Evy McGinness (also known as EmilyCompost) passed away on July 15, 2004 at 10:15 in the morning, after a two year battle with breast cancer.
Evy had gardened in New York, New Hampshire, Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida.
She will be missed.
Evy pursued many activities besides gardening over the years.
She was a Girl Scout leader and
trainer for many years.- She played women's soccer for five years on the "Over 35" league.
- She was a wood worker, made, and sold early American woodcrafts.
- A voluminous stamp collector, she traded stamps with people from all over the world.
- She was an active member of the Friends of the Library in SC and FL where she lived.
- A tireless traveler, she loved to visit gardens. She borrowed cuttings and seeds from the best botanical gardens around the world.
- A joyful beachcomber.
Most of all, Evy was a gardener: a master gardener in Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida. She created Emily Compost to share her love of gardening with others around the world. Evy was the owner and operator of Island Nature & Garden Company in Fernandina Beach, Florida for three years.
From her interview, she said of herself:
In my early years, I worked in my mother's strawberry patches. She had three large ones and supplied fresh strawberries to the local grocery store. I also had my own little garden plot and a worm business which failed. One customer, no worms.
The entire family was into gardening of some sort. We composted and my mother had a beautiful perennial bed. I remember hollyhocks against an early 1900's barn, bulbs being planted every spring, berry picking of all kinds. Tons of canning every summer. Trading strawberries for eggs.
There's never a day that goes by that I don't pull a weed, pinch something here and there, search something out, or teach someone about gardening, or propagate something.
Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
From "Intimations of
Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood"
by William Wordsworth
Some quotations from Emily's quotes.
"Amassing a large plant collection is never the
goal but rather a result of many memories and friends."
"I don't remember planting this."
"We all share the same backyard."
"Laundry can wait."
gardening writings, read at Evy's memorial services