THE JOSLIN GARDEN 

The City of Oaks Foundation and 

City of Raleigh Parks

It’s a good feeling working in a garden by taking one step at a time. As our journey begins, The Joslin Garden needs some love. It’s best not to look at the garden as a whole. It can feel overwhelmed knowing what needs to be done. Yet, we have help; thankfully, we can make progress week by week, month by month. This will be important as the Foundation hopes to open for a private garden tour in April. I only have myself to blame; I think we can get the garden ready by then! At the very least, The Formal Garden and Lawn will be ready to show off!

ROSES

None of the roses in this bed are marked, but the database lists ‘Nastarana’, ‘Yellow Ribbons,’ and Rosa banksiae in this area. Come May, with the first flush of blooms, I hope to identify and label each of these.

It was time to cut back the roses. These roses have been here for many, many years. It is obvious by the base of the plant.

I left a big pile of cuttings at the edge of the driveway. My bad. During my day there and with volunteers coming Saturday, we don’t have enough vessels to package up yard waste for curbside pick up. Nell order 20 paper yard waste bags to use for this batch. We needed to be ready. Hopefully, one of the volunteers, who likes working with thorny rose cutbacks can package them up. In any event, I will ask our Garden Angle, Neal Wisenbaker with Parks if he can drive by with a dump truck sometime when he is in the area. We will be exceeding the number we can dump at any given time since Yard Waste only now comes every other week.

While I was working in the rose garden, I see there is mint, cleome, rosemary, salvias, others not yet identified. I can’t wait to see what awaits!!!

CREEPING CHARLIE
I tend to be a VERY optimistic gardener. But there is something about Charlie that worries me. He’s worrying me.. Creeping Charlie, Glechoma hederacea, is EVERYWHERE. Really! I started with my first patch removal.

Every gardener has their favorite garden tools. My tool of choice, besides my Felco clippers, is a soil knife. It can dig deep but also, used horizontally, it can cut shallow roots with its serrated edge. We may have a lot of Creeping Charlie, but it doesn’t really take long to go after it.

NANDINA

I’m with Nell on this one, we wanted the nandina G. O. N. E. gone! I learned a neat trick from Nell. I have a history of removing nandina, and they have roots to China and dense! In my experience, they are one of the most difficult shrubs to rid if you want to root too. What Nell does, is first cut and bag the berries. We know how they love to procreate!

Then cut the shrub down to the ground. Nell then puts a couple of layers of cardboard over the top of the root. and then cover with a thick layer of mulch. Nell says it does the trick every time.

Looks great, don’t you think?

STINKING HELLEBORES

Nell cut back stinking Hellebores, Helleborus foetidus, down by the street.. You gotta love common names, right?

Did you know this hellebore gets a common name from an unpleasant odor when the leaves are crushed?

Helleborus foetidus also has another common name. Due to the nature of the plant’s weeping structure of its deeply cut leaves, a Bear’s Foot comes to mind.

VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers are coming on Saturday— Chris shot a few how-to videos to show the volunteers where to work, including cutting back ginger lilies, ostrich and bracken ferns, picking up sticks, and of course, digging up Creeping Charlie and smilax.

More of that next Thursday!

PRUNING PEARL FRYER TOPIARY
No pressure here No, Not At. ALL. haha. I’m a huge fan of Pearl Fryer. Pearl and he has reached the top of my horticulture heroes list. In 2008 I visited his garden. And now all these years later, it has come full circle.

Pruned Pearl Fryer heart was given to Mary Coker Joslin, also from South Carolina

In looking at the after picture now, I think I need to take out more growth. That will go on my next week’s to-do list!

Remember the edge I cut last week? Nell added branches to edge the bed. I love having these natural edgings. It’s not for every garden, but there is a sense of place in The Joslin Garden.

One of the many things I like about focused women, is determination. I’m that way. Watch out when I need to get something finished. Well, it appears Nell is the same way. Imagine what it took for her to rid the root of this smilax?

Here is the culprit climbing up a camellia bush. Look for the vertical line at 11:45.

Until soon,

Helen