North Carolina Gardens and Sites

The first week of August I took a rode trip to visit friends in Marion, North Carolina. These friends were my mentors and were instrumental in my beginning in the landscape business. I met them in the early 80's, they owned and operated a business called The Garden Shed that sold vegetables, flowers, hanging baskets, trees and shrubs. The Shed was very close to my house and a favorite place for me to purchase my spring garden material and hanging baskets, I was such a novice but I loved flowers. One spring I was in between jobs, I worked at the time as a vocational evaluator and had a habit of quitting jobs in the winter so I could spend the chilly months in the Caribbean where my sister lived with her husband. Some people might think it foolish to quit a job to travel but it was one of the best things I ever did, my adventures in the Caribbean are a story for another time.

I went to the Garden Shed and offered to trade some labor for plants, they accepted and offered me a job, I fell in love. They had a small nursery which was the part of the business I ended up running. Soon people were asking questions about design, plants and installation. I read what ever I could, including lots of nursery tags and magazines and started paying careful attention to gardens that I admired. I taught myself the basics, sharpened my shovel, put my pick up truck to work and started installing the plants I sold at The Garden Shed. My first notion was to have an all female crew and I recruited two of my women friends as business picked up. Their employment was short lived when I nearly amputated ones fingertip with a spade as we desodded and the other women fainted to frequently in the summer heat. They were soon replaced with strong, young, high school boys.

Lin and Den, owners of The Garden Shed readily shared their business acumen, opinions and advice while we sipped manhattans and discussed the days customers. That seed grew and pointed me in the right direction as I took off running in the landscape business. When I get the chance I like to visit these two, loved people and between cocktails and wonderful homemade meals we often get to visiting the local flora and fauna.

Dutchman's Pipe at a garden near Ashville, North Carolina, rather suggestive I think or these beauties (top) blooming heavy in the NC summer. Close up of the annual blue salvia used in the formal garden, my absolute favorite annual for NE Indiana. (bottom)