Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Those of you who watch Making It Grow are familiar with my friend and fellow extension agent, Tony Melton. Tony makes no bones about the hard times his family experienced trying to make a living on those sandy soils when he was growing up in McBee. He started picking cotton and butterbeans in his grandfather’s garden when he was five.
The seventh of eight children, he followed in the footsteps of his siblings and as a young teen, began working for McLeod Farms. Mrs. McLeod took Tony under her wing and he credits tending with her beautiful azaleas as the basis of his love of plants. When he graduated from high school, Tony was unsure of his future, could he become the first of his family to go to college?. With the guidance of the McLeods and his ag ed teacher, E.B.Eargle, Tony was awarded a scholarship to Clemson and the rest is history.
