• Stress-Free Gardening
• OWASA declares stage three water shortage
• Local Nurseries
• Landscape Services
• Drought-Tolerant Native Plants
• Extreme gardening in times of extremes
• Online Resources
• Farmers’ Markets

By Ken Moore

The intent of my gardening strategy is to replace the stress with enjoyment. Rather than struggling to enforce my design on Nature, I step back and garden with a lighter touch, letting Nature be my guide.

I have gradually altered the garden to favor desirable plants that plant themselves. They almost always perform better than the ones I plant. I was impressed that the volunteer Joe-pye-weed, Eupatorium fistulosum, at the edge of my patio did not require extra water as did the one I had carefully planted in a garden bed.

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Stage Three Water Use Restrictions went into effect on March 1st.

The Stage Three water shortage declaration is based on the following:

·    Although recent rainfall improved our water supply situation, our lakes were only 57% full as of March 12th.  It is unprecedented for our lakes to be so low at this time of year.
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Apex Nurseries, Inc.
2925 Highway 751
Apex
362-8315/www.apexnurseries.com
Apex Nurseries specializes in large trees, shrubs and perennials for landscaping needs.

Barefoot Paths Nursery
224 Henley Rd
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919-933-7467
Hours by appointment. Specialty trees, shrubs, and perennials for southern gardens.

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Carrboro

Birdsong Design
118 E Main St 942-9682
birdsongdesign.com
Services in garden design, installation and native plants.

Butterfly Ridge Design & Works Inc.
400 W Weaver St 933-1933

Fifth Season Gardening Co.
106 S. Greensboro St. 932-7600
fifthseasongardening.com
Landscape design with a focus on organic and hydroponic gardening.

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By Johnny Randall

Natural plant distribution and abundance are largely dictated by the climatic extremes rather than by averages. Our current extreme and killing drought will likely cause a habitat shift in many areas: The plants that can tolerate the drought will remain and possibly expand their territories and those that can’t will perish and find themselves restricted to the more mesic (moist) sites.

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North Carolina Botanical Garden
www.ncbg.unc.edu/

North Carolina Native Plant Society
www.ncwildflower.org/

North Carolina Herbarium
www.herbarium.unc.edu

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Carrboro Farmers’ Market
301 W. Main St., Carrboro
280-3326
carrborofarmersmarket.com

Saturdays, 9 p.m. to noon
Wednesdays 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
(opens April 9)

Fresh, naturally grown produce, prepared foods, flowers and crafts sold by the original producers.

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Climbing Aster  (Ampelaster carolinianus) – a climbing aster with lilac-colored flowers from mid-October through November

Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) – orange flowers; nectar and food plant for the monarch butterfly

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By Ken Moore

Native pink-flowered redbud, Cercis Canadensis, is right on schedule beginning its three-week-long flowering. It will be followed in a week or two by the pure-white Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida. The combination of these two native trees’ spring awakenings gives us four to five weeks of flowering with a dramatic overlapping of the two.

In recent years, this extended beautiful beginning of our natural Piedmont spring has been overshadowed by the short, week-long blinding white explosion of the exotic Bradford Pear, Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’, over-planted along city streets and in parking lots and residential landscapes.

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