Our State fair ended just a few days ago on Octo-ber 24th. Charlie Brown, beloved Peanuts charac-ter would have been amazed to see the great pumpkin in residence right here at the fair! You know, the one he

waits for every year. This year’s new record breaking pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 1,965.5 pounds! At 341 pounds, the largest watermelon would have fed everyone at your family reunion. More highlights included the Howling Cow ice cream tent plus food vendors of all descriptions. The greatest area of the fair, however, continues to be the flower and garden area. The Gardeners of Wake County participated extensively with their presence in the flower house as well as the greenhouses and the en-tire garden area. The “work” was so easy and so much fun, not to mention the parking, where you only had to cross a driveway to enter the gar-dens because of the coveted parking passes we had!

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Volume 5, digital edition 11 Gardeners of Wake County, Inc. — Raleigh, NC November 2021

Fair Is Fair by Kathleen Thompson, President

In November! Monthly meetings are at 7:30 PM at the JC Raulston Arboretum eve-ry 3rd Tuesday. Refreshments and socializing begin at 7:00. The NCMA created Rachel Woods’ position as curator of Horticulture and Sustainability in early 2016 to restore and keep the museum’s 164-acre grounds in the best possi-ble condition. Rachel designed wetland sedges to manage the wa-ter runoff from the extensive park-ing areas, allowing the water to percolate and be cleaned before it goes back into the park’s stream system. She has been experi-menting with native grasses to find those that will naturalize and thrive in that demanding environ-ment. The streams themselves have been cleaned with walking paths along the banks improved. “The goal of the park is to change what people think of as a museum experience, and challenging the concept that a museum has to be in a building.” Join your fellow GWC members on Tuesday, No-vember 16th at 7:30 PM at the JC Ralston Arboretum when Rachel will share her work and plans for the future.

Fair Is Fair (continued from page 1)

A very special “thank you” to all who shared their time to earn money for the club to add to the scholarship fund: Rob and Kate Bartos Will and Donna Farmer Lynn and Jim Swanson Shay and Irene Campbell Mac and Vivian Williamson Vicki Thompson Kathleen and Walt Thompson Jim Hollister Paul Hoffman Tom Packer, Jim and Kathy Moore Kara Williamson Jenny Freeman Rich Engates Bill and Chris Maxwell Charles Gilliam Kristi Tweed These folks earned over $1,500 for the schol-arship fund all while enjoying the fair.

Hope to see even more GWC volunteers on next year’s list!

Club Officers and Committees

Board members

President: Kathleen Thompson Vice President: Christine Elliott Secretary: Jim Moore Treasurer: Mac Williamson Immediate Past President: Ginny Parker At-large board members: Joanne Boone, Rich Engates, Charlie Leverett, Jim Swanson

Committee members

Activities Chair: Will Farmer, Reed & Christine Elliott (seed swap), Renee Engates (refreshments), Mark Boone (picnic), Kathleen Thompson and Ginny Parker (awards banquet) Audit: Charles Gilliam, Reed Elliott, Sharon LaRusch, Donna Farmer Azalea Sale: Eddie Robinson Beautification Awards: Laine Thomas Club Awards: Jim Moore, Paul Hoffman Endowment Investment: Charles Gilliam Friendship: Donna Farmer Historical: Donna Farmer Membership, Barbara Brown Newsletter Editor: Reed Elliott Nominating: TBA Programs: Christine Elliott Projects: Sharon LaRusch, Lynn Swanson Publicity: Charles Gilliam, Will Farmer Scholarship: Christine Elliott, Joanne Boone Telephone: Johnny and Sherrill Johnson Webmaster: Reed Elliott

Contact Us For additional information email our Club at gardener@gardenersofwakecounty.org Contact Kathleen Thompson, President, 919-469-0991 or kthompson365@twc.com Our Club webpage is online at https://

gardenersofwakecounty.weebly.com/

The NCMA created Rachel Woods’ po-sition as curator of Horticulture and Sustainability in early 2016 to restore and keep the museum’s 164-acre grounds in the best possible condi-tion. In the last few years the park has experienced a major overhaul and expansion. Many of us have enjoyed walking and biking through the grounds of more than 300 newly planted trees and the sculptured art-works, admired the native prairie grasses and perennial beds which were chosen to provide habitats for all kinds of bugs and birds. The sum-

mer meadow gardens of native blooms and sunflowers have provided a great photo background for many family pictures.

Rachel designed wetland sedges to manage the water runoff from the extensive parking areas, allow-ing the water to percolate and be cleaned before it goes back into the park’s stream system. She has been experimenting with native grasses to find those that will naturalize and thrive in that demand-ing environment. The streams themselves have been cleaned with walking paths along the banks im-proved.

“The goal of the park is to change what peo-ple think of as a museum experience, and challenging the concept that a museum has to be in a building.” Throughout the last two years the Museum Park has offered the com-munity an opportunity to escape the urban setting and spend a little more time in nature. That is Rachel’s goal.

On November 16th at 7:30 PM at the JC Ral-ston Arboretum, Rachel will share her work and plans for the future with our members. Please join us then.

In November—A Work of (Garden) Art with NCMA’s

Rachel Woods

by Christine Elliott, Vice-President

Save the Date! by Sharon LaRusch, and Lynn Swanson Projects Co-chairs

Nov 20th Join us for an exciting project announcement out at Joslins.

Where: 2431 W Lake Dr., Raleigh, NC 27609

Parking along the street and several spots up the drive

Workday portion 8:30 until 11am

After the workday, Lynn and I would like to discuss the scope of a new project over lunch and get your input!

Bring a lawn chair!

Whether pitching in at the workday or just joining for lunch, an rsvp is requested.

RSVP: sharonlarusch@gmail.com

Share&Care No upcoming workdays are on the calendar

New to the club and haven’t heard about Share&Care?

Garden Share&Care is a one day (3-4 hours) where you get to check out someone's yard (I love getting ideas that way!) while showing some GWC love in helping thy neighbor with a few tasks. This workday is a micro crew of members who enjoy visiting other folks’ gardens and want to lend a helping hand. The "Share and Care" project both extends an invitation into a member's garden and provides an opportunity to help with a project or chores while there. Our mission here isn’t to merely form a work crew but to connect with a fellow member and lend a helping hand. We organize and hold these as the opportunities arise and schedules per-mit.

Lynn and I are available to discuss further and answer any questions you have.

Sharon Lynn

1-919-656-1717 1-919-345-9708

sharonlarusch@gmail.com chocolategardener@yahoo.com

Sunken Gardens by Paul Hoffman, Past President

Time for a little travelogue. In August Judy and I need to make an unexpected trip to Tampa. Whenever visiting in a new place, I like to explore local gardens and in St. Pete I found one of the few original Florida roadside attractions still in operation called Sunken Gardens. The gardens are sunken because they were planted 100 years ago in a limestone sinkhole. George Turner, Sr., a plumber by trade, purchased six acres with an old sinkhole lake back in 1911. Being an av-id and enterprising gardener, like many GWC mem-bers I know, he figured out how to drain the lake leaving behind a bowl filled with rich muck. He and his wife Eula soon turned it into a thriving tropical garden. His neighbors liked walking through the garden so much by the 1930’s he was charging a nickel a person for tours. The gardens slowly became a family business which lasted for many years. It became so cherished in St. Pete that the city, with voter approval, purchased the gardens in 1999 and continues to maintain the attraction as a wonderful garden experience. Two things made an impression on me when I walked through garden: the plants are tropical – lots of things growing here that you wouldn’t see in Raleigh – and the garden is old so the plants are big – they have had the opportunity to grow in place for a long time. There are towering palms, fifteen foot crotons, five foot flowering bromeliads. Take a look also at the pictures of interesting trees, ones with multicolored trunks, columns of supporting roots, or palm branches that fan out from the ground up. Alas we live too far north to duplicate this landscape – but I couldn’t resist and brought back three plants that might have a chance of surviving around here. Take a minute some time and ask me how they are doing.

The time period when the sun shines less than 10 hours per day is known as the Persephone Period. It is named after the daughter of the Goddess of the Harvest, Demeter, in Greek mythology. Demeter’s daughter Persepho-ne returns to Hades each winter when the days get short. Runamuk Acres picks up the story here. “One day while Persephone was playing in a flowery meadow Hades, Lord of the Underworld, came and abducted her to be his bride. Demeter was so enraged that she laid a curse upon the Earth that caused the crops to wither and die, and the land became barren. Zeus had no choice but to intervene, seeking the return of Persephone, but be-cause the maiden had eaten 6 pomegranate seeds (the food of the dead) while in captivity, Hades had a claim on her. It was decreed that Persephone would forever spend four months of the year in the Underworld with her husband. During these months Demeter grieves for her daughter, withdrawing her gifts from the world, creating winter. Persephone’s annual return to the Earth in the spring was marked by the greening of meadows and the budding of new leaves of the trees.”

For the triangle the Persephone period is between the end of November and the middle of January. Plant growth nearly stops during this period, but a number of cold hardy plants will survive well and be ready to take off when the days start getting longer.

There is still time to plant lettuce and mustard from seed. These crops sprout quickly and will be lovely to eat as they mature. When thinning the plants, I like using the baby greens to make salads you would pay a lot for at a high-end restau-rant. There are a lot of other winter har-dy plants which can be transferred from seedlings. Almost all the cruciferous plants like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and cabbage do well in cold weather. Carrots and spinach can survive down to -20°F with mulch.

There are two groups of plants in the win-ter growing category – Winter Harvest Crops and Overwintered crops. We have already missed the window for planting the winter harvest plants, so unless you can get nice size seedlings you should fo-cus on the overwinter crops which will sprout in the next few weeks and really get going when Persephone returns from the Underworld in the middle of January.

The Persephone Period by Mark Boone, Past President

My Corner of the Garden by Reed Elliott, Editor

November in North Carolina is a season of wonder – a time for the smell of wood fires burning, cool, crisp morning walks, and shafts of sunlight filtering through the swirling beauty of falling autumn leaves. And that brings me to this month’s topic – leaves. They’re both the blessing and the curse of the Old North State. They are a crowning glory when they grace our trees in spring, summer and autumn, but they also can be nature’s nuisance when they bury our lawns and gardens as we move into the winter months. Like most of my neighbors, I’ve spent many a fine fall day raking, blowing, piling and stuffing leaves upon leaves upon leaves into heaps in the streets, or trash cans and bulging bags which have to be hauled and stacked awaiting eventual removal to a land that is fairer than this.

About two years ago, I ran across a then new-to-me philosophy that said, “Gardener, leave them leaves alone!” The thought is that falling leaves are nothing but free mulch. Simply pile them loosely on top of your gardens to create a natural blanket that protects fragile plants and beneficial insects from winter’s snowy blasts. All winter long the leaves gradually decompose and leach their nutrients into the garden soil. In spring, simply rake away any residual excess or dig it into the soil. No hauling, no piling, no more gooey leaf piles in the streets or choked landfills.

But in this contentious day and age, there can be no idea, no matter how virtuous or beneficial it may be that won’t find some n’er do well with an opposing viewpoint. This morning I ran across the Grumpy Gardener who had this to say about my newfound leafy philosophies:

Logic dictates that if leaf cover helps beneficial insects survive winter, it will aid harmful ones just as much – bugs like stinkbugs, squash borers, cockroaches, cucumber beetles, bean beetles, boxelder bugs, tomato hornworms, and cab-bageworms. No free ride! An additional argument against leaving your lawn under a winter blanket of wet, moldy leaves is that it's not good for the grass. For one thing, if you have grass that stays green all winter like bluegrass or fescue, it won't be getting any sun or air. For another, the lawn will be subject to constant moisture that provides the perfect environment for a raft of diseases.

Once we agree that the leaves are coming off, the question remains what to do with them. The wrong and environ-mentally lazy answer is to send them off to the landfill. The correct and environmentally sensitive alternative is to use them to enrich the soil in your yard. For this, all you need is a mulching mower and a twenty-something, live-at-home son who needs a break from his X-Box. Set the mowing height to about two inches (you'll have to show him how to do

this as he thinks it works with Alexa). When the leaves are fairly dry, have him run over the lawn as if he were cutting grass (something he read about in History class). In less time than it takes to rake or blow off the yard, the mower will chop the leaves into little bits. He can leave them where they drop, as they'll decompose into organic matter and enrich the soil without harming the grass. But suppose something called "ambition" plagues your boy? In such a rare case, have him use the mower's bag-ging attachment to collect the run-over leaves. Chopped leaves make an excellent mulch for garden beds. They stay in place, look great, and feed the earthworms. Or if you have a compost bin, have him toss them in there to make compost.

At least we both agree on one thing – leaves can be a gardener’s friend. And we don’t trash our friends!

New Members

The Gardeners of Wake County welcome anyone and everyone who loves gardens and gardening. This month we’re happy to accept the reenlistment of Toni Cambier of Raleigh. Be sure to say “Hi and welcome back!” when you see her at the next meeting!