I love this weather! The past three days have felt like summer in the mountains, with low humidity, a constant breeze, and temperatures in the 60-70 degree range. Too bad it can't last. It won't be long before the dog days are here, when you do your yearly gut check and ask yourself yet again why you chose a profession that requires you to spend NC summers with a shovel in your hand. In my case, it was what I learned to do in prison. Ooops, strike that comment. I forgot to mention that in my interview. But seriously folks, you gotta love this weather! Okay... what's new? Well, for starters, soccer season is over, so no more long drives at rush hour to Chapel Hill. That's really what I've become when I'm not working at Duke or for myself: a chauffeur who transports young athletes to (pick a sport) practice. I'm sure you didn't log on to read about my children's athletic exploits, though. If you did, just ask me about them the next time you see me and I'll fill you in. One thing of note to discuss is an event I'll be attending in June. The Triangle Land Conservancy in hosting a "Green Jamboree" on June 20th at Irvin Farm in Chapel Hill. I'll be conducting a wildlife gardening seminar during the event. It will involve both instruction on the principles of gardening for wildlife as well as a hands on event in which participants will help me plant a small wildlife garden during the seminar. I'm looking forward to it. As far as what's happening in the Blomquist Garden, at the moment it's weeding, weeding, weeding (rinse, repeat). Warm temps plus abundant rain = an explosion of green things popping out of the ground. The Poison Ivy is particularly agressive this year. Fun, fun, fun! As far as invasive weeds are concerned, Youngia japonica is the weed du jour. This Aster family member is a pain in the rear. It grows fast and goes to seed faster, meaning that if you better not turn your back on it or....POOOF! Job security in the form of thousands of Youngia japonica to deal with next year. Want to learn more about it, just Google "Pain in the @#%$#". I mean, just Google Youngia japonica and prepare for a deluge of hand-wringing and curses. A last note: the "walk on the Wild Side" for June (6/4) will focus on native fern species. Hope to see you there!

Singing in the rain... just when it seemed we were about to enter another hot dry prelude to summer, voila! The rains the past few days have really perked things back up again. The weeds appreciate the rains as well, unfortunately. Oh well, that's what we call in the green industry "Job Security". For any of you interested in attending the monthly walk in the Blomquist Garden tomorrow, the topic will be the newly completed Wildlife Garden. We'll discuss the design and construction of the collection, as well as go through a number of related topics such as a) the connection between plant and animal diversity, b) neighborhood scale wildlife gardening, and c) the importance of using native plant species to sustain native wildlife. I hope you can make it. If so, meet me at the gatehouse entrance for the Blomquist Garden @ 11:00. See you then!

Hi there! I'm about to go to work at my "other job" (landscape contracting), but I thought I'd drop a line or two about recent goings-on in the Blomquist Garden. It's hot and dry all of a sudden, and watering has begun in the garden as a result. Rain is called for this afternoon and evening perhaps, a cruel irony of sorts as the Sarah Duke Gardens 75th anniversary gala dinner is tonight, and a portion of the proceedings are outdoors. We need the rain, but perhaps not until the dinner bell, if that can be arranged. Beautiful flowering continues in the Blomquist, with the native azaleas continuing to steal the show. Check out our website at www.blomquistgarden.com to see photos of what's in bloom right now on the "What's Blooming" page. Since that site was created on an Apple computer, it looks it's best using a windows version of the Safari browser. You can download this browser at http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ . Our spring board of advisors meeting is in full swing as we speak, with folks from across the region coming into town to catch up on what's been happening in the gardens over the last six months. Finally, try to catch the Columbine "meadow" before it's gone. Adjacent to the Endangered Species collection is an area covered in thousands of pendulous Columbine blooms. As is always the case, if your in the garden and you see a guy with a wide brimmed hat and sunglasses who happens to be covered in dirt, it's probably me. Feel free to ask me about what deserves a look in the garden, or just to stop and say hi.

Hey there.... Lots of things happening in the garden right now. I'll try to hit the highlights. First, the Trillium have been spectacular this year. Come in soon before they're all bloomed out. This has been the best spring wildflower season I've seen in a long time, and the garden bears that out. I've got to say thanks to the Triad chapter of the NC Native Plant Society, and especially to Linda Waldrep. Linda helped organize a plant rescue in the Burlington/Greensboro area that was attended by Cheryl and Jeff Prather, both Duke Gardens volunteers and Native Plant society members. The Prathers brought back approximately 100 beautiful Trillium cuneatum that would have been destroyed. We look forward to adding them to our collections this fall. Thanks again Linda! The plant sale is coming up this weekend (4/25). The native plant collection will focus mostly on wildlife attracting species. Check back on Thursday for a complete list of plants you will be able to purchase from the Blomquist collection. The wildlife garden is basically finished- just some last minute details to take care of. It will be open to the public the weekend of 5/2. Another plant group that is on fire in the garden right now are the native azaleas. The piedmont, pinxterbloom and florida azaleas are going crazy right now- don't miss them. Bottom line: the rains this winter and spring have created the perfect storm for gorgeous spring floral displays- come in soon and stay a while! Enjoy!

Free expression... that's what a blog's about, right? Saying what's on your mind, and things of that nature. Well, what's on my mind at the moment is this- chronic garden abuse. Known as CGA by those psychiatric professionals unlucky enough to specialize in it, Chronic Garden Abuse is most likely not an entirely new phenomenon. I'm sure the Egyptians and Babylonians had their share of folks damaging their oases and hanging gardens. I bet they had very creative ways to deal with them as well. Well, my playbook of punishments for those folks who do damage to the Blomquist Garden is pretty limited. Let me tell you, sometimes I wish for the good old days...

The abuse I'm talking about comes in many forms. I have folks who leave trash wherever they please. I have folks who carve their initials into all my artistic benches and structures. I have folks who steal the plants right out of the ground, leaving nothing but a hole behind. I have folks who walk right through the planting beds to get a closer look at or a photograph of a plant. I have parents who let their children roam free through the garden, whether they stay on the paths or not. I have botany professors who dissect my flowers in full view of garden visitors and then say they aren't doing any harm. I have school groups whose chaperones would rather whistle in the wind and look the other way than EVER discipline a child about their loud, obnoxious, disrespectful or destructive behavior in the garden. I have folks who create shortcuts through my beds because they're too lazy to go a few minutes out of their way. In short, I have a plethora of people who have no idea what they're doing: bit by bit, destroying a natural treasure that has taken 30 years to create. How are they destroying it? Well, I'm glad you asked. 

Any time you set foot off the path in the Blomquist garden, you are killing plants. If you aren't stepping on a visible plant, you are trodding on a dormant one beneath the leaf litter or compacting the soil next to one, thus damaging that plant by association. Trash, graffiti or carvings take my time to remove or repair, thus taking time away from other tasks such as gardening. Disciplining children and college students about destructive behaviors take my time

and raise my blood pressure, both of which reduce my productivity in other tasks such as, say, gardening. Replacing dead plants that have been stepped on or killed due to soil compaction caused by foot traffic take me away from things like gardening.  A month ago I spent two days repairing a wanton act of vandalism to a part of our irrigation system. Nothing was stolen, just broken beyond recognition for no reason other than just plain random stupidity. That's two days not spent gardening. These types of examples are not anecdotal. One or more of them happen on a weekly basis. Why? I ask myself that all the time.

The optimistic answer is that they simple know not what they do. If they truly appreciated how much attention and dedication went into producing the garden they're visiting, (not on my part, Mother Nature's) they surely wouldn't do it, would they? I mean, even the irrigation pipe smasher person, if he or she knew what a special place the Blomquist Garden was, how it is a living museum of nature's wonder,they wouldn't still smash, would they? Well, some of them would. We'll probably never be totally rid of the carvers and smashers. What about the plant smooshers, stealers and clippers? How do I get them to stay on the paths and leave their trowels and pruners at home? I'm serious, how do I get the public to respect the garden?

Don't get me wrong, as is usually the case, the few can often distract us from the respectful many. Most of the people who come to the garden know how to act. How do I deal with

 and educate those who don't? This is not a rhetorical question. I would love to hear from folks who work in public settings about how they handle situations like these, and more importantly, what strategies they use to head them off (effective public information campaigns, etc.) I look forward to hearing from as many folks as possible.

Okay, so it's been a bit since my last post.... I'll try to do better, I promise. Seriously, I have been working on another online project recently that I wanted to mention. I've created a full website for the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants that has pages for all the major thematic areas of the garden with links and photos. You can check it out at www.blomquistgarden.com.
One of my favorite parts of the site is the "Sneak Peek" page, that has a number of Blomquist garden photos as well as a link to the entire Blomquist photo collection on the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center photo database. Not only can you view every photo I've taken from the Blomquist garden, but I've made the images available for free for any non-profit use.

Lots of bird activity in the Blomquist these days... The most fun has been watching a nesting pair of Red-Shouldered hawks. They have a nest high in a pine tree not far from the pond with the millstone crossing. The best way to find them is to listen- they call to each other constantly, and one or the other is often busy bringing food back to the bird minding the nest. So far it seems that snakes are the food of choice. Also, Pine Siskins are recent arrivals at the feeders. Cedar Waxwings have been spotted finishing off the Winterberry Hollies as well.

Spring wildlfowers are really getting going. It looks as if the beginning of April will be prime time for the largest variety of blooms. Join us on the first Thursday in April for the monthly Blomquist guided tour. The April tour will be all about Spring Wildflowers in the Blomquist Garden.

The bridges in the Wildlife Garden will be going in this weekend (3/28). The planting in the garden is basically all done. Next step will be finding a few choice mossy logs and stumps to give it that "lived in" feel. Pine straw comes next, and then once the bridges are in place over the stream, the path is the last thing to be built. We're hoping to have it open for business by the middle of April. Come by!

Finally, I wanted to say thank you to all the Dirt Gardeners at the recent gardening symposium at the Weymouth Center in Southern Pines. I gave a speech there about native spring wildflowers, and enjoyed myself immensely. A generous, attentive group who made me feel right at home. Thanks again! Till next time...

Holy Frijoles! It's March already?! A rainy, cold Sunday by the fireplace with a cat at my elbow soaking up the warmth. I am officially obsessed. No, not with the cat, with my job. The construction of the latest addition to the Blomquist garden has taken on a life of it's own inside my head. I wake up thinking about it. I dream about it. When I get home I want to eat dinner and go back to work with a flashlight. I've always enjoyed my work here, but this project has taken it to a new level. I think it's all about confluence. All the different hats I wear on a daily basis have come together in this endeavor to the degree that it's a bit scary. The Blomquist Wildlife Garden has brought the ecologist, gardener, writer, contractor and latent workaholic in me all into focus at once. I really feel that gardens like this, that focus on tying together issues like global warming, development, botany and wildlife ecology, are a huge source of hope for our future. I don't mean to imply that I think I can save the world with this garden. I do feel that I can influence and inspire others to possibly emulate elements of it's construction, and in doing so, spread the word about integrating nature back into our everyday lives, rural, suburban or otherwise. Truth to tell, it most likely looks like a pile of mud at the moment, after this weekends rain. It's a small space, really. You might come by and wonder what all the fuss I'm making is all about. Give me another month or so and check back. I'll be doing a tour of the garden once we have all the plants and interpretive signs in place- check this blog for dates (most likely the first Thursday in May). When it's completed, and it makes a contiguous tour route with the Endangered Species and Carnivorous Plant Collections to the south, visitors who might otherwise not take the time to appreciate this garden in the woods that is the Blomquist will follow the signs through these projects and leave a bit closer in spirit with the world out of doors. Who knows. Maybe I just need to believe I'm making a difference or I'll just fall on my spade. That would be messy. Let's save my fellow gardeners a nasty chore and save the planet, shall we?