanted them,” Tom said. “We also transplanted 29 fully grown azaleas, boxwood, and camellias – and they all made it! The trick is to make the hole square and four times larger than the root ball. You need lots of water for transplants.”

The resulting gardens are magnificent.

The ongoing garden projects started after the renovation of the church in 2015. At that time, several church members met to establish a Landscape Team that would complement the beauty of Calhoun Street and their church.

In 2019, Christina Bryant, a landscape designer and church member,

Barbara McCann pulls weeds from one of the many gardens she tends at Bluffton United Methodist Church on Calhoun Street.

TOM MILLS

Tom McCann examines a lily in one of the gardens he tends at Bluffton United Methodist Church on Calhoun Street.

TOM MILLS

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provided an initial plan for the front of the church. Team McCann designed the other gardens, and the full team executed the plans.

In honor of spring and the emerging of the gardens, a Garden Cantata was planned by Keeley DiMartino, the church’s Director of Music, and on May 21 it was performed by the church’s Chancel, Children’s, and Hand Bell choirs.

The concert featured familiar nature-themed hymns like “For the Beauty of the Earth” and “Grow Your Garden.” The cantata was accompanied on the piano by Beth Corry and Nancy Osgood, a Sun City resident who also played the clarinet. The ensemble included a cellist, guitarist, and flutist.

Many Sun City residents are members of the church and the choir. The choir members, young and older, the pastor, and the musicians dressed in flower prints, as did many in the membership community. The children

enhanced the performance with their floral attire.

Al Litster, Sun City resident and Bluffton Methodist Church member for 18 years, has held numerous posts in the church’s lay leadership. “It is fantastic to be singing with kids. I’ve watched them grow up,” Litster said.

“The gardens provide a source of beauty for our wonderful little church and make the congregation feel proud. They also provide a place where everyone can visit for a moment of peaceful reflection,” Litster continued. “Our bench and fountain to the right side of the church provides a little grotto for contemplation for our members, visitors and those who pass by. The gardens and property have flourished under the influence of Tom and Barbara and the Busy Bees, a group of church men who help maintain our property.”

A quick tour around the grounds provides a variety of themed gardens, with accompanying Bible verses. The

first outside the front door of the church is the Sanctuary Garden and features pansies and Easter Lilies. “Some of the flowers are specific to a certain season, and after they blossom, we replace them,” said Tom McCann. “It’s really a full-time job.”

There is a White Garden, the Camellia Walk, and the Choristers Garden, which is positioned right outside the door where choir members often enter. This garden boasts salvia and milkweed to welcome hummingbirds and butterflies.

There is also a Sunshine Garden, a Fern Garden, a Reflection Garden, and – one of the McCann’s favorites – the Children’s Garden. McCann said the Children’s Garden began this spring when the kids planted seeds in cups, and took them home to care for them. They brought them back and transplanted the vegetables, nestling them among sage, thyme, basil, and some very successful tomato vines.

The deer helped themselves to the watermelon, but Tom took the reins and planted pumpkins in a caged spot, so they will survive until fall.

This many gardens mean that a great deal of time is spent weeding, and Barbara McCann has recruited many parishioners to deal with this challenge. “It’s simple. There are only three rules,” she said. “See a weed, pull a week, throw a weed away!”

As she stooped to pull a weed, Barbara added, “Most of us cannot walk past a weed.”

According to Tom, “Some of the gardens are situated along the sidewalk – and believe it or not, tourists stop to weed.”

Those interested in being involved in the church, its music, or the garden may contact the church office at 843757-3351.

Mace is a writer who lives in Sun City.

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Environmental group tours water plant, reassured by findings

By David W. Smith

Twenty members of Sun City’s Lowcountry Environmental Action group learned a lot about our drinking water on a recent tour of the Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Authority’s Chelsea water treatment facility.

Brian Chemsak, chief of plant operations, held a classroom presentation of the history of BJWSA and gave an overview of the various aspects of the business – with a focus on how our drinking water is processed.

Mark Ferrell, chief water operator, then led a plant tour showing the numerous processes required to turn water from the Savannah River, the primary source, into clean, safe drinking water. A four-step process of flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection takes 5 to 12 hours to complete.

BJWSA follows the standards set in the Clean Drinking Water Act by the Environmental Protection Agency and the regulations of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. They consider these regulations and standards as the minimum and always strive to exceed them.

The nonprofit authority runs 24/7/365 each year, with technicians running hourly tests to assure quality standards are being met. Emergency contingency plans are in place to make sure clean water keeps flowing, even during hurricanes.

BJWSA is confident that the numerous lakes which flow into the river will continue to supply the water needed to satisfy our

needs long into the future. Plans are well underway to upgrade the processing capacity to handle the growth projected for the Lowcountry.

Our area uses 18-30 million gallons a day. Summer lawn irrigation accounts for half of our water usage. We can help ensure an uninterrupted drinking water supply by cooperating with BJWSA’s request: Please avoid irrigation from 3 to 9 a.m., and stagger usage. Even-numbered addresses are asked to irrigate Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Odd-numbered addresses are asked to irrigate Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Mondays are “no irrigation days” to accommodate for the very high water demands typically experienced on Mondays. Installing a rain sensor will rapidly pay for itself with lower water bills while saving water.

Sustainability of our environment is very important to BJWSA. Their eight wastewater facilities treat about 10 million gallons of wastewater every day. Half of it is treated in the Great Swamp, where BJWSA owns 1100 acres of lowland floodplain. They are working there to restore land that had been heavily timbered by planting tens of thousands of trees to increase its capacity as a carbon sink.

LEA members left the tour feeling confident in the overall operation and the quality of our drinking water. They strongly recommend the tour to others.

The 100+ Sun City Women Who Care group recently donated $14,500 to Hopeful Horizons, a children’s advocacy, domestic violence and rape crisis center with offices located in both Beaufort and Bluffton. Holding the check on the right is Kristin Dubrowski, director of Hopeful Horizons, and Sharon Lang, left, the nominator. In attendance from left to right: Camille Richardson, Judy Young, Mary Lou Beavers, Bev Witzel, Lang, Kathie Boskovich, Andy Hoerner, Nancy Hill, Debi Boccanfuso, Maureen Dean, Dubrowski, Cindy Phillip, Diane McKinnery, Kay Mills, Vicki Galbraith and Laurie Barnett.

TOM MILLS

David W. Smith is a member of Lowcountry Environmental Action.

CONTRIBUTOR

Members of Sun City’s Lowcountry Environmental Action group recently visited Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Authority’s Chelsea water treatment facility.

DAVID W. SMITH

Dealing with squawking Amazons through language barriers

By Chris Roosa

I’ve written before about my love of birds while growing up in Michigan. It was always a wonderful awakening of springtime to hear the return of robins after a long hard winter.

My first pet bird was a Double Yellow Headed Amazon. However, I kept her just a short period of time once I realized she must have previously been owned by a Hispanic person. She only spoke Spanish. Not being fluent, I couldn’t understand a word she said.

So I returned her to the pet store and acquired an English-speaking Amazon.

Myka No. 2 started out sweet, but at age 10, when her hormones kicked in, she became mean. My fingers were constantly bleeding, my nose scabbed up. She crinkled several gold necklaces with her powerful beak, dangled

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from my hoop pierced earrings and screamed “Ma!” every time she saw me preparing food.

One day a friend showed up at my front door.

I was out back at the barn, with the horses, and Mary didn’t see me. She rang the doorbell and Myka, the Amazon, yelled, “Hello!” Mary identified herself to the bird.

With that, Myka replied, “Hi, how are you?”

Mary politely responded, and then the bird asked her, “What’s ya’ doing?” Mary went into a lengthy explanation of why she had stopped by. There was silence from the other side.

Mary then yelled, “Chris?” She heard another “hello,” so she continued talking. More silence.

Finally, Mary said, “Chris, are you

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To which Myka replied, “Here, kitty kitty, meow-meow!”

Mary later told me she paused for a moment, and then realized she’d been talking to a parrot for seven minutes.

Mary was so impressed with my parrot that she decided to buy an African Gray. They too are very vocal.

Mary was a very refined young woman. In fact, we all called her “Nice Mary” because she was the epitome of a true lady. She had grown up performing, on stage, as a ballerina. She later became a ballet instructor. She was trim, extremely pretty, with natural blonde hair piled in a chignon atop her head.

Mary had had her pet bird only a few days when she decided to invite the minister and his wife over for dinner.

Mary spent the day preparing a delicious meal for the couple. The bird

cage was in her formal dining room. Dinner was served, conversation was light and cheerful. The minister was intrigued with the African Gray. He asked Mary if it talked, and Mary assured him that she was told the bird had quite a vocabulary.

The minister began talking kindly to the African Gray, whereupon the bird opened up with “Hi,” followed by every filthy, vulgar swear word known to mankind.

Of course, Nice Mary was horrified while the minister sat there with his mouth hanging open. There were probably skid marks down the driveway as Mary immediately returned the bird to its former owner.

What’s the moral of this story? Be careful what you say in the company of a talking bird!

Chris Roosa is a resident of Sun City Hilton Head.

Fun at Mayfest

For anyone missing their grandchildren, here’s a reminder of how much fun – and how messy – they can be. This photo was taken after the pie-eating contest at the recent Mayfest, held May 13 in Old Town Bluffton.

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