Start your outdoor or indoor garden. If you’re a hands-on gardener from out of state, your first encounter with our Carolina red clay “dirt” could be a bit frustrating (that may be understating it). Here are a few tips from Triangle Gardener magazine you might find helpful. (This is a free magazine that can be found in places gardeners like to visit.) Indoor gardeners will want to check out the Houseplant Hippie’s mobile houseplant truck, Logan’s Garden Shop and/or The Zen Succulent and/or Urban Pothos Plant Shop in DTR, Copperline Plant Co.(online and popup) or any of the other wonderful local nurseries and plant shops in Wake County.
Join a garden club and/or volunteer at a local garden. There’s no getting around it – flower and produce gardens are high-maintenance endeavors. Volunteers are welcome at the Well Fed Community Garden, Raleigh City Farm, Alliance Medical Ministry Garden, The Women’s Center Garden, Camden Street Learning Gardenand many others. (Few gardens will say no to a helping hand.) It’s a great way to meet people who share your interest and can also help middle and high school students knock out those community service hours.
The venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a carnivorous plant that is native almost exclusively to North and South Carolina. It is a threatened species due to habitat loss and stupid people poaching (which is a felony offense btw). A venus flytrap car license plate designed by local landscape architect and artist Preston Montague and proposed by the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation and Friends of Plant Conservation is slowly making its way through the General Assembly and could be approved later this year (2022).
