The Art of Noticing

Adam Bigelow is a man who is hard to ignore. with his deep voice and smiling eyes, he seems to be holding a fun secret.  The thing is, Adam does have a secret, and he wants to share it with us. In fact, he makes his place in the world by sharing this secret: namely, that a life allied with plants and with nature is a harmonious one, replete with meaning and connection.  If Adam’s own joy is an indication, then we would all do well to absorb a measure of what he has to share.  He beams with charisma when describing the astonishing botany and natural systems that so define the southern Appalachians.

Adam has been studying the region’s flora for over 20 years. As a horticulturist and botanist, his interests and expertise center around native plants and methods of organic gardening.  He earned his degree in Horticulture from Haywood Community College and holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences from Western Carolina University.  For 16 years, Adam worked with development and management of an organic community garden in Sylva, and also founded and managed the Cullowhee Community Garden for 10 years.  Notably, Adam’s work with plants is met by his enthusiasm for community, likely derived from the sense of kinship that his own love of plants has afforded him.  Adam serves on the planning committee and is a repeat presenter for the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, widely recognized as a key meeting ground for native plant enthusiasts.

Adam is a skilled teacher with an easy gift for pairing the science of plants with engaging stories and hands-on experience.  Among western North Carolina gardeners and naturalists, Adam is recognized as a compelling voice for enjoying the botanical gifts of the region.  Appropriately, he pens a column for the Smoky Mountain News called “The Joyful Gardener.”  His joy in plants is manifest; this genuine excitement for his subject means students are both amused and inspired when they learn from Bigelow.   Incidentally, Adam did not grow up connected to nature or plants.  He chuckles to remember that, as a child, he hated yardwork and did not eat vegetables.  His mother now jokes that, as an adult, he enjoys yardwork in order to grow vegetables.

Adam loves wildflowers; he is an apologist for their worth.  As a devotee of the wilder lands of the region, he founded Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions, an eco-tour business wherein he leads guided botanic walks in western North Carolina.  Such excursions can be booked privately, or he hosts open walks where participants meet at a specified trailhead.  On these walks, Adam shows excursioners how to encounter an entire universe of beauty by simply focusing on the details they usually pass right by.

Adam’s teaching dispels people of “plant blindness.”  By learning to actually see the flowers in a field, there is a “pop-out effect” wherein a participant comes to recognize plants that, before, were just hazy in the background.  He teaches the art of noticing.  On Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions, “the wildflowers are the destination.”   These are not grueling hikes; rather, they are a means to find joy in the bounty of our local flora.  Because of the diversity in the region’s terrain, the scheduled walks often chase the elevation.  As spring moves further up the mountain, so do the walks, maximizing the season in which wildflowers are the main event.

In the last decade, particularly in the years since Covid 19, Adam recognizes in many people a growing desire to connect with nature and the living world around them.  More people appreciate the value of gardening as an act of working with our natural surroundings rather than conquering nature with chemicals and invasive acts.  The native plant movement, a cause with which Adam has long been aligned, is no longer a fringe movement nor seen as completely divorced from other forms of ornamental landscape.  He finds that more people now seek the opportunity to learn about the connection of native plants to our lives and how to garden successfully without the use of harsh and toxic chemicals.

This increased interest means that it is harder for people to ignore that the choices we make in our gardens not only affect our food supply, but they also impact our beautiful forests and our precious rivers, streams, and waterfalls.  Therefore, when Adam teaches on any given subject, the subtext is that it all matters: everything is connected.

Through the adult education program at Western Carolina University and an initiative called “Nature U,” Adam teaches a series of nature-based classes.  This spring, he chose to make such topics even more approachable by holding organic gardening classes at Santé Wine Bar in Sylva, allowing a casual and collegial spirit to drive the learning.  He wants the classes to help people “grow some food and some fun”.  Courses have both classroom-style and field-trip components, so students are able to see gardens and plants in-situ after learning some basics.

In this same spirit, Adam is developing a program he calls “Adult Ed and Bev.”  Gardening classes will be held at different venues, making for a convivial experience at local bars and restaurants.  Although drinking is in no way required, he is having fun with the idea of hosting “Bourbon and Botany” and “Wildflowers and Wine” classes, underscoring Adam’s insistence on celebration and joy in horticulture.

Adam’s current classes include the following rubric, though he is ever honing and expanding his offerings:

» May 26th-June 30th  Foraging for Food and Medicine

» July 21st-Aug 25th  Basics of Organic Gardening

» Sept 1-Oct 6th Native Plant Gardening Through the Seasons

Upcoming classes will be held in 6-week intervals, with about 80 percent of the meetings “classroom” style and 20 percent as field trips.  Additional subjects will comprise Nature Photography with Your Smartphone, Composting, and Basics of Botany.

For more details on upcoming classes, excursions, and general botanical fun, visit Adam’s website: bigelowbotanicalexcursions.com. Find him on Facebook and Instagram @BigelowBotanicalExcursion, or contact Adam at BigelowNC@gmail.com

His exuberance will surely inspire your own connection with the plants and nature in your immediate surroundings.