The North Carolina Native Plant Society visited the Evelyn Jackson Wild Life Garden on Saturday, July 22. Here’s a virtual tour for you, with photographs taken just a few hours later. Part 1 shows the front garden and part 2 shows the back. Click on any photo for a larger image.
Suncurve
You can see this part of the garden from the street. It’s a brick-lined quarter circle, edged by the curb and driveway. It’s sunny and hot. You can barely see the bench behind it, which is flanked by certification signs and a rain gauge.
Prairie
The prairie is also along the street. Swaths of Hot Lips Salvia and Fireworks Goldenrod attract pollinators from spring through frost. A fig tree feeds me and the birds for a few weeks in August. Crocrosmia Lucifer is not native, but the hummingbirds love it.
Entrance Garden
Walk down the driveway to the entrance garden. You’ll see pots on a low brick wall with plants that would otherwise be eaten by rabbits. Along the walk and under the kitchen windows, “normal” looking native plants demonstrate that they work even in a formal or HOA-regulated setting. The large Chinese Abelia is not native, but a volunteer native vine, Major Wheeler Honeysuckle, grows through it. The abelia was the favorite nectar source for butterflies and bees until I planted the milkweed, phlox, and Joe Pye Weed in Suncurve.
Pine Circle
Turn right as the walk approaches the house to enter the Pine Circle. This area used to have a full circle of pines, some of which we’ve lost to ice and lightning. About two years ago, I had the huge thicket of white azaleas removed. Three Chokecherries and several native shrubs joined the ferns and Jack in the Pulpits that remained. This year, I’ve been adding perennials and grasses.
