Late July Native Garden Tour zone 8 NC

[00:00:01]Hi everybody. I'm Bri the plant lady checking in with a late July garden tour. I've been away for just over a week and in my absence it rained and actually last night we got over 2 ines of rain. I am so excited. The garden looks so much better than it did before I left. It is like the greatest thing ever. Uh June basically had no redeeming qualities, but July is turning out to be a pretty great month here in central North Carolina. So without further ado, let me turn this camera around and show you all the beautiful greenness that is growing here in my zone 8 garden in North Carolina. But first things first, I want to show Sophia is babysitting the baby cat, Stanley. This is actually his first time outside like walking around independently.

[00:00:56]He's gotten to the point where he stands at the front door and screams. And so I decided today, even though I've not had my coffee, I have just woken up that I was going to let him outside and we were going to make a video together. Um, he's so precious and he and Reginald are like the best of friends, but Reggie's inside because he's allergic to mosquitoes. Stanley, what do you think?

[00:01:20]Can we go on a walk?

[00:01:24]Can you say hi?

[00:01:29]The perennial pocket bed is looking so much better than from when before I left. Rain. It's amazing. You can see things are really filling in. I cut back the scutilia in Kaa and it's starting to bloom again. Of course, I gathered the seeds so we'll be able to do a class on that. And overall just this this entire planting looks so great. Of course, everything looks good with the green grass. And you can see the sylvium perfoliatum is in bloom. It's like all day long a pollinator fest. Uh it's an exciting plant to grow. Obviously, it's in a ridiculous spot, but I kind of like it here because it Well, I'm saying I like it here because I'm not going to dig it up. I just have to live with it being here. Um, it definitely went through a rough patch. It's not drought tolerant.

[00:02:25]As I would venture to say, really, none of the native plants that I'm growing at least are as drought tolerant as people want to say they are. And this year was a a prime example of that, of proving that. But now that we're getting some rain, things are definitely improving.

[00:02:47]Look at that view.

[00:02:50]I will post a container tour. But you could see the tower garden is doing so well. I'm harvesting so many tomatoes and cucumbers. But I wanted to show you this bed is finally finally that section is starting. You know, obviously the goal is that it's going to be full of the bright eyes flocks like this. I've not done any cutbacks on these. I'll probably regret that, but the deer have been nibbling as they do, but the front of the house is almost making sense.

[00:03:22]Maybe next year.

[00:03:25]And here in the east meets west border, um, all the containers are doing well despite the deer coming in and nibbling.

[00:03:34]deer have decided they really like tomatoes, which is super irritating. But you can see that the picnanthemum is in bloom. Um, I have a little more scootileria to cut back. But these are I trimmed back two weeks ago and they're starting to reflush and they should bloom again. The mule grasses are doing really well. And this border, you know, it's really suffered this summer. None of these plants I don't consider any of these plants to be drought tolerant.

[00:04:08]Even yucka don't consider them to be drought tolerant. It sounds ridiculous, but it's true.

[00:04:15]But since we've been getting some rain, things look significantly better. I mean, you can really see that the viburnum dentatum really don't want to be here. Um, I do need to come through and cut back the seeds on the spyheas, otherwise they'll be a million seedlings.

[00:04:37]And again, not thriving. They'll just germinate.

[00:04:41]Uh, arenium yakolium not at all drought tolerant. That's what it's done. It's just flopped all over the place.

[00:04:50]I'm pleased to see Rudbeckia subtoomentosa isn't looking like death but it's so small. Usually these are like 3 to 4 foot tall.

[00:05:02]So the drought is has definitely been a significant factor. Panicum looks like crap spewing all over the place. I plan on getting rid of all the panacum.

[00:05:12]Honestly, I think muigrass and this haha tonka blue stem are the only two grasses that I want in here. But I mean, look at look at that mess of nonsense. I'm just going to cut it down for now and then I'm going to figure out how to how to dig it out. I just don't have a lot of tolerance for grasses that do this. and seeing them in Philadelphia.

[00:05:37]These plants perform so differently in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast compared to the Southeast. And I just can't take advice from people up there because our climates are too different.

[00:05:49]Um, yeah, it's kind of a hot mess, but it's what it is. Like up in Philly, all the perennials were just like so fresh and they were in full bloom. And you know, Max from Huntsville Botanic Garden, Preston from Magnolia Plantation, we're all like, "They just don't look like this in the south." And they don't. And it's cuz we're a different climate, and we can't compare. We also can't take advice from them because the plants don't perform the same way. But, you know, when this was blooming, it was really pretty. And there will be more stuff to bloom. And especially if we can continue to get rain, that'll make a big difference.

[00:06:32]Um, the Monarda puncta has started to bloom. And I thought I had done a good job of taking a lot out, but there's a lot here. So you can see that self sews.

[00:06:46]It's not really perennial. It's more of a self-seing annual. But it is great for the pollinators. But I'm really excited to show you the hairy balls gum for a carpass. This is related to milkweed.

[00:06:58]And if we ever get monarchs down here, we saw a ton in Philly, but none down here, they like to eat the foliage of this. But it's really kind of a fun, funny plant and also really great to use in um flower arrangements. So they've just started to create their hairy balls. You can see I've got two here.

[00:07:20]And it's aptly named like that's a common name that actually makes sense.

[00:07:24]It's a ball and it looks hairy.

[00:07:27][laughter] Gonorocarpus.

[00:07:31]And the native fern bed is looking great. It certainly does appreciate more water. Oh, my sculpture fell. Have to get that hung back up. And I'm really thrilled that some of the vines are starting to take hold and and do their job on the screen.

[00:07:48]And I'm gonna again post a separate video all about containers.

[00:07:53]Uh, and the beds here at the greenhouse which are not native are doing great.

[00:07:57]These are almost exclusively vegetables, but I'll post a separate video about those things. I did want to say there is room in Saturday's sip and stroll garden tour/ seeding session. Uh, so if you're free, I'm going to put the link in the description that you can join us for a delightful evening. We are going to uh well obviously explore the gardens but also do cool season vegetable seeding and some native garden native plant seeding. So it should be a really fun time. Um I actually haven't been in the greenhouse since I got home. But you can see I've got seed stuff just here drying. That's all scootilaria.

[00:08:38]This is salvia larora. But I've been working hard at collecting seed and I really want to have these sip and stroll tours be um something that's hands-on that you take home. That for me that's my whole goal always. So we do have room. I'm going to put that in the description in case you're free to join us. So the part sun native border looks really great.

[00:09:05]There's some weeding to be done as always, but uh I'm just so happy that I'm not having to run a sprinkler all day long. Golly, rain. Rain brings me joy and happiness.

[00:09:21]Uh this definitely could use a little love. I'll try and get out here in the evenings. I am slammed with computer work, so I'm not going to be out here doing anything this afternoon.

[00:09:33][clears throat] But nice to see that the vernonia is blooming. Again, remember this isn't a lot more shade than sun, but these plants that are labeled full sun do a lot better in this sort of condition in the southeast.

[00:09:50]Well, everybody, I look forward to sharing another update with you tomorrow, showcasing all of the other gardens. Uh, I hope that this quick mid to late July native garden tour here from my Fugquate Verina, North Carolina zone 8 garden will inspire you and maybe you can learn from some of the mistakes that I have made. Remember, the South is a very different climate from the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. And so if your plants aren't performing exactly the way that you see in pictures or you see in books, don't feel bad. You're not alone.

[00:10:30]That's my biggest takeaway from our trip to Philadelphia last week was that first of all, you can't compare regions. Um, and we are a very different climate down here. And so we have to approach gardening in general, but very specifically native gardening in a different context. And we don't necessarily have access to the genetics of plants that are appropriate for the real climate of this region. And that's my biggest criticism, I suppose, of the native plant movement is that it was sort of a knee-jerk reaction to not having any natives. the industry responded in the easiest way possible and it turns out well that doesn't work. It does it just doesn't work. Um, so I hope by raising more awareness about the need for better heat tolerant varieties and just a a greater understanding of the dynamics of gardening with native plants that we can have uh a more intelligent conversation because some of the articles that are coming out touting the benefits to insects and stuff, it's really shortsighted. It's not always scientifically accurate and well, I'm actually very offended as a horiculturalist by the simplicity of the conversation when it's a much bigger topic than just caterpillars.

[00:11:59]Well, everybody, I'm wishing you all the best and again, I look forward to sharing another update with you tomorrow. Thanks so much for watching and happy gardening.

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