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Last glows of summer cue harvest celebrations
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Published: September 27, 2008
Here comes October, the month when we put down the hoe and pick up the rake. It is also that month in the garden when all is verdant and overripe, when fresh, leafy greens and root crops share the garden with the very last fruits of summer.
It is a wonderful time in the Piedmont garden, the slanted rays of the sun illuminating the saturated jewel tones of the season's flowers and changing leaves. Perhaps we love it all the more with the knowledge that soon the frost will be upon us, and it will all be gone.
There is no shortage of activity by which to celebrate the harvest season. The centerpiece for Winston-Salem will be the Dixie Classic Fair, that annual sensory overload of midway food and entertainment mingled with homespun crafts, and horticultural and agricultural know-how.
If you go because the kids drag you to the rides and games, make them work for it. Take them to check out the giant pumpkins and the flower shows. Better yet, get them to enter something themselves.
There is a Junior Horticulture Class for kids ages 4 to 15. Both container-grown plants and plants grown in the garden may be entered. The entries should be brought to the Home and Garden Building on Oct. 7, between 5 and 7 p.m. Some of the categories include celosias, marigolds, zinnias, roses and dahlias for cut flowers and ferns, foliage plants, herbs and cactus for container plant entries.
Children should bring just one spray or flower stem for cut flowers and they should be the grower. The container plants should have been in the exhibitor's possession for at least two months, according to the rules. Small premiums are available to the winners.
This year's theme for the Floriculture Design competition is "Leather and Lace," and it is sponsored by Curly's Harley Davidson. This could be interesting.
The fair judges have also changed the rules about collections this year. Many Floriculture exhibits include collections of broad-leaf evergreens, annuals and perennials, decorative grasses and so forth. Collections must have been pre-registered by Sept. 1 in order to be included in the exhibition this year.
Autumn activities
□ Bethabara recently published a laminated, illustrated field guide to some of the commonly encountered plants and creatures in this great Winston-Salem park. It is a wonderful place to encounter history, gardens and nature. The field guide features creatures found in the park and notes with an asterisk those specifically indicated by Christian Reuter, the Moravian surveyor, as being in the 18th-century Wachovia Tract.
Compiled by a committee of local experts, the field guide is a great way to begin discovering nature with children. You are almost sure to encounter some of the insects, birds and mammals featured in the guide on a stroll through the park's woodlands and gardens. Ellen Kutcher, Bethabara's director, said that the first small printing of the field guide has arrived at the visitors center and that a second press should arrive in early October.
□ Another great spot for a leisurely walk to enjoy both gardens and woodlands is the Arboretum at Tanglewood Park. At 11 a.m. today, a pawpaw festival will beheld in the gardens to celebrate this unusual and delicious native fruit. A pawpaw tastes like something between a banana and a mango, with about 20 flavor stops in between. Treat yourself to a pawpaw milk shake, ice cream, bread and other delights at the festival today.
Then return at 11 a.m. on Oct. 8 for a fall tree walk with one of this area's most knowledgeable naturalists, Jim Nottke. The arboretum is full of fine old specimen trees as well as examples of modern cultivars, and you couldn't ask for a better guide to introduce them to you. For more information, call 336-703-2850.
□ Reynolda Gardens has several interesting programs on the calendar this year. Notable among them is Bird Day, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 18, a celebration of resident and migratory birds held in the formal gardens. Representatives from the Carolina Raptor Center, a raptor-rehabilitation and education center outside Charlotte, will bring rehabilitated birds of prey for display.
There will also be an early-morning bird walk at 8 p.m. led by Winston-Salem Journal Bird's Eye View columnist Phil Dickinson and Audubon members ,and tours of the garden to point out plants that attract birds. Plant sales and activities for children will also be continuing.
□ "Something's A-Flutter," a celebration of butterflies, will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Nov. 9 at the new conservatory of the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont. For more information, call 704- 825-4490
□ The 13th Annual Carolina Bonsai Expo will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 11 and from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 12 at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. The expo features the arboretum's world-class bonsai collection in its autumn glory. Vendors from around the region will sell plants and tools of the bonsai trade 828-665 2492.
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.
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