I moved to Alleghany County NC from Oklahoma and have found the transition confounding garden-wise. Most everything changed. I now look for shady area plants where I once couldn't find shade anywhere in my garden! The ph is different. Even though the map says this should be zone 7 but the wind up here gails so hard and cold that zone 7 plants can't stand it...must be a zone 5 or 6. AND we have 4 legged critters that eat every shade loving plant I know of!!! (Hosta, etc) Any help out there would be greatly appreciated, but a neighbor with gardening yens would be most appreciated!
looking for fellow NC Mountain gardeners
wish i could help you but i am further south then you so im not sure what would work for you the critters that are getting your hostas sounds like it might be moles or voles,do you live near a woody area,do you see tunnels in the ground or holes? i am in zone 7 so not sure i could help you sorry
'but welcome to nc you will love the season changes"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have deer -- hosta is a buffet... they won't eat the fern growing alongside hosta tho. There are many varieties of fern that will grow here and are quite beautiful. Suggestion: Google "deer resistant plants for shady gardens in the NC mountains" or something along those lines. A few well placed boulders and the right plants you ought to have a lovely garden. I know what you mean about the cold and the wind, but I just got back from Boone/Blowing Rock and parts north - most of the plants/shrubs I saw growing ...I see here in the piedmont (Zone 7) so I don't think you should have concerns about that.
I hear your pain, ncfran; I'm a relatively recent transplant from the Washington, DC area where summers were tropical and winters cold and damp. For what it's worth, this year is not at all typical weather-wise for western NC; we're usually something of a rain forest, but this year the drought has been awful. I think we're at a lower altitude than you, but the winds are impressively fierce; anything I plant that will grow to more than 24" needs support or it will lie on the ground after the first good storm. Don't know which four-legged critters are giving you grief. We don't have a deer problem here yet, thank goodness, but the chipmunks, moles, voles, rabbits, etc. drive me crazy munching on new growth, uprooting new perennials, and eating bulbs like they're popcorn. One product I've found that's great is Ropel, a taste repellent. Doesn't hurt the creatures, lasts a long time outdoors, and tastes entirely disgusting as I discovered to my chagrin after dipping bulbs and then lighting a cigarette without scrubbing it off well enough (lol). I now dip all bulbs, rhizomes, etc. in it before planting; try to remember to spray newly planted perennials and annuals, but sometimes forget until chew damage reminds me (darn). Welcome to the mountains; it is a beautiful area and things will grow beautifully here, but there definitely are challenges.
Plant Mole bean s to keep the animals away. Its a natural deturant to them.
And I have seen snow in June at Roaring Gap. I had no jacket with me so I learned a hard lesson about the NC mountains.
Lavina
Really - snow in June? I thought we had late frosts in mid- to late April here in Hendersonville!
Yelp snow in June. It was only flurries but it was real.
Lavina