(Editor’s note:  During fall gardening season we’ll be providing tips from the experts. This week’s tips come from Richard Quinn of Fifth Season in Carrboro.)

• Tip 1: Find a way to collect rainwater. “Even though it’s not raining right now, it will eventually.” Rain barrels are a good way to collect and use rainwater to preserve water, and because rainwater is free of metals found in tapwater, it is healthier for plants.
• Tip 2: Set up a drip irrigation system. “It’s not that expensive, it can be done with basic tubing.” By stretching the watering over a longer period of time and in smaller quantities, plants absorb more water and less is wasted.   More »

Rosinweed (Silphium compositum)

By Johnny Randall
North Carolina Botanical Garden

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.

Extreme drought is not beyond the genetic memory of many of our native plants, whose ancestors made it through equally harsh times. Within the more recent Piedmont geologic history, during the Hypsithermal period (between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago), prolonged drought and high temperatures caused an expansion of prairie and a contraction of forests across North America. Piedmont North Carolina still houses refugees from this period in specialized habitats and on roadsides, power-line clearings and other managed rights-of-way. These mostly shade-intolerant herbaceous roadside attractions are coming into their own here at the end of summer and are particularly prevalent in the county. But keep your eyes on the road! These plants are also adapted to fire and buffalo grazing, but that’s another story…

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Teens Climb High members. Photo Courtesy of The Women’s Center

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

For more than a decade, minority middle school girls in Chapel Hill and Carrboro have been coming together after school to talk about the many issues that young women face as they enter adolescence.

Teens Climb High – a program run by the Women’s Center – enables young minority girls to discuss and learn about sexuality, health, communication and relationships.

Last week, the program was awarded a $5,000 grant by Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. The program is almost entirely funded by grants from state and local organizations.

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CHS to hold family tailgate party
Carrboro High School will hold a family tailgate party on Friday at 6 p.m. before the football game.

Coach Jason Tudryn will introduce the football team and the CHS band and cheerleaders will perform. In addition, the Carrboro High Parent Teacher Student Association will serve Jim’s Famous Barbeque for $7 a plate.

The party will be set up in the grassy area between the school and the football field. Tailgaters should bring a chair for the party and the game. To help with the tailgate, contact Jan Sloan at 967-3923 or lsloan101@aol.com.

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The parking crunch
The first wave of downtown projects is beginning to swell and is not that far away. The approval of The Alberta and the first phase of the 300 East Main project signifies that. And while we applaud the vision — up (not out) density, a commercial balance — downtown as a functioning central business district is going to be faced with serious challenges ahead.

First will be dealing with the noise, dust and clutter of construction. Second will be the loss of two significant parking areas.

The two projects are significant not just because they are the harbingers of a new downtown, but because they are connected to two key parking areas. Once the first phase of 300 East is completed it will absorb the spaces in what is now the municipal parking lot at the corner of Roberson Street and East Main Street.

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Julian Sereno 

Chatham County Line, on the web at www.chathamcountyline.org, is a monthly community newspaper that focuses on all things Chatham. Our current issue looks at development. Here is a quick look at Chatham goings-on for the readers of The Carrboro Citizen.

The big development story for the moment is the planned Pittsboro Place, which, as proposed — 120 acres, 1.3 million square feet of commercial space, 332 residential units, high-rise buildings — would be bigger than Crossroads Plaza in Cary and the largest such development in Chatham. In late August, barely a month after it was first proposed, the Pittsboro Town Commission approved some of it – 50 acres, 50 residential units and a 50-foot height restriction on buildings. Whether or not Pittsboro Place goes any further depends on the November elections: Three challengers running for the Pittsboro Town Commission oppose the development. The direction that Pittsboro will take is in the hands of its voters.

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By Kirk Ross 

Truth & consequences
As promised, there’s been a step-up of immigration raids. This at a time when our junior senator is making the rounds of local law enforcement encouraging the deportation of those apprehended and found to not be here legally.

On the surface it all kind of makes sense – an easy sale of nativist talking points. Break the law – get tossed out.

Except that the border is as porous as a colander and the laws of economics are in direct conflict with those in the general statutes. Then there’s the not-so-perfect federal I.D. system that’s already sent actual U.S. citizens out of the country.

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Why I’m Supporting Coleman
Last year, as a member of the Roberson Place Neighborhood Association Through-Road Committee, I had an opportunity to meet and work with Alderman Dan Coleman. What struck me immediately about Dan was his true desire and willingness to listen to our neighborhood’s concerns and his in-depth understanding of the historical, financial and technical issues at play.

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What’s it take to make a world-class giant cookie? Yeah, you guessed it; a lot of dough — 500 pounds in fact. Two Weaver Street Market events – one Saturday in Chapel Hill at Southern Village and another Sunday in Carrboro promise to top cookie records for both towns.

Orchestrating the creation of the 10-foot cookie will be Immaculate Baking Company, a Hendersonville-based bakery and holder of the largest cookie record. The events start at noon and benefit the ArtsCenter.

***

Not going to spoil it for you, but John Ensslin and Tom Maxwell, longtime buds and former bandmates, have put together a spot-on spoof of This American Life called This Carrboro Life.

Ensslin, a musician and real estate agent, and Maxwell, former Zipper and member of Maxwell/Mosher, offer up a tale of the town worth tuning in (rated SL for salty language). rattlejar.com/This%20Carrboro%20Life.mp3.

Note the very Public Radio soundtrack by the lovely and talented Ken Mosher.

***
Kudos to Lance Glass, winner of last winter’s Orange County Social Club Mac-n-Cheese contest (recipe at carrborocitizen.com/mill/2007/02/). Lance has helped organize a rib contest for the club’s annual Customer Appreciation Day. Mark your calendars for Sept. 23rd.

Thursday Sep 13

Blue Horn Lounge: Mark Wells & Jill Christensen. 9pm
Cat’s Cradle: Black Lips, The Selmanaires, Gondoliers. 8:30pm. $10
The Cave: Early: Mike Holt w/ Dan Bryk. Late: Opening Flower Happy Bird w/ The Empties.
General Store Café: Jazz with Club Boheme. 8pm
Local 506: Nightstick, Fire in the Woods. 10pm. Free
Nightlight: Clang Quartet, AM Salad, Ironing, Hal McGee. 9:30pm. $6

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Carrboro

Chapel Hill/Carrboro 2nd Friday Art Walk - Visit local galleries to enjoy live music, food & art-related activities. See website for galleries, maps & brochures. 2nd Fridays, 6-9pm. Free. 2ndfridayartwalk.com

Paintings & Sculpture by Luna Lee Ray & Joanne Andrews – Through Sept 30. The ArtsCenter, 300-G E Main St, Carrboro. 929-2787, artscenterlive.org

Background Music for Birds - Mixed media paintings by Renee Seaman Treml. Through Sept 30. NC Crafts Gallery, 212 W Main St, Carrboro. Mon-Sat 10am-6 pm, Sun 1-4pm. 942-4048, nccraftsgallery.com

Turned Wood Bowls - By Steve Noggle. Through Sept 30. NC Crafts Gallery, 212 W Main St, Carrboro. 942-4048, nccraftsgallery.com

Harmonical - Photographs by Jacob Lunow. Through Oct 1. Nested, 118-B E Main St, Carrboro. Tue & Wed 10am-6pm, Thu-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun noon-6pm. 338-8023, nestedhome.com

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Photo Courtesy of Triangle Yoga

In celebration of United Nations International Peace Day, September 21, Triangle Yoga will be participating in the Global Mala Project. A “mala” is a set of 108 prayer beads used in meditation, primarily in India and Tibet. The Global Mala Project (www.globalmala.org ) intends to form a human “mala around the earth.” In more than 35 countries, Hundreds of yoga studios and thousands of yoga practitioners in more than 35 countries will participate, raising funds and awareness for issues troubling the world, including global warming and AIDS.

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Elizabeth Willey Spalt and Andrew Edward Stuckey celebrated their wedding at Wrightsville Beach over the weekend of August 10th, 2007. Elizabeth is the daughter of Allen and Susan Willey Spalt of Carrboro. Andy is the son of Edward and Naomi R. Stuckey of Greensburg, Indiana.

They were married Friday evening before immediate family at the Spalt’s beach house.  The double-ring ceremony was written by Andy and Elizabeth and presided over by the Rev. Penelope Morningstar. A reception followed on Saturday at the Holiday Inn Sunspree, Wrightsville Beach, where music was provided by the band Schooner from Carrboro.

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Chelcy Elizabeth Boyer and Frederic Daniel Stutzman were married on June 23, 2007, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Boone by the Reverend Cynthia Banks and the Reverend Father John Kirwin.

Following the ceremony, the bride’s parents hosted a dinner reception at the historic Apple Barn in Valle Crucis.

The bride is the daughter of Jeff and Mary Boyer of Creston. She received both her bachelor and master degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill and is the Outreach and Engagement Librarian at NCSU Libraries. The groom is the son of Fred and Anne Stutzman of Albany, New York. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, he is a doctoral candidate there in information science.

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Farmers’ Markets
Carrboro Farmers’ Market - Sat 7am-12pm through Dec 22; Wed 3:30-6:30pm through Oct 17. Carrboro Town Commons. 932-1641,carrborofarmersmarket.com.

Hillsborough Farmers’ Market - Wed 3-6pm; Sat 7:30am-noon. Apr-Nov. 732-8315.

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