BUCKHANNON - Rob Barbor peered through the leaves, and bent down to get a closer look. The dark green foliage flowing over the flower bed made it hard to see.
Cars passed by the horticulturist as he reached one hand in the undergrowth and lifted the plant's vines up with the other. Brushing away some soil, he found what he was looking for - a little sweet potato, practically hidden in the dark earth.
"You can see them," he said, smiling. He stood back up, satisfied.
That was just one of the many ornamental sweet potato plants successfully producing in the flower beds, hanging baskets and planters that Barbor has scattered across Buckhannon. This particular potato was hiding in a round, raised flower bed outside of City Hall at the end of September. Its long vines covered in hearty dark leaves complimented the bed's pink sunpatiens and white vinca. A spider plant with tall, wispy flowers in light pink and dark purple provided the final compliment to colorfully frame the city building's entrance.
The name of this horticultural program?
"Beautify Buckhannon," Barbor offered on the spot. It's a common mission in the commercial horticulture industry, but Barbor's approach is challenging the norm.
For starters, everything is organic.
"Of course, the flowers thrive on organic principles. They love it," Barbor said.
Every single plant - an estimated 20,000-25,000 - that Barbor starts in the greenhouse and plants in a bed is grown without any form of chemical fertilizer or pesticide. The materials that he uses to fertilize his plants are all organic. He makes his own compost out of town and uses it in his plantings. He starts all of his plants from seed or plugs in a greenhouse at Buckhannon Upshur High School.
And in the summertime, he and his seasonal crew pull weeds by hand. If they need to treat plants for insects or fungus prevention, they use neem oil, a vegetable oil pressed from fruits and seeds of a neem tree.
Barbor, now 28, is applying the common-sense principles he learned while studying horticulture and soil science at West Virginia University. And he's doing it in a town with an estimated population of 5,700. His full-time position is a rarity for a town of that size. Many of the largest cities in West Virginia - including Huntington and Morgantown - don't have a horticulturist.
Since he started four years ago, Barbor has grown the program every year to expand his planters and beds to stretch beyond Buckhannon's downtown area. And through his organic practices, he's showing that you don't need chemical fertilizers or pesticides to grow healthy plants.
Instead of relying on chemical pesticides, the key to preventing disease, Barbor says, is maintaining adequate nutrition and proper watering for the plants.
"If they are not stressed out, then they are a lot more resistant to other disease factors. They are way more resistant. If you have a healthy plant, it can fight off fungus and bacteria much more than a plant in a stressed state," Barbor said.
After the town's 77 hanging baskets, more than 100 planters and 26 garden areas containing multiple beds have been planted at the beginning of May, Barbor uses two forms of natural fertilizer to continue to provide them nutrients.
Once a week he adds a fish-based fertilizer, a fluid made from processed fish, to the tank he uses to water his plants. Barbor said the fish emulsion provides plants complete nutrition by giving them macro and micro nutrients. On varying weeks, he also soaks a giant, nutrient-rich bag - filled with worm castings, mushroom compost, a poultry-based fertilizer and azomite - in his watering tank to create a compost tea that he then sprays on his plants.
This typing of feeding, known as foliar feed, allows the nutrients to be absorbed through the plant's leaves.
On a recent drive in late September, Barbor pointed out his work.
The two large beds in Jawbone Park are filled with sun patients and red and yellow celosias. There's the many intersections marked with round, self-watering planters that brighten the corners and the long, concrete retaining wall along Route 20 so covered in zinnias and other flowers that the utilitarian structure almost blends into its green background.
Even at the end of their growing season, most of the flowers Barbor has planted around Buckhannon are thriving.
"We're constantly building the fertility of our beds through these organic amendments," he said.
"Eventually the earth worms are happy, all of the microorganisms are happy, the nutritional cycle is just in balance and the plants have available nutrients."
Barbor's organic program requires an ongoing education. When he and his crew first started spraying fish emulsion, he said many residents complained, "It's smelly." Now he tries to only add fish emulsion on days that he knows it will rain.
And he still gets requests to spray weed killer, but he won't.
"We live in a watershed ... the Buckhannon River watershed. It's the drinking supply for everybody downstream of us from here to the Gulf. It's important for us to maintain water quality.
"We need to do our part. And this is a way that I can do that - reduce our chemical input in the atmosphere and the environment," Barbor said.
In just a few weeks, Barbor will pull all of the plants from around town. He'll throw all of the materials into his compost pile. And those old flowers will spend the winter decomposing. In the spring, they'll be ready to provide nutrients to the next generation of colorful plants helping to brighten up the town.
"When you take away the flowers, it's night and day. The shops are still full and the people are still out, but it makes a huge difference having those flowers. ... The plants are going to freshen up the air and make you smile as you drive by."
Reach Anna Patrick at anna.patrick@wvgazette.com or 304-348-4881.