Fall color

fall color along the Cameron Walkway

Plant a Row for the Hungry

Master Gardeners' vegetable garden

A devoted Master Gardeners of the Foothills group has been growing vegetables all summer and fall in the Heirloom Vegetable Garden site.  It's resulted in well over 600 lbs. of produce to our local food banks.

In the spirit of the Garden Writer Association initiative, I've titled this post "Plant a Row for the Hungry" -- they've been encouraging this for years. 

But lots of groups are growing food for local food banks on open space in our cities and towns. Often, it's on space previously devoted to lawn;  here it's a highly productive garden area that's been well-tended for many years as the Heirloom Vegetable Garden.

Check out the great fall plantings that they've made.  What a lovely, productive garden!

cool-season vegetables and the last of the peppers

Hayden Conference Center rain garden

This was an excellent project, sponsored by CU Extension's Water Quality programs, Pickens County Stormwater Initiative,  and Pickens County Extension.

I described the plants and process on a recent post on my personal gardening blog.

Small meadow plantings

Junction of Arboretum Rd and the service road to the Hort. Support Area

Don't miss the recently-added small meadow plantings if you have a chance to visit the Garden sometime soon.

Kathy Bridges, one of our staff horticulturists, has been working magic creating small meadow swaths along our entrance road medians, along the Arboretum Road, and the junction towards the horticultural support area.

The small meadow planting at the junction is particularly nice, and looks great in early morning light.

Fall

Fall is one of the best times to visit the Garden. Our perennial borders in the Children's Garden, and above the Hayden Conference Center are outstanding, not to mention the Butterfly Garden (just beyond the Children's Garden).

Lots of flower visitors --butterflies, flower flies, bumblebees, honeybees, carpenter bees, sweat bees, wasps, etc. -- check them out!

It's time to plant

Yes, it's been a dry late summer and early fall, but we have had a good rainy spell last week, cooler temperatures are ahead, and it's time to plant!

The Garden's Fall Plant Sale begins tomorrow  with our Friend's sale (Sept. 30: 2:30-6 pm; you can join on the spot), and our public sale on Saturday (Oct. 1) from 9 am to 1 pm.

Ryan Merck, our Nursery Manager, has put together a great array of plants, from woodies to perennials, all plants that you're not going to find at a local big box store or garden center.

Check it out!

Drought and fall

The last 6 weeks have been remarkably dry for the Garden.  Before that, it was a nicely wet spring and normal early summer.

Thunderstorms that have helped ease late summer drought elsewhere in the Upstate have passed us by and the unusually high temperatures have resulted in parched-looking landscapes throughout our area. Towards the Blue Ridge Escarpment and the mountains, rainfall is much closer to normal, but here in the Piedmont, it's dry.

Needless to say, we're trying to balance responsible irrigation with a sustainable gardening ethic.

It's interesting to notice what plants are still looking good, too.  Take a look around your own landscape (if you're in an incipient drought region), and check it out.

There are a great number of plants that are still looking good, along with a lot of plants (both natives and non-natives) which aren't looking so great.