Let's get to know one another..

Green Shadow, I am moving to Filbert, SC in January. Filbert is located between York and Clover about a 30 minute drive southwest of Charlotte. My address will actually be in Clover, because Filbert doesn't have a post office. I cant wait to get there. I am driving out on the 28th of June to spend the month of July there. Then in January we will move the rest of our stuff and the whole family there.

Casey

Casey.

If you're gonna be out in July - let's try to get together for a meet and greet....

Sounds great to me. I get lost easily so I am going to need a map and directions to where ever we decide.

Jesse - thanks for the tips! The red bugs haven't come back, but just yesterday I noticed tiny bugs on my verbena. I saw they sell that at Lowes, so next time I go I'm gonna give the Bayer's a try.

Casey - oh you are coming during the hottest part of the year (remember we have the humid heat!) I find the best way to withstand it is to drink lots of sweet iced tea (sometimes with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint). (that is another thing I missed when I went to LV) :D

We've been in the sandy northeast part of Columbia for 11 years now -- the longest I've ever lived in one place since I've been an adult. I grew up in Maryland, just outside D.C. and moved to Columbia in 1965 for 7 years, then Raleigh for 3 years, France for 2, the Upstate of South Carolina for 5, Alabama for 2, and back to Columbia.

We're in a typical subdivision with a predictably small lot, but there's still plenty of room for gardens. Lately, I've been disheartened by the lack of attention my neighbors are paying to their front yards because their disregard pulls down the whole neighborhood. I'm now a neighborhood rep in the Homeowners Association, but I have no clue how to encourage folks to maintain their yards. I suspect some folks move here from other parts of the country and don't understand how quickly a lawn can be damaged by neglect.

I love to grow plants from seeds and to use plants imaginatively. This year for the first time I've started selling some of my plants so I can justify buying more seeds and plants. We're not allowed to have yard sales here, but there are two community-wide yard sales and I did pretty well at the first one. When someone responds to my ad in the Pennysaver or the Market Bulletin published by the Agriculture Department, it's hard for me not to feel rejected when they fail to show up, silly as that sounds.

If I'm not in the garden, I'm usually reading about gardening, particularly books by Pamela Harper and Elizabeth Lawrence. I enjoy Dave's Garden and particularly appreciate the Carolina Gardening forum.

Greenshadow, I have planned it that way so I would come out during the hottest time of the year. I am sure the humidity will effect me some but hopefully not to much.
Awwww, sweet tea. My DH laughs at me because as soon as we land I am purchasing tea and love it that I dont have to ask for a handful of sweet and low to sweeten it. Dont really care for the sweet and low flavor but regular sugar just doesn't dissolve in ice tea very well. I have found that Arizona Tea company sells sweet tea in gallon jugs here. I buy up a few gallons every time I see it.

Fleurs, I know how you feel about the neighbors. I have resorted to mowing the yard of one neighbors house and trim the trees and bushes of another just so they look decent. The one with the trees is an elderly woman on a very tight limit budget and she is unable to do it herself or pay someone so I really dont mind. Plus she does all that she can. The one I mow, well the couple has two teenage sons and they are worthless. I just am trying to keep them up until we get ours sold. I also love Elizabeth Lawrence books. I have a visit to her home gardens on my want to visit list. The woman that purchased her home a few years ago has spent the past few years cleaning and clearing them back to their original beauty. I dont think I know of Pamela Harper, I am going to look her up later.

Hope everyone has a spectacular gardening day.

Hmmm. You'll be southwest of Charlotte, CARAT, and I'm south and slightly east. Maybe we could visit Charlotte together? Although she lives near Chesapeake, Virginia, Pamela Harper's books are right on target for our area. Check out her Color Echoes, Designing for Perennials, and Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden. (Sorry I don't know how to put the titles in italics).

Thanks Fleurs, I will check out her books on my next trip to Borders or Barnes and Noble. I have never seen it at the library and I think I have read every book that they have on gardening a landscaping at the one closest to my house.

I would love to go with you. I think we would have a blast. Charlotte is about a 40 minute drive from my house. I think I drove through Columbia once on one of me excursions through the state. A friend and I drove down to Greenville to check out Park Seeds and Wayland Gardens. On the way home we took a detour that made us about 4 hours later then originally planned. Had a blast though....

Hi Everyone!
What a wonderful, friendly site this is. I belonged to another gardening site but got so tired of the political bickering, I lost all hope and then stumbled across Dave's and his Carolina forum.

I am a long ago transplanted Yankee. Born and raised in Ohio but left when I was twenty. Spent the next 5 years following my ex around the country. Short stays in Connecticut and several places in Florida and landed in South Carolina in 1970. Fifteen years ago I bought my own home in Landrum. SC. It just a couple of miles from the NC line. I had all sorts of great plans for the house and yard but little time. Finally have the time but no money and my kids have left the state so no help muscle wise. At 62 I just can't do what I used to. :) My kids, siblings, and Mother want me to go back North but I will never leave these great mountains. I don't live in them but in the foothills and love to look at them and often visit them.

I have always loved gardening and had to learn a lot of new plants and methods when I moved down here but I got several small gardens going. In the last 5 years I have not been able to maintain them but now I am determined to reclaim them and build more. I have all types of areas from full shade to full sun. I want to re-establish a large flower-cutting garden.

My ground must have been scraped down to bedrock because the people down the street have lush gardens with no effort. So I am looking for friends, advice, lots of laid back chatter. Sounds like this is the ideal place to find it. Hope you all will accept me as an "honorary" native. I taught 8th grade here for 30 years and my fellow teachers finally said that I qualified...but I still need work on my speech pattern. Course when I go to visit my mom, she wonders what happened to my speech pattern!

Boy, just re-read this and it sounds pathetic! :) Well, I am coming out of a hard time but am on way to recovery and know that gardening and good company is the perfect medicine. Ya'll sound just like the ticket. And I CAN be cheerful. I am a slow but steady and hard worker and hope I can contribute to this great forum.

Nice to meet all of you. I have the postings once and am going to re-read them again and again. I already feel like I know some of you.
Beth

Howdy, Beth! A bigtime hearty WELCOME TO DG!

Sounds like you'll feel right at home here! C'mon in and sit a spell!

Looking forward to seeing you around the site!

Keep smiling!

Shoe.

Welcome Beth. You'll really enjoy the people here. I don't post much, but I lurk around a lot. I am 68 and can't do as much as I used to, either, but you will find lots of folks here in our age bracket and they are good with help. Of course, the younger ones like Shoe help out, too.

What kind of plants are you wanting to grow? If you make a list, somebody might have something you want and you can work out a trade.

Check out the Accessible Gardening forum if you have not done that already. Lots of good ideas for how to do things more easily. I personally bought long-handled tools and hired a couple of teenagers to help with the hard stuff.

See you around.

Diane

Diane

Hi Beth! Nice to meet you. I'm half your age, new to DG myself, and new to gardening pretty much completely. I am a bad lurker and pretty shy about posting so you probably won't hear much from me unless I am at my wit's end or really think I have something to say. Looking forward to your posts - best wishes!

Greenshadow--Just jump in. Don't be bashful. There are no stupid questions and you can get all kinds of help here and on the other forums, depending on what you want to grow.

Diane

Thanks for much for the warm welcome everybody! Greenshadow, I bet there is a ton of stuff you can tell me. Now that I am semi retired, I want to to do something I never had the time to do. I want to find out about the native plants, especially those fascinating shade plants I see growing in the woods along the mountain roads. My yard is surrounded by about 2 acres of woods and the first couple of years I wondered around through them trying to identify what theflowering plants were. I got a lot of them but some I never did.So I will be asking for help on that and whether or not I can move them closer to my house. The prettiest ones were way back in the woods and I always hoped I could move them up where I might be able to see them from the house. Still keeping them in the woods of course! And if I can't move them, where could I buy them? Between all the differents kinds of birds and different kinds of flowering trees and shrubs around here, this has to be the most beautiful part of this country.
Yeah, in Ohio we had as many different kinds of birds as there are here. Do you have any idea how tired you get looking at a100 different kinds of sparrows that you could only telll apart if you had them under a microscope? And, even then,. who cares how many different ways bands of brown and while can be arranged on a tiny bird? :).

Hi Everyone! I'm in Greenville, SC and just starting to rework my gardens. Poor things they've been neglected for the past few years, only receiving a lick-and-a-promise. I love all flowering plants and trees but especially love perennials. My father was a wonderful gardener, great green thumb, but my mother didn't care to so I only inherited a half-green thumb. But I struggle on!

Jukauz, I'm not sure the genetics of the green thumb trait are completely understood. My father certainly had the "green lawn" trait, which is either absent or not expressed in me. Regarding our lawn, which is really just the grassy path through the garden, I ask people, "What's wrong with clover?" and "...but plantain is edible, did you know that?" On the other hand, either of those plants among my flowers, however, are eliminated manually with extreme prejudice.

Nurture can make up for what nature did not deliver. Dave's Garden can nurture the gardening-impaired quite lovingly, so I would encourage you to visit whenever you have questions or problems.

Jukauz...

WELCOME TO DG!

Sounds like you have a great project to work on. Hope you post your progress (and disappointments, if any) along the way!

I'm like you and have gone the perennial route for the majority of plants I grow/sell. However, I've just not weaned myself yet from the myriad of wonderful veggies I like to grow. (Although, I admit, I certainly find it difficult to grow in such huge quantities anymore...getting a might too lazy, methinks!)

See you around the site!

Shoe.

Hey there everyone. I am back in Las Vegas. Loved the time in SC so much. Hated coming back.

Managed to get alot down while I was there. Discovered that a small riding lawnmower will never make the grade once we are there permanently. Takes way to long to mow 7 acres. Loved the weather. Never broke a sweat and I spent most of my time outdoors. The thunderstorms were incredible to watch. Cleaned and cleared out the blackberry patch that was way out of hand. Did manage to pick several pounds of berries to help fuel the fight though. Hopefully next year they will be happier and produce just as much or more.

Went up to Asheville a couple times. Beautiful area. Wanted to check out the Biltmore estates but 42.00 a head for only a couple hours of time just didn't balance out. DH told me that once we move we can take a weekend and stay at the estate and see everything.

Shoe, a question for ya. What maintance do I need to do to the asparagus for the fall? I planted 25 very healthy 1 year roots this past February that are currently about 4 feet tall. Do I need to cut them back and cover for the winter or just let them die back on their own. I am sure that next spring I am going to be able to harvest a few if I can get them through the winters.

Well I better check out the other boards before DH gets home and discovers I spent my whole day on here. LOL

Cool! Glad you had a great time in SC. (Yikes! Didn't know Biltmore cost that much! I agree, I couldn't swing that price either.)

Re asparagus, you shouldn't have to do much at all with it. Just let it grow naturally and let it die down naturally. You want the tops to soak up as much of the Sun's "love" (energy) as possible so it transfers it to the roots/crowns. In mid-Winter/early Spring it would help to shovel on a thin layer of compost or aged manure and let the rains water it in for you. That should be all the feeding you need to ever do.

Shoe.

CARAT, where exactly is Filbert SC?

We just bought a 2nd home (condo) in Asheville, not for pleasure, it's a "home of requirement", if I may borrow from JK Rowling. Asheville is in the throes of development. They recently passed an ordinance limiting hillside construction, so there has been a huge wave of permit applications from people trying to get permission to build on the sides of the mountains before the ordinance goes into effect. There are constant battles over planning and development. The Biltmore heirs have constructed a couple of truly hideous developments on large tracts of the estate. One of them is trying to do better with one called "The Ramble": they're trying to build in and among the trees. In another, the plantings and lawns look so perfect it gives you the creeps...it's sort of like a Blue Ridge mountain "Truman Show" set.

I have been to the Biltmore Estate 2 or 3 times over the years. At those times I found that it was worth the price of admission for me, but that was when I had more patience with these kinds of things. It's not something I see myself doing again. One ought to make nearly a day of it, or at least 5 hours. We went once at Christmas, had lunch there, did some hiking on the grounds as well as shopping (both added to the expense, of course); the decorations were lovely. In the spring there is a special time for viewing the garden.

Filbert is located 10 miles from the NC border just SE of Gastonia, NC. It is between York and Clover, SC.

I love to just walk and roam gardens and get both ideas and see plants and flowers in an enviroment that they are thriving. From what I could tell from just the guest entry building that I would want to stay for the entire day and I know I would have been upset that I had to leave.

Our 20th anniversary is this April, and I think we may just go spend it up there at the Biltmore Estates with a couple friends. I really wouldn't have mind the 42.00 if I could have gotten there when they opened at 8:30 and stayed until dusk. But not for maybe 3 hours.

We noticed some building in the area of the Biltmore estates and on the outskirts of the town. Some of the developments looked out of place with the style of home and with all the trees planted in straight rows. We saw one development that look as though it had been uprooted from here in Las Vegas and dropped into the middle of the woods. Strange. A few trees, but primarily concrete, stone and rock for the landscaping and cactus.

How far away is Cullowee from Asheville?

I just loved how the clouds and fog casts a gentle haze over the mountains during a storm. That is something I have never seen here in the desert.

CARAT, we are 70 miles west of Asheville. We moved to Jackson County from Lexington KY in 2001. It is a rural place. The first two years were dry, and we were living on a western slope in a hollow where the springs were drying up. Since then the drought broke and we moved to a different location: a valley gushing with springs, poured on regularly. Oftentimes heavy mists swirl about the house and through the woods and laurel surrounding us. In the winter, we have a nearly 360 degree view (through bare trees), and on many winter mornings we look down to see a thick white river of cloud winding its way along the creek bottom and mountain road below us. It's very beautiful. But I'm told I wouldn't suffer so with allergies if I lived someplace drier. I think the desert is beautiful, but I don't think I could live there. It is very disturbing to think of all the damming and so forth that is required for human habitation there.

I dont know about the allergy theory. I have horrible allergies here and when I am there in SC I am able to go without my shots and daily pills. I still have slight flare ups if I am out in the middle of the woods or up to my elbows in greenery but nothing that benedryl (sp) doesn't take care of quickly. Here it is the dust, that is a constant, oleanders, mulberry, and olive trees. Ragweed is usually only a really big problem if we get a lot of rain in the early spring.

I would love to see the fog and clouds hoovering above the rivers and roads as the sun rose in the morning. Every morning that I was back in SC I would wake up, go grab a water from the frig and sit on the deck while watching the sun come up as it chased the foggy haze away. I hope that the drought in our area breaks soon. The last couple of years have helped some but not enough to really make a difference.

Well DH is hungry and I am on KP for awhile.

Hello all. My name is Bridgette. I just moved to Clover SC from Charlotte NC (about 17 miles difference..not too far. I have this strange weed growing and taking over my back yard. Can anyone tell me what this is??

Hi Brigette, welcome to the Carolina forums and to Clover. I am just down the highway from you on 321 in Filbert. Or at least I will be in January. I have the same thing along with wild onions in my yard. I think it is an actual grass not a weed though. I used a granule weed killer on a section of one of my pastures and it didn't phase it but it killed off alot of other things.

Hi Bridgette, Welcome. Although I have been in Upstate SC for 40 years, I don't know what that is. I know its NOT Bermuda grass which I have come know and HATE! But I wanted to Hi. I have been in my current home for 15 years and am starting my landscaping all over again - having done it wrong the first several times. (Sorry, Yankee by birth) It looks great to me since it doesn't grow on runners. I spend all my gardening time pulling that Bermuda out of the two successful gardens I have. This fall I hope to kill off all my grass and plant something I don't have to fight daily. I am sure someone on this site will know in an instant. Mostly I read and take notes for my newly tillled garden. Yeah, I ordered plants, they came in late. Then I couldn't find compost for my bedrock but I will bite the bullet and make my water company rich this summer. I only do three or four plants really well but I hope to improve. Hope you like your new home.

Good morning! Thank you both for the reply. Since we have a new home and NO grass in the back yard, I am going to let it stay. Whatever it is, it's better than mud, right? :) I've never seen so much rain as what's fallen since we moved down this way. We only moved 17 miles south but it feels like a different world down here. I do love my new home! I'll have to figure out how to post info about myself and home.

CARAT: I live just off of 321 just as you are entering Clover from Gastonia. I don't really know much about this area down here so I have never even heard of Filbert. I am a city girl and am still going to Charlotte for everything. I need to learn my way around here so I can shop and do things locally. What is bringing you to this area?

MollieB55: Where is Landrum? Is that close to me somewhere and I just don't know it??!! :) Good luck with your garden. This is all new to me. I have always lived in an apartment. But, getting married and having a child sort of demands a bit more space so here we are! Even though I am 38, I do not have any gardening experience. It's never really interested me but now that I am in my own house I find that it does interest me a bit. You all will probably get tired of answering questions for me!

Bridgette, Filbert is between Clover and York. Just the other direction from Gastonia. Its only a township, my actual address is listed as Clover.

I am so excited to have someone else so close. And since gardening there is so different from here I have alot to learn also. Maybe the two of us can go nursery hunting together next spring. I know where a few are and so far I lean towards Lee's for all my trees and bushes. The guys there really seem to know what they are talking about and are so willing to answer my questions. If no one here can figure out what you have (highly doubtable) then let me know and I will get you an address for Lee's.

Bridgette, Don't feel bad. Half the people that live here don't know where I live! :) Landrum is about 77 miles west of Clover - just 2 miles from the NC/SC border. It is basically a crossroad and I live out in the country from that intersection! But I get to look right into the mountains from my front porch. I come from the flatlands of Ohio many, many years ago but I reckon they will carry me away from these foothills in a pine box. I love them. Although I have never been in Clover, I am familiar with Rock Hill, Lake Lure, Gastonia, Charlotte (the airport) and Cheraw which is south of you. My daughter lives in Cheraw. And be grateful for the rain! Boy, we sure need it. My area is about 12 inches behind for the year. Actually, we have been behind for all but one of the last 12 years. That is one reason I had trouble with my garden. I moved in during the last really wet year! And after 40 years I am still trying to get used to red clay. I am 62 and slow to learn! It sounds as though you have your hands full. I have just enjoyed my first year of retirement but am headed back to the classroom. Welcome! And if you decide you want some purple cone flowers, black-eyed susans, or azaelas, I have tons! If I can't kill them, no one can. Oh, and broad-leafed hostas! Tons and tons of those.

LOL, Mollie. I had to Google Map Landrum when I first saw it. I am just learning to get around back there and finding out where everything is. I would still be driving around in Sharon if I didn't have a GPS system the first time I went back there. One wrong turn and you can end up in some pretty interesting places. I drove past a small lake that had a truck camper being held afloat by about 50 five gallon buckets and the owner sitting proudly on top fishing.

Got a phone call earlier from the neighbor in SC. An old dead tree that sat up next to the road on the property around the bend caught on fire after a lightning strike during the storm. Kinda sad, it was a cool looking tree. The fire took out about a half acre of peach trees before they got control.

Hmmm....love the idea of the floating truck camper! Great thinking!
:>)

(By the way, this thread is getting too long for us antique dial-up users. Hey, Swoz, wanna start a Part 2 thread? Pwease? Pwetty pwease?....)

Shoe.

Hello, I am also new but my 1st post today about raspberries shows I am not new. We live in the country north of Oxford, NC and west of Henderson with horses and briar patches and the like. I recently planted this spring two little crape myrtles and they are truly amazing now. Our Brown Turkey fig tree has finally taken hold with huge beautiful figs and lots of em. Our gardening is sort of spread out with nothing concentrated in one area to speak of. I have a three acre yard and 5 acre pasture. I am trying to learn about raspberries and mulching and weed control and have not gotten any response as yet.. This forum seems the place for all my questions. Thanks. j

Howdy there folks,

It's good to see everyone posting and introducing yourselves. I have been remiss in my duties as thread starter - Thank you to Shoe for monitoring in my abscense. I do read when I can, but I'm working part time now and late nights is when I can literally run through. I am enjoying reading about all of your spaces and the questions being asked.

With Shoe's request - I'll start a part two thread - look for "Come sit on the porch a spell" That's a real down home invitation if there ever was one.

Carat - sorry that I missed your visit to SC. We were supposed to get together. I'm looking forward to your big move and can't wait for you to get settled into your new place.

To the recent newbies to the thread - welcome. Let's make Carolina Gardening a wonderful community to visit and enjoy.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/629909/