why another garden blog?

front hedges

It is a place for my observations, thoughts and musings about gardening, garden design, plants and plant sources, books and articles, garden visits, hikes and seminars…all related topics that weave together the huge subject of “gardens and garden making” for me. I design gardens and landscapes professionally for others and my all consuming “hobby” is gardening and plants. I have been incredibly lucky to know wonderful plants people who shared not only their wisdom and expertise but their plants with me. Some were my early mentors and influencers and are at least partially responsible for creating my current lusting after “the rare and unusual” in the plant world. And, to keep track of changes through the seasons and over the years, Garden Threads is a place for me to ramble about and keep track of my own current garden in Asheville, North Carolina.

This is my third major garden – the first two were in western New Jersey on the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania border, Zone 5b or 6a. Gardening in Western North Carolina is both the same and very different. NJ had consistently cold winters, usually with snow cover for many months. NC has much more fickle temperature changes throughout the winter months. It may be 20 degrees at night but most of the days are above freezing, often in the 50’s and even 60’s. There may be a winter without freezing the soil at all in my woodland garden and so plants continue to grow, at least underground. We are supposedly Zone 7;  last winter was more like a Zone 5 winter but without snow cover. Constant changes from warm to freezing are hard on plants. I find gardening here much more challenging. It is tempting to use Z7 plants but their survival very much depends on the next winter.