One of the best ways to view your garden is through pictures. What you’ll find is that you have walked by an untidy hose, a broken board, leaves covering a bench, or any number of things you don’t see because your mind is so used to seeing these objects, and they disappear.
This week we are addressing three such quandaries: The Poles, The Hole, and the Hellebores! Another one, untidy hoses, has already been addressed. I will be the first to admit, I’m a stickler for this kind of details.
THE POLES
The Poles
While I was working on The Porch Bed last time, I took before and after pictures. And even though I was in this bed working for several hours, and probably even tripping over the poles, I didn’t see them until I studied the photographs. Crazy, right? I’m typically very observant. Actually, I saw one individually, and maybe them all individually, but the after pictures revealed several of them.
Seeing the poles begged the question, “Why are they there?” Fortunately, we have Nell Joslin to help demystify quandaries. Or do we? When I asked Nell what there were once used for, she didn’t know. That proves my point. For a lifetime, Nell walked by these poles and never knew why they were there.
The poles look like old survey stakes. I remember cutting my foot on of these as a seven-year kid playing in the front yard. We lived on a corner lot, and of course, BACK THEN, we never wore shoes. (My mom was on to something every time she yelled to us, “Keep your shoes on!”) But of course, we kids didn’t listen at that age, especially when it came to what might hamper outdoor play activities. No one wore shoes…then. Going barefoot was worth the risk of a few stitches. Ha!
I wondered if they were once bird feeder posts, but upon closer inspection, they were several in a row, which let me believe this, but then I noticed on one side, the poles made a right angle. Not likely for the bird feeders.
On further thought, Nell Joslin weighed in, here are her thoughts: “About the stakes, I think that bird feeders are actually a very possible explanation. I remember my father having bird feeders in that vicinity. Also given the years and years that the land has been farmed and now gardened, there are all kinds of possibilities -- surveyors' stakes, remains of old fencing from the days when livestock was kept on this land, or even horseshoe pits. There is also evidence that Civil War troops occupied these lands in the 1860s (shell casings have been found). And lots and lots of Indian arrowheads from 100s and 100s of years ago (way older than those pipes, of course!). I do wish I'd thought to ask my father when I had the chance.”
THE HOLE
A Hole
This hole has all of us scratching our heads! The hole wasn’t even known about until a kid was playing in The Joslin Garden, and one foot fell into the hole! The hole was off the beaten path, and not likely found until this happened. While we encourage visitors to the garden, Monday through Friday, from 9 to 5, we have signs posted to stay on the paths. Much like my story above, not listening, these kids strayed. Here is our quandary. What purpose did the hole once serve? Nell didn’t know. The hole is three-foot deep and just as wide once you enter the hole. The entrance hole is only about 18-inches wide. Both the entrance hold and the beneath ground void are perfectly symmetrical.
My large gardening glove for perspective.
Maybe once, long ago, It could have been a tree or shrub, most likely a ball and burlap, that has completely disappeared. It could be a nest, but there were no signs of that at all. Nell doesn’t remember it as a child. It’s a quandary, one we may never know the answer to unless we can Google an old aerial map. I’m looking into this.
Inside the hole
HELLEBORE HELL!
Um, “stinking” hellebores
Maybe we have gotten a little obsessed with our stinking hellebores, Hellebore foetidus. It keeps showing up in our posts. We hope to soon tame them to the point where they can easily be controlled. Stinking hellebores are great plants and early nectar and pollen sources for early emerging bees. But we have too much of a good thing in The Joslin Garden.
We’ve put out an offer to Raleigh City Parks for District gardens which might want to add these hellebores to the gardens under their care.. District 5 will be using many in the Valley Henderson Park, and we even offered these to District gardeners to stop by and dig up all they need. That’s how nice we are; she writes tongue-in-cheek!
Do you like irony? We may be going too far on this irony, though. Did you know Mary Coker Joslin didn’t like the word “stink,” and it wasn’t allowed to be spoken at home? Interesting, right?
Nell doesn’t know when the stinking hellebores first showed up in the home garden, but we do know stinking hellebores were not liked by Mrs. Joslin at all. Nell wondered if her Mom knew the common name and that was why she didn’t like this plant. In any case, The Joslin Garden is now overrun with not only a plant Mary Joslin didn’t like but had a common name she wouldn’t allow said at home. Thus, we will rectify this quandary by getting rid of as many as possible, and everyone never uses THAT common name again. What will they be called? How about the other common name, “bearclaw”?
Up next week, we will continue to tackle the bearclaw hellebores, direct sowing red and salmon-colored poppies collected last summer from the Bee Better Naturally Teaching Garden and emptying the compost pile for a fresh start.
Until soon,
Helen Yoest
Horticultural Specialist