Progress on Beaty Park and the Pond

 It's wonderful to be seeing the progress that is made as Beaty Park is being developed.  Besides the trails and the other features of the park the leak in the dam is also being repaired.  I have told the story before of how the leak in the dam was threatening the whole future of the Beaty St. property.  The claim was that the expense of repairing the dam again was a game changer that would make the whole project impractical.

  And then early in the pandemic many of the neighbors were wandering in the woods and around the pond and discovered the leak was caused by a pipe in the pond, not some structural problem with the dam.  I actually have a photo from when the dam was repaired the first time that shows the offending pipe.  And I have a fun video that shows little baby fish swimming around and going into the pipe! So, as the park is being developed the pond is being repaired.

The park will have lots of trails as well as a more open area with gardens, a playground, picnic shelters, restrooms, and open space for play.  It will be a delightful place that the whole community will enjoy not just the immediate neighborhood as some have claimed.

It's hard to capture the scope of this project in a few pictures.  Remember, the property is at least 17 acres, probably more. 

Visit to the Pollinator Garden at Chatham Mills in Pittsboro, NC

We were fortunate to visit this beautiful spot on a really hot day in July.  Chatham Mills is a former textile mill repurposed to a multi purpose building with many different businesses and offices.  It has a pretty large parking lot and all around this parking space are plantings of pollinator friendly plants, mostly native.  It's quite showy on a hot summer day.  I will share a few photos with you below.  I love how they plants are mixed and mingled together.  A wide variety of colors and textures.  This garden is several years old so it has mature plants in all their glory.  There are also a couple of areas that are newer and are still growing into their space. Enjoy the photos below and if you are up in the Triangle area any time stop by for a visit. 

Update on the Backyard Garden

We are having a great year in the garden.  Besides the Native Plant garden I started in the back of the yard, Al has worked hard to create raised beds for vegetable gardening.  The earlier part of the summer was pretty wet which I think was a great thing for this new gardening adventure.  Right now, mid July, it's getting really hot and dry so we are having to do some extra watering.  

These are from a few weeks ago.  Since then we've harvested beans, cucumbers, squash and one tomato.  Things are growing fast in the vegetable garden.

And here are a few blooms from the Native Plant garden.  I'm happy with how it's going but it will be a while before it's really full of blooms.  The coreopsis and the mountain mint are doing really well. I'll keep you posted!

Lost a tree but gained sunshine and a garden.

The very large white oak tree in our yard fell down in a hurricane in the fall of 2018.  It was huge and left a huge hole in the yard and in our hearts.  We had hoped maybe the wood would come to good use but because of complicated circumstances that has not happened.  After we were able to have the root ball removed and the majority of the trunk moved back from our lot onto town property we were left with a sunny space we had never had.  I waited through last year's growing season to give some thought to what to do next and came up with the plan to put in some cedar trees on the back property line and a pollinator garden in the strip that runs across the back where the tree had been.  So, this week as we were faced with the impending stay at home order, I went shopping for some native plants to add to my collection.  I had already bought and planted the cedar seedlings along with some shrubs. Now I have this collection of plants that will produce blooms from spring through fall, hopefully.  I spent some time thinking of the best way to arrange them and now I'm in the planting mode.

                                                             I'll share the flowers and what they attract as the year goes on.

Al and I took a visit to Spencer Woods Park today.  The official name of the preserve is Fred and Alice Stanback Educational Forest and Nature Preserve.  It is a lovely and simple place that I believe could serve as a model for the Beaty St. property.  And the best thing is that the citizens of Davidson already own the property.  The property in Spencer was almost lost to clear cutting and development but because of some clear thinking people the property was instead put into conservancy with the LandTrust for Central North Carolina and donated to the town.  What it has become is a beautiful place for citizens to enjoy.  It is a passive park.  There are no ball fields or tennis courts but there are walking trails, picnic shelters, a pond with a floating dock, and a parking lot. There is room for wildlife and for people to enjoy nature’s beauty. The park is within walking distance of the business district of Spencer and the NC Transportation Museum. It is surrounded by residential neighborhoods.  The process used to design the park is similar to what has been proposed here in Davidson: opportunities for citizen input led by a professional.  Here’s a link to the report about the proposal for developing the park. http://www.ci.spencer.nc.us/vertical/sites/%7BB85238E8-43CC-4172-AB03-A2E1A50D5927%7D/uploads/SpencerWoodsReport_PARTF.pdf

I encourage you to drive to Spencer for a visit.  Spencer is located in Rowan County and only about 50 minutes away.  You can take a back road route and avoid I-85 to see some lovely rural countryside. Like we did, you might stop for some good barbecue for lunch. Put Fred and Alice Stanback Preserve, Spencer NC in your google maps or other navigation device and let us know what you think.

Beaty Street Trees

Today I visited some of my favorite trees in the Beaty St. Woods here in Davidson, NC.  My friends helped me take some measurements and I took some pictures of the trees.  I thought you might like hearing about the trees I visited.  If you would like to know more you can comment at the end of this post and ask questions about the trees.  You could also come to the Beaty St. Woods and visit these trees and many others.  Maybe I'll be able to post a map that shows where these particular trees are soon.  But today I'll just show you the trees.  As spring comes there will be more to see.

I'm a Tulip Poplar and I'm 7 feet 7 inches in circumference

Willow Oak

Hi, I'm a Willow Oak tree living in the Beaty St. Woods.  I'm  9 feet and 7 inches in circumference

Wow marke bee keepers

Today at the Davidson Farmer's market we had mike Goode, Kayne , Elizabeth Martin, India and Sam who are all beekeepers. The had some bees for us to see as well as equipment and the answers to lots of questions