Every other year, local volunteers organize the Joy Garden
Tour to benefit the Village Green, a 12-acre park in the heart of Cashiers,
North Carolina.
In 2011, I waited too long and the event was sold out. This
year I bought my ticket right away and joined 1200 other enthusiasts who
traveled from at least a dozen states to view several private gardens in the
area.
You enter the front door and walk straight through the house
to a flagstone terrace where you are treated to a spectacular view of Whiteside
Mountain.
The cliffs there are the highest in eastern North America, rising to
an elevation of 4,930 feet. That view is amazing enough, but there is
also a carpet of wildflowers at your feet that seems to go on for miles.
The meadow and other gardens on the property were designed
by Jeremy Smearman of Planters Landscape. He and his associates have been
working on just the right combination of plants for the meadow and this year
everything has come together to create a most memorable vista.
Bishop’s Flower
Black-eyed Susan
Blanketflower/Firewheel
Coneflower
Cornflower/Bachelor’s
Button
Dense Blazing Star
Ox-eyed Daisy
Red Corn
Poppy/Flanders Poppy
Tickseed/Lance-leaved
Coreopsis
According to
Planters Regional Manager Bo Gambrell, it takes three seasons to establish a
healthy wildflower meadow. “The main reason being that you will only get 60-70%
germination each time you seed and each meadow has its own needs. The first
thing you should do is get a soil sample and find out what your soil is lacking
in nutrients. Then, order three times as much seed as you need and store the
leftover seed to broadcast each spring. Most of the time you will want to mix
some sand with your seed when using a spreader to help spread the different
sized seeds evenly. If you have raw soil, you should also mix in a little bit
of creeping red fescue grass seed on the first application.”
After that, further
seeding should be unnecessary as long as the meadow is doing well, although you
might have to replenish some areas if flowers are thinning. Aside from that, as
long as the meadow gets enough water each year, you need only mow it and cut
down volunteer tree saplings.
I have a small slope
I’d like to dress up with some wildflowers. Now after seeing the work done at
Morse Meadow, I have some beautiful ideas growing in my head.