| Garden Tips |
What grows best here? Look around and you will see native plants thriving. Selecting native plants already adapted to our growing conditions helps to ensure a healthy landscape. Trees that are well adapted to Connestee Falls include red maple, hemlock, American holly, Fraser magnolia, redbud, sourwood, serviceberry, Carolina silverbell and white pine. All these trees are native to this area and therefore should be considered in your landscaping plans. Our native flowering dogwood seems more resistant to anthracnose disease than earlier predicted, but a safe alternative is the oriental variety, Cornus kousa. If given moderate to full sun and well-drained soil, it will bloom later and longer than the native dogwood. Native shrubs well adapted to CF include rosebay, catawba and Carolina rhododendrons, flame azalea, mountain laurel and leucothoe. These shrubs dominate the understory in our forest and provide dazzling color in spring and early summer. Your chance of success will be greatest by purchasing trees and shrubs that have been propagated from seeds or cuttings by area nurseries that specialize in native varieties. These nursery-grown plants will have a well-developed root system unlike those plants dug in the wild. If you plan to move a native plant from one place to another on your property, it is best to root prune it the year before the move. Don't overlook the use of native ferns in your landscape plan. For cool, shady, moist sites use the evergreen Christmas fern, lady fern, and cinnamon fern. If you are lucky enough to have one or more varieties of the club mosses (lycopodiums) such as groundpine or shining club moss; it is a valuable evergreen ground cover. Enjoy it where Mother Nature put it for it will not survive long if transplanted. It is not available in nurseries. |
| The lush native vegetation growing on your property may lead you to conclude that the soil is very fertile. The majority of the soil samples analyzed in Connestee reveal the need for fertilizer and lime for satisfactory growth of horticultural varieties. It would be wise to have your soil tested. To do this, obtain instructions and soil sample boxes from the Agriculture Extension Office in the Community Services Building on Morgan Street. All you have to do is select the samples and mail them to Raleigh in the box provided. In about two weeks, you will receive an analysis for each sample sent and a recommendation on how to improve the soil for the plants you wish to grow. There is no charge for this service. |
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| Gardening in Connestee |
| By: George and Marcia Mc Dermott |
| Landscaping Plants for Connestee Falls |
| Soil Testing |