CO-OP NEWS

THE MAGAZINE FOR COOPERATIVE MEMBERS

VOLUME 74 • NUMBER 3 (ISSN 0047-486X, USPS 316-240)

Read in more than 600,000 homes and businesses and published monthly except in December by The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, Inc. 808 Knox Abbott Drive Cayce, SC 29033

Tel: (803) 926-3175 Fax: (803) 796-6064 Email: letters@scliving.coop

EDITOR Keith Phillips Tel: (803) 739-3040 Email: Keith.Phillips@ecsc.org

FIELD EDITORS Walter Allread, Josh Crotzer

PUBLICATION COORDINATOR Travis Ward

ART DIRECTOR Sharri Harris Wolfgang

COPY EDITORS Trevor Bauknight, Jennifer Jas

CONTRIBUTORS April Coker Blake, Mike Couick, Andrew Haworth, Tim Hanson, Jan A. Igoe, Patrick Keegan, David Novak, Sydney Patterson, Belinda Smith-Sullivan, Chase Smoak, Brad Thiessen, Amy Trainum, Paul Wesslund

ADVERTISING Mary Watts Tel: (803) 739-5074 Email: ads@scliving.coop

NATIONAL REPRESENTATION American MainStreet Publications Tel: (800) 626-1181

Paid advertisements are not endorsements by any electric cooperative or this publication. If you encounter a difficulty with an advertisement, inform the Editor.

ADDRESS CHANGES: Please send to your local co-op. Postmaster: Send Form 3579 to Address Change, c/o the address above.

Periodicals postage paid at Columbia, S.C., and additional mailing offices.

©COPYRIGHT 2020. The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, Inc. No portion of South Carolina Living may be reproduced without permission of the Editor.

SOUTH CAROLINA LIVING is brought to you by your member-owned, taxpaying, not-for-profit electric cooperative to inform you about your cooperative, wise energy use and the faces and places that identify the Palmetto State. Electric cooperatives are South Carolina’s—and America’s—largest utility network.

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2020 | march LAWN & GARDEN ISSUE

16 Keeping it green With more than 2,100 acres of forests, fields, lakes and trails, Fort Mill’s iconic Anne Springs Close Greenway holds urban sprawl at bay.

22 Tasty homegrown tomatoes Step up to the challenge of growing better-tasting tomatoes this season with expert advice from Clemson University Extension Agent Chase Smoak.

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4 CO-OP NEWS Updates from your cooperative

6 AGENDA Learn how the race to build better batteries for electric vehicles may benefit home electricity consumers.

10 DIALOGUE Questioning deregulation Lawmakers will need to ask some hard questions before attempting to alter South Carolina’s electricity market.

12 ENERGY Q&A Your efficiency upgrades checklist Follow this six-step checklist if you plan to make efficiency improvements to your home this spring.

14 SMART CHOICE Lawn and order Put your best gardening foot forward this season with electric lawn and garden tools.

21 STORIES Garden guru Spend some time with Amanda McNulty, host of SCETV’s Making It Grow.

28 RECIPE A fantastic French dinner Good news: Chef Belinda Smith-Sullivan’s latest recipes prove French cooking is not as difficult or as complicated as you might think.

30 TRAVELS Mystery at the museum The game is afoot at the S.C. State Museum’s new International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes.

34 MARKETPLACE

36 CALENDAR

38 HUMOR ME Smash now and forever hold your peace According to our humor columnist, paying good money to bludgeon inanimate objects with a sledgehammer is all the rage.

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LAWN & GARDEN ISSUE

Tasty

tomatoes Tips to perish pests, fight fungus, root out rot and green up your thumb

Our gardening tips can help you harvest a bumper crop of the tastiest tomatoes you’ve ever tried. Illustration by David Clark.