Native plants used as "foundation" plantings

From left to right:
coral honeysuckle, fothergilla, Euonymus, mountain laurel, Leucothoe, Aquilegia, with Christmas ferns and bloodroot, and Carolina jessamine on the front porch rail

And lots of water oak catkins on the front path!

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A flourishing woodland garden

It's been wonderful to see how the front woodland garden along the path is flourishing this spring, along with the "foundation" plantings in front of the house.

Even the assessor (from the bank of our buyer) on Tuesday (admittedly a plant enthusiast) admired the nice combination of mountain laurel, rhododendron, fothergilla, and coral honeysuckle in front of the house, as well as the native crested iris, green and gold, Christmas fern, and pussytoes.

He also noticed the wild ginger (he told me his grandmother showed him the small flowers - the "little brown jugs."  He thought they were insectivorous because he'd seen ants in them;  I mildly suggested it was the odor, and they probably weren't insectivorous, but didn't want to totally pop that idea!

Just getting back from the mountains today, I didn't have time to take a photo. It is looking lovely.

Nice to feel like we've made a difference as good stewards of our space here in the Piedmont.

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A woodland garden

It was so nice to see the woodland border thriving, in spring guise, returning from the mountains to the Piedmont in the final stages of relocation.

This was a created woodland spot; it was shallow dry grass beneath a water oak when we bought this house.  And there was no pathway to the front of house, either. We put one in ourselves.

Crested Iris in flower

Now the space is full of Christmas ferns, crested iris, bloodroot, pussy-toes, and green and gold - it's a lovely small drought-tolerant woodland patch.

Lonicera sempervirens flowering on the fence nearby

The bloodroot is reseeding everywhere. Here's a "mama" plant with her babies -- remarkable, seen this afternoon.

A "mama" bloodroot and seedlings

Bloodroot seedlings

I'm delighted to see them flourishing.  They've been a favorite spring wildflower for many years.

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Paring down books

I've been paring down my gardening and natural history books, with upcoming consolidation to a smaller living space.

It's an interesting process (not without angst).

I think about and weigh (based on my de-cluttering inspirations):  have I looked at this field guide lately?  Do I really want to know as much about dragonflies as this very nice guide provides?  Ditto about caterpillars?  Hmm.

My gardening companion and I don't need duplicates, either, so extras are being shed.

And doesn't the internet now provide access to virtual field guides of all sorts, I'm thinking?

This is at least the 4th time I've gone through the book shedding process, now with increasing intensity as moving looms near (three weeks from Friday), thinking about how much space I'll have for books, and what I really need to go forward in my work in the future, volunteer and otherwise.

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Moving forward

As we get ready to pass on an old house (built in 1929) and relatively new garden (we've been here 22 years) to the next owners, I'm happy and wistful.  We accepted an offer last weekend, so it's now "contract pending."

My dad, not a sentimental sort, reminded me this morning via email of Robert McCloskey's words in The Time of Wonder, "a little bit sad about the place you are leaving, a little bit glad about the place you are going"  (he remembered:  happy about the place you’re going to, sad about the place you’re leaving.)  

My mother often read that book to my sister and me, along with his other books. 

I've thought about that phrase a lot over the last couple of months.  

She's been gone for a long time, now, sadly, and wasn't married to my dad for quite a long time before that, but I still have the book.

I'm glad about the place I'm going to, but still a little bit sad about the place I'm leaving.

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Ready for a new gardener

I cleaned up the main vegetable garden in the Piedmont today.  I meant to get a photo this afternoon, but time got away, with pulls of other things.

This is what it looked like getting ready a year or so ago.

prepped for planting (main vegetable garden)

It didn't need much prep, as I'd prepared and planted last fall, just to have early frost, deer, squirrels, and woodchucks pretty much clear what had been planted -  out.

I planted some kale, weeded around the perennial leeks, cleaned up around a flourishing patch of creasy greens, and "fluffed up" the soil around emerging sorrel and chives, and all of the bare areas.

It's ready for a new gardener.  The satellite garden has gone back to mulch, but it's ready, too, as is the sunny patch of lawn below the house (perfect for converting to a number of large raised beds for vegetables and herbs!)

My containers near the potting bench have parsley and spinach in them; the porch plantings have been equally spiffed up.

I'm about to prepare some sugar water for the hummingbird feeder. The males are heading north, now.  The feeder will be waiting to provide sustenance along the way to farther north.

I was wistful as I prepared the beds this afternoon, but I have lovely raised beds in full sun to look forward to.  I'm grateful for that.

full of greens and kale

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Cool-season vegetable gardening (and moving forward)

I really like to promote 4-season vegetable gardening here in the Carolinas.

There's no reason not to grow winter-hardy vegetables (kale, collards, and the like) through the winter, if you like greens.   The last two winters, though, have not been kind to even normally hardy (without any protection) winter vegetables.

So I've started from "scratch" two years in a row now.  Hmm...

I do have a decent patch of creasy greens in the Piedmont (it can freeze solid and bounce back) along with a similar, but less robust patch in the mountains.  The mache is coming back in one of my flats, too.  It's a tough plant.

The perennial leeks, although frosted, are fine, too.  And the chives are emerging, woo-hoo!

I'm cleaning up the main vegetable garden beds here in the Piedmont, readying them to plant.  I won't be planting them, simply keeping them ready for the next gardener who will come.

This image of the main vegetable garden and shed is one of my favorites - our real estate agent loved it.  The garden shed has been cleaned up.  It's ready for the next gardener, too.

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Honoring an old house

I signed the listing papers today for our house in the Piedmont of SC.

The house looks good.

It’s a great house, with good presence. Built in 1929, it’s not old, compared to living places in many parts of the world, but it’s an old house (even historic) house here.

Our university (why our small college town even exists) was founded in 1898, through a gift of an enlightened 19th century owner, who inherited the land from his wife, and left it to for the establishment of a "high seminary of learning." It’s a public university, and the land grant university for our state. So it’s an old house for our town.

I planted hanging baskets and window boxes today – full of herbs (not much else available right now, because of extreme February cold).

It’s waiting for new owners who will love it, just as we have. I'm feeling like I'm honoring the house and garden today.

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Downsizing your garden

I spent the day at the Davidson Horticultural Symposium.  It was great, full of thought-provoking presentations and interactions with fellow gardeners.

But a couple of the presentations, by very accomplished landscape architects, had me thankful for the opportunity and encouragement to downsize my garden.

Their clients were totally high-end, with unlimited budgets, so with the ability to create not only gigantic (if tasteful) houses, with equally expansive (lovely and high-maintenance) gardens to match.

These two successful landscape designers, and they looked like quite nice women, too (I didn't talk with either) certainly were helping their VERY affluent clients create the landscape/setting that was suitable for the extraordinary places that their homes were set in (Baja California, Martha's Vineyard, upstate NY, etc.)

It just reinforced my thoughts about simplicity and downsizing at this time of life.  I don't want bigger.  Smaller is good.  We're going from 2300 sq. ft. to 1500 sq. ft.

This has meant a lot of shedding, as well as identifying which pieces of furniture will come with us (not many), what will replace what we've acquired already (the couches), what artwork needs to be swapped out (for the time-worn framed posters), etc.

And although I'll totally miss the lovely, large expansive natural landscape we've created here, it's a good thing to simplify, too.

my study view

We'll downsize to the raised bed vegetable garden, the native woodland garden (in the ravine behind our house), the pocket meadow and the natural habitat plantings, on a small scale, that my gardening companion has created.

We'll continue to enhance our smaller landscape (I've had lot of new ideas after today's talks).

So, thankfully, we're downsizing (not upsizing!)

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Creating a natural garden

As my gardening companion and I prepare to leave a garden (really a low-maintenance native plant-dominated landscape) that we've created over the last 22 years, it's interesting to reflect on the changes that we've made -- all to the good, certainly, from the perspective of being good stewards of our space in the world.

We've converted 1.44 acres of what was largely lawn, punctuated by a few large hardwood trees (oaks and hickories), to a native-plant rich diverse landscape,

devoted to woodland in front

with the side yard screened by a diversity of shrubs and trees, not all native, so including Deodar cedar, gingko, and Asian viburnums.

The theme was adding plants that work for a living - native plants that Tim could use for Plant Ecology and Field Botany labs, and adding plants that supported pollinators, herbivores, and providing habitats for birds, and other wildlife.

The front meadow and informal perennial borders have been about supporting pollinators.

And the vegetable garden spaces have been about nourishing us, and our table.

It's been a privilege to be a steward of our historic house (built in 1929), but even more importantly, I'm glad to be leaving a more nature-vibrant landscape, too.

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