Grab your clippers!: Trim water sprouts on trees now while the plant energy is moving into the roots. Come springtime, sap and energy rise back up into the plant, and trimming may actually encourage water-sprout growth. Mums the word: The North Carolina Chrysanthemum Society hosts its annual show at the North Carolina Arboretum on Saturday […]

photo by Cecil Bothwell Predictions of fall color are all well and good — sometimes even accurate. After all, as William Cowper put it more than 200 Octobers ago, “A fool must now and then be right by chance.” Then too, in these mountains one can go up or down slope several hundred feet and […]

Old apples, new tricks: Tom Brown, heritage-apple enthusiast, collector and propagator, will talk about the virtues of Heirloom Apples, the importance of preserving them and his adventures scouting them out. He’ll also discuss and demonstrate grafting and more. The free seminar will be held at Reems Creek Valley Nursery (70 Monticello Road in Weaverville) on […]

A seasonal dahliance: Numerous dahlias are in their glory right now, in sizes ranging from pom-poms (up to 2 inches in diameter) to giants (up to 10 inches!). The national flower of its native Mexico, dahlias have been bred to produce thousands of cultivars with white, yellow, orange, pink, dark pink, red, dark red, lavender, […]

Driving me nuts: In response to my announcement that I planned to plant a hazelnut, a reader offered a cautionary note: “They spread voraciously!” Point taken. I believe I’ll still proceed, but at least I’ve been forewarned. On a related matter, this helpful reader noted that “chinquapins are superb trees.” Power flowers: Reems Creek Valley […]

Not in the pot: Wild ginger is a prolific, shade-loving ground cover — but some authorities warn against culiniary use. photo by Cecil Bothwell After a summer spent inhaling two-cycle motor fumes or repeatedly whacking your favorite extension cord with a rotary blade, you’re undoubtedly ready to adopt a new landscaping strategy. To wit: no […]

Garlic time: Now through October is the best time to plant garlic for earlier, bigger bulbs next summer. Each clove will produce one plant with a single bulb, which may in turn contain up to 20 cloves. Plant cloves individually, upright and about an inch under the surface and 4 inches apart in a sunny, […]

A healthy volunteer squash. photo by Cecil Bothwell I am not a fastidious gardener. Looking over my backyard jumble as I compose these words, I can well imagine a reader peering over my shoulder and sneering, “You write about this stuff?” I easily retort: “This is the garden I have always dreamed of growing, exactly […]

Winter greens: September is a fine time to plant lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, chard and radishes. While kale will march on through the winter, the others will do best with row covers as frost sets in. Sow densely and eat the thinnings as plants grow larger. Note that regional garden guru Patryk Battle suggests that […]

Pottering around: Now is the time to start sizing up herbs and other plants you may want to pot up before frost. If you have pots available and a clear idea which plants you’ll be saving, you can wait until frost is imminent before doing the deed. It’s not a bad time to plan for […]

It’s hard to overestimate the impact of the chestnut’s demise. It once covered fully 25 percent of forested land from Maine to Alabama. A chestnut branch My neighborhood trees have started dropping their green nuts, reminding me of all the nut trees I wish I’d planted over the years. I’ve grown apples, peaches and cherries, […]