{"id":8907,"date":"2014-01-01T13:51:01","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/creative.clemson.edu\/clemsonworld\/?p=8907"},"modified":"2014-01-01T13:51:01","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:51:01","slug":"james-d-jim-martin-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/james-d-jim-martin-86\/","title":{"rendered":"James D. \u201cJim\u201d Martin \u201986"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Martin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A relationship with the land<\/h3>\n

\u201cChoose a job you love, and you\u2019ll never work a day in your life.\u201d
\nFor Jim Martin, Charleston Parks Conservancy program director and James Island farmer, no saying could be more apropos.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve always known I wanted to garden. Even as a tiny child, my parents always let me have a little garden plot of whatever I wanted. And I knew I wanted to study horticulture at Clemson when I was in the tenth grade,\u201d Martin said.
\nMartin has spent his entire working life acting on his childhood impulse to make things grow. He has worked in public horticulture throughout South Carolina for more than 25 years. At Riverbanks Zoo, he played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and developing the zoo\u2019s 90-acre botanical garden. He was instrumental in master plan development for the Mepkin Abbey Botanical Garden. He has also been vice-president of horticulture for Brookgreen Gardens on Pawleys Island.
\nIn 2007, S.C. businesswoman Darla Moore invited Martin to help launch the nonprofit Charleston Parks Conservancy, which partners with the City of Charleston and local communities to renovate and maintain the city\u2019s parks and greenspaces through its Charleston Park Angels program.
\n\u201cThe Park Angels program is founded on the concept that if you give people the opportunity to help with their parks and greenspaces, they will make it happen,\u201d Martin said. The group is currently filling bare patches of dirt with lush plantings and replacing decades-old playground equipment with the latest and safest at 27 sites.
\nBut Martin\u2019s life wouldn\u2019t be complete if he didn\u2019t also grow vegetables as he did when he was a child, so in 2012, he started a small boutique farm on Johns Island where he leases 1.25 acres through Lowcountry Local First\u2019s incubator farm program. Martin sells his seasonal vegetables and herbs to local restaurants by focusing on what each restaurant\u2019s specific needs might be and what he as a small farmer can grow for them. Martin says that the evolving \u201cfoodie culture\u201d in Charleston has resulted in the understanding that buying fresh, locally grown, high-quality produce results in a better product.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve had a great career. I love what I\u2019m doing. And what I did at Clemson helped get me here,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A relationship with the land \u201cChoose a job you love, and you\u2019ll never work a day in your life.\u201d For Jim Martin, Charleston Parks Conservancy program director and James Island farmer, no saying could be more apropos. \u201cI\u2019ve always known I wanted to garden. Even as a tiny child, my parents always let me have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[584,1531,1633,2196,3297],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-charleston-parks-conservancy","tag-horticulture","tag-james-d-jim-martin-86","tag-park-angels","tag-winter-2014"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/12\/Martin.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8907"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}