A Wolf's Garden @wolfgarden-blog - Tumblr Blog

Not bad to be living in North Carolina today.

Project Greenhouse

Sooo.... for a while now I've been plotting on building a greenhouse off the south side of my workshop. For a while it's just been in a holding pattern like so many of my projects. With the cold weather approaching and my sunroom packed to the gills with all my tender plants (so much so that walking became an impossibility) I decided to make good on my dream and break ground.

Fortunately, I was able to come across a good bit of 4-year greenhouse plastic from some work I did at the JC Raulston Arboretum, so one of the more expensive building materials was already in-hand.

Here was the prospective greenhouse site in August of this year.

And here it was the next day when I did some clearing....

As is the case with many of my projects, work is completed in fits and starts. About a month and a half later I was ready to pour the concrete footers for the vertical posts... and in that time this is what grew back.

Yes. that towel hung there for a month and half.

After re-clearing the site I dug down about 14" (frost line here in central NC is 8") and poured the footers for the 4"x4" treated posts I am using for my main supports.

After having level posts upon which to build it was on to the somewhat instant gratification of framing work.

Viola! The greenhouse begins to take shape.

I bought 5 tons of #57 granite gravel to act as my floor, heat sink, and drainage. Each wheelbarrow full actually went pretty far.

As you can see, it went on pretty thick for the low end of the greenhouse. In order to be able to walk around in there without it feeling like a gravel beach I decided to employ some of the random assortment of pavers I have around the property.

Not quite where I need the walkway to be yet, but no worries. I'll figure that out later. For now, though, it's back to framing!

For the pitch of the roof I went with slightly steeper than 3/1. Meaning for every three feet of horizontal distance the roof drops a little over one foot down. I left an opening for a 32" door on the front and 48" wide door on the back that I can access for any larger items I need to get in and out... or to put fans, old storm windows, etc.

Ok, so the framing is pretty much done. What's the next step? Paint! I had some primer and paint left over from recently painting the workshop so I decided to use it on the greenhouse as well.

All the construction for this greenhouse I did by my lonesome, but I got a bunch of help with the painting from my beautiful girlfriend. :D

Alright, framing and painting done. Now, I need to revisit the paver walkway so I can get in and out of this place with the last couple of loads of gravel. Luckily, I have enough stuff lying around to make it work.

Ok, the floor is done. the walls are framed, the roof is framed, all the wood is painted... time for some plastic!

As I mentioned earlier, I was fortunate enough to inherit some scrap plastic from the JC Raulston Arboretum (scrap for them, treasure for me!). Skinning a greenhouse by yourself can be a bit tricky though, so I helped myself out with a few strategically placed clamps.

I went with furring strips I painted as the method of securing the plastic. I screwed through the furring strips after pulling the plastic firmly.

It required some readjustments as I progressed... but after a few hours worth of work (and a couple of cold beers) I had most of the greenhouse rather secure.

Starting to look like a greenhouse! But I guess it would be nice to have a door to keep the heat in...

The space above the door has since been turned into a roll-up vent I fashioned out of some scrap plastic and furring strips... but I didn't take a picture of it. Whoops.

My girlfriend came through for me once again by supplying me some greenhouse tables that her parents no longer wanted.

The fan and heater I had already, so I popped a hole in the shop wall and plugged a power strip into an outlet to run out into the greenhouse.

And with them installed the greenhouse is ready for plants!

There you have it. It took a couple of months to complete but my plants have a new, sunny, warm home just in time for the late November chill to set in.

#greenhouse #building a greenhouse #how to build a greenhouse

Friends in the Garden: Spiders

Spiders are everywhere. They live in most places that people live (because other bugs do too!). Some people have a great aversion to them, but most of the time they are helping us out by controlling insect populations.

Given all the biodiversity I've put in the yard I tend to have a huge variety of insect life. This results in a healthy population of spiders. Here are a couple of particularly cool ones (in my opinion) that I've witnessed recently in my gardens.

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So, I am in an entomology class this semester and must collect a bunch of bugs. I was checking on my mountain mint (Pycnanthemum) the other day to see if I could find any particularly cool Hymenopterans (wasps, bees, ants, sawfiles) and I saw this one wasp just hanging out, apparently waiting to be caught! As I moved in closer this is what I saw.....

Hard to see? Here's a close up...

Apparently, the wasp had already been collected... by a Green Lynx Spider!

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Some gardeners consider an Argiope (or ten) in the garden to be good luck. I am one of those.

Isn't she pretty? Not sure what the unfortunate insect is in her clutches but it was sizable. These spiders get awesomely big!

#green lynx spider #argiope #pycnanthemum

Bloomin' Update: ...Since May 5

Dwarf Iris - May 9

OK, he's not a flower... but Jack the Cat is worth mentioning (I think he's imbued with magic powers).

An Iris from my neighbor's yard - May 19

Plumeria - June 9

Curcuma zedoaria (a bit washed out by the flash) - June 23

Wildflowers in the front garden - June 23

Scadoxus multiflorous making an appearance for a third year in a row (again, a bit washed out by the flash... I'm not a very good photographer!) - June 23

Passiflora incarnata. This one can spread agressively, but I love the flowers, edible fruit (only this Passiflora!), and it's ability to compete with the English Ivy, Poison Ivy, Honeysuckle and Virginia Creeper - June 28

Clematis - July 3

Dahlia (unknown variety) - July 3

Triteleia - July 3

Mum. It's just about mum overload time this year... common, but I like the color on this one - July 13

Nice Double Dahlia - August 9

Pipevine. Main food source for the Pipevine Swallowtail... glad to finally have it in the yard - August 9

Crinum 'Cecil Houdyshel' - August 13

Bloomin' Update: Catch-up

Crocus vernis

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Trillium

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Heuchera

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Narcissus tazetta (Paperwhites)

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Hosta (I love this chartreuse cultivar)

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Dwarf Iris (Aren't these adorable!?)

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Green Globe Artichoke

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Columbine

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Tulip

#crocus vernis #trillium #heuchera #paperwhites #narcissus tazetta #hosta #dwarf iris #artichoke #green globe artichoke #columbine #tulip

Whooo-weee... it's been a while!

So, I just finished the Spring semester this Thursday and haven't quite gotten back on top of all my incomplete chores/projects/routines... but I'm getting there.

It was a really awesome semester in which I learned a ton about landscape design (basically, because I took a class which swallowed all my time and forced me to live in the studio), started dating a wonderful woman, acquired a slew of new plants, and discovered that I really love to make sculptures out of bamboo!

Let's start with the bamboo....

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So, one of the design studios I had this past semester required us to build a bamboo sculpture which would be the centerpiece at the JC Raulston Arboretum's annual Gala event. It was an Asian themed gala and our class voted for a design in the form of giant Asian dragon! Awesome.

I volunteered to be on the crew of three guys building the head (because it was to be the most complicated and, therefore, most fun!). The following is a progression of our construction.

It took about two weeks of late nights (and all-nighters) along with help from many friends, but we got it finished on time and it turned out to be wildly popular at the Gala. :D

#JC Raulston Arboretum #Alex Cooley #bamboo dragon #bamboo sculpture #Justin Durango #Kurtis Durrant #JC Raulston Arboretum Gala 2013

Flows of water and foot traffic.

I wish I could take credit for getting a hand in all parts of this work, but I've left dad by himself working on the cabin these past few weeks. Together we finished a metal roof and got some siding up. Since I've been gone he has installed both a water collection system and another door, this time onto the new porch.

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Tarp still covering part of the roof.

Metal roof shining to brightly for my cheapo camera.

From top to bottom.

Some logs my father will eventually use for construction.

A water catchment system my dad put together sitting atop the platform he built to garner some gravitational assistance.

Notice the boxing and soffet have been finished down to the end of the shed roof for the porch.

Another door!

And a porch for it to walk out onto... this faces the fir pit and the outdoor tables set up to cook on.

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This really makes me want to get out there and spend some time... especially when it warms up a bit.

Fall Interest

Spring is my favorite time of year because everything burst to life and tons of plants break ground... but those plants which can endure the cold give Fall it's own unique feeling. Here is some stuff that makes it at least up until frost, some stuff all through the Winter.

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Yucca filamentosa

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Sarracenia

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Edgeworthia chrysantha - this fuzzy thing is the bud(s) of the inflorescence that will open up in early Spring of next year. These buds just hang off the plant until then.

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Lilium forsanum - late bloomer

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Euphorbia martinii

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Fuschia

My Life As A Cabin: Update

When I last mentioned the cabin building project (here) I was still calling it "The Shed"... because it started as a shed my father wanted to build on some property he owns. A shed to be used as a storage facility for tools, supplies, fuel, etc. It would also function as a last resort dwelling should we need somewhere to escape the elements during the construction of the actual cabin my father wants to build. Well... I can no longer support the ruse! It is 14'x17', it has a 14'x8' loft, a covered porch, a deck, and the interior has windows and doors framed out to accommodate a kitchen area along with a spot for a wood burning stove and lounging area. This is now a small cabin.

Anyway, without further ado... here is photographic evidence of recent work we've done.

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Let me first begin where I last left off.

January 8, 2012: Let's turn the hands of time back to January of this year. Here is dad supervising some stump removal by one of his flying buddies... in hind sight, we should have probably had his excavate a bit more to make way for the porch. Oh well, I needed the exercise. ;)

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October 27, 2012: Ok, now fast forward to October. Here we are ready to get back to work. (Notice all the green wood down around the drive. When we pulled up there was a 40' loblolly laying down in front of the cabin. Luckily we brought a chainsaw with us...)

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October 27, 2012: At least the concrete is ready to go...

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October 27, 2012: Footer holes dug.

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October 27, 2012: Dad smoothing out the concrete footers.

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October 27, 2012: The band begins to go it.

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October 27, 2012: Band and most of the joists installed.

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October 28, 2012: Starting our next day of work.

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October 28, 2012:

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October 28, 2012: 55 gal drums + board = working platform

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October 28, 2012: Skeleton of the porch.

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November 23, 2012: My dad and brother got a lot of work done while I was away one weekend. They got the roof put on over the porch, the posts reinforced, and the floor joists put in the for upstairs deck.

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November 23, 2012: Another angle...

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November 23, 2012: To keep the porch dry during a rain event we crafted this unique sub-deck gutter system out of 20" wide flashing. It slopes away from the structure and will eventually be collected in a gutter that runs to a water collection barrel.

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November 23, 2012: The deck starts to go on.

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November 23, 2012: Viola!

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November 23, 2012:

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November 23, 2012: This is the first in a series of photos documenting our risky tree removal process. As a bit of history, we didn't clear all the trees we should have when we first cleared the site. This 40' pine had a serious lean over the cabin, and was dangerously close to the porch roof as well. So we got up on a ladder on the roof and tied some rope in the tree. Then we cranked on that rope by using a come-along that was chained to another tree.

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November 23, 2012: I then got in a ladder and cut this wide wedge and started the back-cut.

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November 23, 2012: After cranking on the come-along a few more times and then hanging from the rope the pine decide to give up. It fell about as close to the cabin as it could get without doing damage. Needless to say dad and I were relieved that we hadn't destroyed a year's worth of work and thousands of dollars worth of materials!

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November 23, 2012: This shot shows just how close the trunk was to the cabin. It also shows he we cut it at the roof height so it could fold "around" the cabin and not clip it's corner.

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November 23, 2012: Enjoying the firepit after a good days work.

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November 24, 2012: Boxing but it for the porch roof.

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November 24, 2012: Finishing work. Here dad is checking how some of the molding will look.

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November 24, 2012: The firepit along with some pine stools and a pine bench we cut from trees on the property.

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More pictures to come soon.....

Predator On The Loose

So, I was walking through the garden one day this summer and thought I saw something on the underside of a fig leaf. Upon closer inspection I saw the winged beast!

A large predatory insect related to the common house fly. Asilidae. Or the robber fly, as they might be more commonly called. It was making a meal of a large bumble bee. When I say large, I mean it was one of the big rumbling bumble bees. This predatory fly is freaking huge.

When I would get close it would pick the bumble bee up and fly to another leaf.

Similar to house flies, these Asilidae regurgitate digestive juices onto (or in this case, into) the future meal. Look it up. These bugs are crazy. Just never look them straight in the eye...

#Asilidae #robber fly

Again, it's been a while since I posted on here but I've got a pretty good reason to do so right now. I just got back from a pretty awesome trip up to Joe Hollis' place up near Burnsville, NC. I haven't been up to the Mountain Gardens since the beginning of the year when I made a blog post about it (here), and it was pretty cool to see how much everything had grown in.

This visit was a field trip for my Permaculture class. We went up from Friday through Sunday and did some work, received some tutorials, got some hands on medicine-making experience, and all-around enjoyed ourselves greatly. Way too much fun!

One of the things we did was help Joe with an ongoing pond installation project. The attached video shows a two hour timelapse of the rock wall work we did. It involves some excavation, stone laying and cobb reinforcement. "Many hands make light work."

#Mountain Gardens

It took a while (about four months) but here is the infamous PlantCam in action, creating a timelapse video of part of the front garden... hibiscus front and center. Super cool.

#PlantCam

Month of June....

Been pretty busy with the internship and work around the house... and I'm even working on a couple of freelance designs! The yard is really filling in nicely, though there are signs of stress out there now that we've had a couple of 100+ degree days. More heat and dry to come so I'll get to see which are the tough plants and which will be replaced next season.

As always, here are some random shots from my life.

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Portulaca

Calla Lily

Platycodon - "Balloon Flower" ....and note the little bee on the pistil. Lots of pollinators on the yard this year. Good sign. :)

Curcuma zedoaria - "Hidden Cone Ginger"

Don't know what it's called, but this is one of the most delicate mushrooms I've ever seen. I could almost see through the cap!

Dahlia at the JCRA

Gladiolus at the JCRA

Fuschia sanihanf

Astilbe

Helenium - "Helen's Flower"

Scadoxus multiflorous - "Katherine's Torch Lily"

Hibiscus

Canna

Oenothera - "Evening Primrose" ...these flowers are awesome! They open up visibly at sunset every night and they smell amazing. Like a spicy honeysuckle.

Hosta

My neighbor's Datura. Very pretty and very fragrant. Opens at dusk.

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Well, there you go. Now you're all caught up on the flowers that have been popping out in my yard.... actually, I've missed quite a few, but I'll update again at some point. Don't hate me if it takes another month or two....

Playing catch up... Bloomin' Update for Spring

It's been a couple of months since I posted on here, and they have been a pretty good couple of months. Firstly, I finished my first semester back in college and finished with almost all A+'s in my classes. I got one regular A in Soil Science... but was only one point away from an A+.So close!

I've also started work at the JC Raulston Arboretum as one of their paid summer interns! How awesome is that? Answer: Very awesome. I get to garden all day in the sun, surrounded by chirping birds, buzzing bees and a seemingly endless number of amazing plants!

The mild winter and wet spring so far have been very good to my plants here at home. The only negative so far this year has been an epic hail storm that came by around the first of April and dropped quarter sized balls of ice out of the night sky. The storm only lasted about 25 minutes but put down a thick layer of hail along with one inch of rain. Pretty intense. Many of my plants got smashed and tattered, but since then have recovered very nicely. Everything is happy and lush and spreading well. Plants I've put in the ground this year are establishing themselves solidly... even the ones I planted directly into the leaf mulch. I was curious how they would take to such an unorthodox planting method, but thus far I have been satisfied. Granted, I'm sure they would be a bit larger and more robust had they been planted in nicely amended soil, but the leaf mulch is way cheaper and easier.

Anyway, I doubt you came on here to read my ramblings... here are some pictures from the past two months.

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April 6: (Bearded Iris)

April 7: (Bearded Iris)

April 17: Zephranthes (Rain Lily)

April 19: Hippeastrum (Amaryllis)

April 22: Dianthus 'Devon Siskin' (Pinks)

May 4: Diospyros kaki 'Hanafuyu' (Japanese Persimmon)

May 4: Antirrhinum majus (Snapdragon)

May 11: Lactrodectus (Black Widow). Came across this young lady and her egg sack when I moved some stacked concrete block. Wear gloves when you're gardening!

May 11: Daucus carota (Wild Carrot, Queen Anne's Lace)

May 17: Sedum of unknown species...

May 18: Hemerocallis (Daylily)

May 18: Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan)

May 20: Achillea (Yarrow)

April 29: Delosperma cooperii (Purple Ice Plant)

May 20: Delosperma cooperii (Purple Ice Plant)

May 20: Delosperma dyeri (Red Ice Plant)

May 20: Delosperma basuticum (White Ice Plant)

May 20: Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed) with a Bumble Bee and Honey Bee.

May 4: Cool bug on an Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed) leaf.

May 20: Linum perenne (Flax)

May 20: Tradescantia virginiana (Spider Wort)

Spring Is Officially Here

Since all the cold stayed in the north of the country this year we experienced an unusually warm and spring-like winter. Now that it's officially spring it doesn't feel quite so strange posting pictures of all the new growth coming out on so many plants!

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Rheum rhabarbaraum (Rhubarb):

I'm trying this for the first time... and my prediction is that it will be a very happy plant until we hit about 95 degrees and 98% humidity. But who knows, maybe this Rhubarb will like a North Carolina summer more than I think.

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Sedum makinoi 'Ogon'

I'm happy to see so much growth on this sedum. I took the tiniest little snip from a plant my brother bought and have been able to get a couple of little patches this size started.

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Ficus carica (Common Fig)

It's always a nice feeling to see a recent addition to the yard push out new growth in the Spring! There are even tiny little fig fruits on this tree already.

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Cotinus coggygria (Purple Smoke Tree)

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Yellow Onion (species?)

I started these from seed a couple of years ago and am pleased to see them pushing up some buds. Maybe they'll produce viable seed and then naturalize in the yard. Free onions for life!

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Graptopetalum

I ran an experiment this year by leaving a little rosette of this Graptopetalum outside for the Winter (mild as it was). It seemed to do just fine even with a few nights of weather down in the low 20s. Surprised me.

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Hibiscus

It may not look like much in the picture... but this Hibiscus is going to be a monster this year. Definitely more pictures to come of this one.

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Hosta

Not too sure the variety name of this one... because it was a volunteer that first popped up a couple of years ago. One of the best things about Hosta is it's longevity and toughness. Having to perform zero maintenance is pretty nice too!

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Tricyrtis formosana 'Samurai' (Toad Lily)

The Toad Lily is coming back... and in a larger patch than last year. That means I might split it up next year and start another patch or two!

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Ribes

I put these Currant plants in the ground about a month ago (they were essentially sticks with root systems) and they already have clusters of flowers! If I were going to baby them I would go ahead and pull all the flowers off this year to allow them to focus more energy on establishing... but I wont.

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Morus rubra (Red Mulberry)

I hacked this poor Mulberry back this year because it volunteered in a spot that wont allow it to reach full size... and I was too lazy to dig it out and replant it elsewhere. Luckily for me it's resilient and decided to make berries nonetheless. It looks like these will be rather small berries, but it's not bad for a 3 year old tree.

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Humulus lupulus 'Centennial' (Hops)

These will probably try and take over my entire yard in a couple of years.

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Disporum flavens

Really glad to see the Disporum is still in the yard. It's going to take it a couple more years before this is a solid little patch... but after that point it will be a long lived fixture of the yard.

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Brugmansia (Angel Trumpets)

This was the first winter for my Brugmansia. This should get about 8' tall this year and full of fragrant, dangling trumpet flowers!

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Astilbe

I know, I know. This doesn't look like much right now... in fact, it looks like a dried up shriveled piece of compost. But it's a happy Astilbe shoot!

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Amaryllis

I planted this bulb last fall... and at a depth of about 8". I wasn't sure if it was going to be happy in this spot, but it's pushing up through the strawberries nicely.

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Stapelia gigantea (Carrion Plant)

This is an interesting little plant. They eventually make very large, alien looking flowers that use flies as pollinators... so their blooms aren't exactly something you would want to stick your nose in. This one was living in really rocky, clayey soil crammed in with a few other plants. Not happy. I repotted it by itself in nice soil and about a week later it pushed out it's first new growth in 2 years (the light green growth at the bottom right). Patient little guy.

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Ok, this obviously isn't new growth on a plant. It's a little snail that was snailing across my front walk. But I just got a new camera to replace the decade old digital clunker I have been using for so many years... and now I can actually take decent close-ups!

Hope everyone's spring is starting off as well as mine has! More pictures to come...

MULCH!

So, this is the time of year I like to mulch beds... and this year I've taken it to an extreme. I'm no fan of turf. It's a monoculture. It must be kept at a well-manicured height. It's boring. It provides very little habitat or food for bugs, birds, and animals... including me!

In order to remedy my plethora of turf I purchased about twenty cubic yards of mulch from the Raleigh Yard Waste Facility (the place where they collect and compost all the leaves people rake to the curb, and where they shred all the branches and trees the city must clean up after storms and around power lines, etc).

This adventure began by driving my poor little, 23 year old truck out there and having a bulldozer drop a bucket of wood mulch in the bed.

This load of mulch cost me $15. Not bad for about 2-2.5 yards of mulch! I was pleased with the value and the level of decomposition of the mulch, so I went back for another round (after I had spent about an hour or so spreading this mulch around).

Obviously, the bulldozer operator for the second load was a bit heavier handed... maybe there was a bet going to see if I would actually drive off with my truck fishtailing under the crushing load. If so, anyone betting against me lost.

After limping home, waiting for the impending blue lights to pop up any second, I decided I should investigate an alternate method for transporting cheap mulch from the city. (P.S. I had a tarp ratchet-strapped over both of these loads... I wasn't just driving down the highway with mulch spraying off the back!)

I talked with a friend who owns a landscape design company and she suggested I hire a dump truck to go out to the Yard Waste Center and do my heavy lifting for me. I took her advice and this is what landed in my driveway a day later.

Beautiful, isn't it? Not only did I take my friend's advice about hiring the truck, but I also took her advice about what type of mulch to buy from they city. Her opinion is that the leaf mulch is better than the wood mulch because it will break down faster and looks better. And she was right. This mulch is great!

Not only that, but this pile of about 15-16 cubic yards of mulch, plus delivery, cost me only $135!

So, what does one do with 15 cubic yards of rotted leaf mulch? My answer is... kill grass! Since I love food, flowers, herbs, and wildlife I decided to establish a bunch of new garden beds while eradicating as much turf as possible. But first, let me explain the initial step in this turf/garden exchange.

This past fall, instead of raking my leaves to the curb to have them collected by the city or raking them back into my forested area, I left most of them where they lay (which was in the yard). I sculpted the edges where I was pretty sure I wanted the gardens to stop and then left the leaves sitting there for a couple of months. If you're familiar with the Permaculture practice of sheet mulching you might find this step akin to laying down cardboard beneath the thick layer of mulch. Four inches of dead leaves does almost as good a job as 3/16" of cardboad.

Here you can see the basic arch of the garden edge. I'm not a huge fan of turf, but for the time being I will keep a bit of it.

And here is a shot of the same area as the previous picture, but taken from a different angle (standing on my front steps)... and taken after spreading a 6-8" layer of rotted leaf mulch over the 4" of dried leaves! I left walkways blank as I mulched, and went back later to fill in with fresh wood chips...

Here is the "final" product. Of course, a ton of plants will be living in these beds soon so it's not really final yet, but as far as mulching goes, this is complete. The wood chips were delivered by a local stump grinding business which usually has to pay to dispose of their "debris" at the Yard Waste Facility (where I would later go to buy it). By saving them the trip out there and the fee for dumping, I got all the wood chips I could handle for FREE. Free delivery as well. Can't beat that price, right?

And the front yard wasn't the only spot that got mulched. Those big piles went pretty far.

There are a few more little spots here and there I mulched around established plants and added to established beds... but you get the picture!

And while I was giving my yard a facelift, I decided it was time to replace the old, clunky kiwi trellis I built a couple of years ago. My brother came into town one weekend and I put him to work helping to assemble a bamboo structure to be the new home for my vines. (There is a family in my neighborhood who is "plagued" by rampant growth of bamboo in their yard... so I obliged by cutting some of it down to use for building projects. Score!)

Before...

After!

Now that I have the infrastructure in place for these new garden beds, the enjoyable task of filling them with plants is next on the docket. I'll update with those pictures soon....

#leaf mulch #kiwi trellis #yard waste center

Visit to Mountain Gardens

I've met a lot of very cool, knowledgeable people since re-starting my studies at NCSU, but never have I met someone quite like Joe Hollis. My growing affinity for Permaculture brought me to Joe and his paradise garden in the mountains of North Carolina. His gardens are formally named The Mountain Gardens, and if you are in the market for seed, seedlings, or medicine from rare plants then your search will invariably bring you to this small corner of the globe (http://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/).

My brother worked and lived at the Mountain Gardens for the summer a couple of years ago and suggested to me several times that I should check it out. Joe offers an internship to college students, but an open door policy to anyone and everyone that has an interest in learning and working in the gardens.

Since I'm now a jobless college student once again (rather surreal) I was able to take full advantage of a week off for Spring Break. In lieu of a trip down to Panama City, Florida or Cancun, Mexico I opted for a few days up in Burnsville, NC working for Joe. Unfortunately, though it was spring down in Raleigh, the mountains were experiencing an actual winter. Though many of the plants were still dormant and it was a bit too cold to comfortably do anything out of doors, I enjoyed my time by talking by reading from Joe's library and chatting with him about plants and seeds. I even left with a few really cool seeds! (Hopefully I'll get them to germinate and have some plants in the yard to enjoy as a reminder of my first trip up there.

I say "first trip up there" because I will be headed there again next weekend, and probably again at the end of next month. I'm really excited to see how the gardens will change with the thawing of the land... especially since there was a blanket of snow up there during most of my recent visit!

Here is a shot of the little "round-house" I stayed in during my visit. (Later, I found out that this was the same dwelling my brother occupied on his visit a couple of years ago)

This little fireplace proved indispensable when the night-time temperatures plummeted into the teens. (Yes, that's cold for us southerners!)

And here is a shot looking out of round-house towards the library, deck, and uppermost part of the gardens (This was taken when I first got there... before the snow started falling).

Similar view after the snow fell. :)

And here is a view of the library with some of the dried herbs, seeds, and medicine in the background. I spent a lot of time in here, warming next to the wood stove while reading books.

My next visit will undoubtedly involve more horticulture, so expect to see pictures of the Mountain Gardens as they rise from a long winter slumber...

#Joe Hollis #mountain gardens #round house

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A Wolf's Garden