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Native Plants for the NC Yard
Whether we grew up in households that farmed, helped in the yard or lived near open areas or in a concrete jungle, many of us who get into gardening as adults follow a trajectory that begins with grabbing a few landscape plants from a big box store and later finds us amongst the feeding frenzy that are native plant sales at our local arboretum or botanical garden, with our mindset having shifted from sprucing up the yard to designing our space to maximize support of local biodiversity and habitat. We shift in preference from turf grass to sedges and from tea roses to rose mallow. While I grew up in…
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Summer Garden Recap
My food growing was a disaster this summer. At least that’s how it felt as I surveyed the mass of weedy overgrowth this evening. I put all my energy into the new pond and quail keeping, and I let the weeds run amok and didn’t feed the plants or top off compost as I should have. For my future self, I’m documenting the season and will start with the positives because no one likes a whiner. Wins One apple tree out of three and one pear tree out of two finally started producing just a few but still very exciting fruits. One really good peach tree yielded 35lbs of peaches.…
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The Big Dig – Backyard Pond
"I dig deep thoughts and appropriately sized holes", my current Instagram tagline, makes me giggle. I didn't anticipate digging such an insanely big hole this spring, but I'd been worrying about how large the koi were growing and pointing out spots in the yard to Joe where a pond would fit.
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Essential Garden Edibles
After nearly 15 years of growing food, I have settled into my garden and learned the local climate, built up my soil, and developed planting rhythms, growth expectations, and a list of essential garden edibles that work best for my garden and household. These 13 fruits, veggies, and herbs have become my essentials because of their flavor, versatility and/or preservability: tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, okra, cucumber, sugar snap peas, carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions, basil, dill, and cilantro. What should go on the list? While I grow tons of different things, these emerged as the foods that I look forward to eating, that I enjoy growing, and that I can combine easily…
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JC Raulston Annual Plant Distribution
The Annual Plant Distribution is like getting an annual dividend on your stock. If you are a member, once a year you get the greenhouse excess. It’s wonderful. The “grab” is broken up into four rounds. During the first three rounds, each member can grab three plants. A list of plants are pre-published and numbered with at least four of each available. There are also tons of plants not numbered, and some are real stunners. The fourth round is a free-for-all with the only rule being, “no plants left behind”. Members come with wagons, plan lists and their own game plan. This was our second year as members, and so…
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Friends of the Arboretum Annual Plant Distribution
I’ve heard rumors of this event for years. Members show up at the JC Raulston Arboretum on a Saturday morning to rush a field of plants to help empty the greenhouses. This April I finally became a member so my husband and I could gain access to the newsletter, member pricing on events, and passes to this event in particular. Last night we drafted our list of desired plants from the 80 plants listed, and this morning we watched the pre-game video to make sure we knew the rules. We loaded up Joe’s truck with a wagon, camp chairs and stopped for Bojangles on the way. We were amazed at…