While we were in your charming town this weekend to visit Camellia Forest Nursery, I picked up a copy of The Carrboro Citizen, drawn by the promise of a “Spring Gardening Special Section Inside.” Since we own a nursery in Southside Virginia,  we are always interested in the gardening sections printed in newspapers in surrounding towns. We have been dealing with garden centers, nurseries and landscape professionals in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area for 25 years, so I was particularly interested to see the names of many of our customers listed in the various categories. One flagrant omission from your list of landscape services was a business which has celebrated responsible gardening in your area for many years, Spring Branch Landscaping, owned and operated by Carrboro resident Mary Jane Pearson Baker (springbranchlandscapes.com/aboutus.html). More »

Mark Zimmerman’s guest column railing against the upcoming vote on a proposed land transfer tax [“The wrong tax and the wrong time,” March 13, 2008] paints this revenue-generating tool as regressive, unreliable, unfair and just plain awful. But to the average Carrborean, it just might be a pretty good thing. First, if you don’t own property, it won’t cost you a dime. And second, if you’re a homeowner and you don’t sell your home, it still won’t cost you a dime — more importantly, it might have a direct positive effect on our ever-upwardly-spiraling property taxes. More »

The fifth annual Teachers’ First Breakfast will be held May 2, from 6 to 8:30 a.m. at Squid’s Restaurant.

Students, parents and others can honor teachers and other staff members with breakfast or a rose. The breakfast will kick off Teacher Appreciation Week.

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A benefit concert to support “Smiles for Tiles” will be held April 13 at Cat’s Cradle.

The concert will raise money to test the ceiling tiles at Chapel Hill High School to determine if latex paint makes the tiles more flammable.

Students at Chapel Hill High have painted ceiling tiles over the past 14 years, but last year the fire department informed the school the tiles were in violation of the flammable finish section of the fire code and would have to be removed.

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John and Matthew Uehling of Culbreth Middle School attended the National Young Leaders State Conference March 6-9 in Spartanburg, SC.
They were joined by 130 other eighth- and ninth-grade students from North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The Congressional Youth Leadership Council conducted the conference.

Chapel Hill High School students will present the musical comedy How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, April 24, 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m.

The comedy satires big business and all it holds sacred as it follows the antics of a window washer who climbs the corporate ladder.

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Members of Technology Student Association chapters at McDougle and Smith middle schools and Chapel Hill and Carrboro high schools participated March 7 in the Central/Southwest Regional TSA Conference at Richmond Senior High in Rockingham. A number of students from the four schools won competitions in various categories.

Winners from McDougle Middle include: Chris Rupert, third place, career challenge; Kendall Harkey, third place, graphic design challenge; Harkey and Leah Westendorf, second place, structural engineering; Austin Slydel, first place, electrical applications; Dunmi Alabi, Chris Chiesa, Daniel Kaplan, John O’Regan, Manoj Paladugu and Westendorf, first place, chapter team; Alabi, Chris Chiesa, Nikita Ermoshkine, Paladugu and Westendorf, first place video challenge. McDougle’s sponsor is Redmond Grigg.

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Five students from Carrboro High School received awards at the German Day competition at Elon University on March 6.

Ilana Schmidt placed first in Extemporaneous Speaking for Heritage Speakers, while Hailey Johnson, Samuel LeBlanc and Eric Taylor finished second in the Level 1 Culture Quiz Bowl Team and Alexa Holloway finished third in the poster contest.

The Chapel Hill High School Apparel Department II students recently competed in the “Best Made Jacket Contest,” sponsored by Mulberry Silks and Fine Fabrics Store.

Students made lined jackets, which have been on display at Mulberry Silks for the past month. Customers were invited to vote on their favorite jacket.

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Thirty Belgian students and six chaperones will be staying with Chapel Hill and Carrboro families from March 22 to April 2 as part of a Smith Middle School international exchange program.

The students hosted Smith students last spring as part of the European Union grant that Smith Middle School received.

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Photo by Jim Kenny

March 17

The Carrboro High School men’s lacrosse team defeated Durham School of the Arts by a score of 7-6 in sudden death overtime on Monday night. The Jaguar’s scoring was paced by Rich Leeper (3 goals, 1 assist), MacKenzie Price (2 goals) and David Hare (2 goals), while Brooks Covington, Ty Fenton and Ken Ryan each provided one assist. Hare and Leeper also helped out in the battle for possession by snagging six ground balls each. Goalies Gus Brighton (6 saves) and Nick Swartzwelder (4 saves) led the defense during the Jaguar’s late comeback and overtime score. More »

The Northside Community Garden on 400 Caldwell St. has plots available for rent. Workdays are Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m., Sundays and Wednesdays from 3 to 5:30 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to noon the third Friday of each month. Volunteers and staff can answer questions and provide tools on workdays. Workshops are planned for the spring. The garden is a project by the Orange County Extension Service and the Mental Health Association in Orange County. For more information, visit on a workday or call 942-8083.

Keep an eye on several upcoming events from the NC Botanical Garden:

On Wednesday, April 9 at the Totten Center at the Botanical Garden, librarian Bill Burk presents “From Tobacco Farm to Botany Library: Alma Holland Beers, Carolina’s First Female Botanist.” He will discuss the history of the first female botanist and her contributions to botany. More »

Chapel Hill’s Stormwater Management Division is sponsoring a rain barrel sale and H2Oh! Education Fair on Saturday, April 5 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Eubanks Road Park and Ride Lot. Two styles of rain barrels will be offered and may be pre-ordered, with payment and pickup required on the day of the event. Hillsborough’s Mark Ray will sell 55-gallon rain barrels for $65 each. Rain Water Solutions’ 65-gallon rain barrels will cost $90.

Chat with a master gardener! Master gardeners are volunteers trying to help gardeners with their questions. You can talk to a master gardener:

April 12 and 13 at the NC Botanical Garden, during the Spring Garden Tour.

Through October 31, Wednesdays and Fridays from noon to 2 p.m. at the Home Garden Clinic at the Botanical Garden in person or at 962-0522.

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