About
Primitive brings alive 25 years of hands-on experience developing high quality, restorative and therapeutic landscapes. Growing up in North Augusta, SC, Todd Beasley often visited the nursery of one of the country’s premier plant collector and nurseryman (Ted Stephens & Nurseries Caroliniana). Through Ted he developed a love for horticulture.
Todd joined Jarrett’s Jungle, a tropical plant retail center in 1995 and later joined Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden as nursery and production manager. He’s served as faculty with Midlands Technical College and Heathwood Hall Episcopal School. He’s received recognition for developing various environmental education programs for schools and academic centers. Todd wrote the proposal to bring the American Horticultural Society’s National Children and Youth Gardening Symposium to Columbia in 2016.
In 2017, Todd was recruited to serve as the Director of Programs at the San Antonio Botanical Garden followed by almost two years at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden as Director of Horticulture & Facilities. It was at this time he began reflecting on his skills and experiences within horticulture and education. The time had come to bring dreams to realty. And thus Primitive was born.
In 2019, Todd started growing plants again to feed his soul and have access to plants not readily available from the industry for his designs. By 2022 it was a little obsessive. During this time, while serving as a clinical assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of SC, plans to begin section hiking the Appalachian Trail developed. Along came Andy Boyd.
Andy and Todd had worked together for several years at a local K-12 school where Andy served in various capacities from wrestling coach to strength and conditioning coach. These roles were very fitting for Andy as his 6' 4" frame not only molded minds, it kept the minds in line and well behaved. Side note - Andy is a gently giant but if you ever watch a clip of him on YouTube rumbling down the football field you'd get out of the way too - his talent allowed him to be coached as a USC Gamecock tight end under two of the greatest coaches in the history of football - Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.
It was his love of plants that was particularly interesting as he always supported the plant sales. In 2022 the two began section hiking the trail. During the course of many miles over many trips and adventures, conversations always included plants. In the fall of 23', Andy joined Primitive By Design as Operations Manager and Managing Member. He continues his full time employment at Ridan Composites as Plant Manager and has been instrumental in getting material donated to the Palmetto Trail Conservancy. His role is complementary to what he does with Primitive By Design on a daily basis - ensuring the logistics of daily nursery management along with administrative duties of incoming and outgoing sales and purchases are always accurate. This model has served incredibly important as Todd began commuting to Statesboro, GA weekly as Director of the Botanic Garden at Georgia Southern University.
The obsession with plants continues as material is now grown at four sites with the dream of a brick and mortar location in the future. Should you be interested in supporting this, we, of course, are always willing to talk.
Captain Chlorophyll aka Todd Beasley (L) and the Gentle Giant Mongo aka Andy Boyd (R). We let Andy lead on the trail to clear all spider webs and to make sure all nefarious individuals scatter.
Todd joined Jarrett’s Jungle, a tropical plant retail center in 1995 and later joined Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden as nursery and production manager. He’s served as faculty with Midlands Technical College and Heathwood Hall Episcopal School. He’s received recognition for developing various environmental education programs for schools and academic centers. Todd wrote the proposal to bring the American Horticultural Society’s National Children and Youth Gardening Symposium to Columbia in 2016.
In 2017, Todd was recruited to serve as the Director of Programs at the San Antonio Botanical Garden followed by almost two years at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden as Director of Horticulture & Facilities. It was at this time he began reflecting on his skills and experiences within horticulture and education. The time had come to bring dreams to realty. And thus Primitive was born.
In 2019, Todd started growing plants again to feed his soul and have access to plants not readily available from the industry for his designs. By 2022 it was a little obsessive. During this time, while serving as a clinical assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of SC, plans to begin section hiking the Appalachian Trail developed. Along came Andy Boyd.
Andy and Todd had worked together for several years at a local K-12 school where Andy served in various capacities from wrestling coach to strength and conditioning coach. These roles were very fitting for Andy as his 6' 4" frame not only molded minds, it kept the minds in line and well behaved. Side note - Andy is a gently giant but if you ever watch a clip of him on YouTube rumbling down the football field you'd get out of the way too - his talent allowed him to be coached as a USC Gamecock tight end under two of the greatest coaches in the history of football - Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.
It was his love of plants that was particularly interesting as he always supported the plant sales. In 2022 the two began section hiking the trail. During the course of many miles over many trips and adventures, conversations always included plants. In the fall of 23', Andy joined Primitive By Design as Operations Manager and Managing Member. He continues his full time employment at Ridan Composites as Plant Manager and has been instrumental in getting material donated to the Palmetto Trail Conservancy. His role is complementary to what he does with Primitive By Design on a daily basis - ensuring the logistics of daily nursery management along with administrative duties of incoming and outgoing sales and purchases are always accurate. This model has served incredibly important as Todd began commuting to Statesboro, GA weekly as Director of the Botanic Garden at Georgia Southern University.
The obsession with plants continues as material is now grown at four sites with the dream of a brick and mortar location in the future. Should you be interested in supporting this, we, of course, are always willing to talk.
Captain Chlorophyll aka Todd Beasley (L) and the Gentle Giant Mongo aka Andy Boyd (R). We let Andy lead on the trail to clear all spider webs and to make sure all nefarious individuals scatter.
Noteworthy Press
