By Valarie Schwartz
The rain Tuesday morning didn’t deter Jeff and Cheryl Prather. It had kept them inside on Monday, but they had a freshly painted bench to park and no doubt a list of other things to accomplish in their native woodland garden that will be one of 10 gardens featured on the Chapel Hill Spring Garden Tour 2008 being held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 12, and noon to 4 p.m., April 13, in the communities of Meadowmont and The Oaks.
Both natives of North Carolina themselves, the Prathers settled in Chapel Hill in 1990 after 21 years of travel with Jeff’s career in the U.S. Air Force.
Their appreciation of wooded areas grew over years of visiting parks and gardens around the world, though their own gardening had been limited to “yard work†until buying their home in The Oaks in 1996. They enlisted the help of landscape architect Alicia Berry, who encouraged them to work in other gardens to learn what they liked and wanted in the 3/4-acre lot they had chosen, which “sloped steeply to a degraded deciduous woodland edge,†as Cheryl described it.
Cheryl volunteers at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, where she has worked in the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants every Wednesday morning for a dozen years. They volunteer weekly at Battle Park removing exotic invasives, and are members of the Triangle Land Conservancy and the N.C. Native Plant Society (www.ncwildflower.org), where they have participated in numerous plant rescues from about-to-be-developed land sites.
“Sometimes the very best things are in our very own back yard,†Cheryl said. That’s certainly true in their yard, as some of the rescued plants went to local public gardens and some landed here.
Their property with two bridges across the creek that runs through it, and the rock steps built by Jeff, punctuates the serenity below the trees, where trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpits and arrow-leaf ginger among a vast variety of wildflowers, ferns and groundcovers delight even those who can’t name a single plant — as was practically their case when they first started. Pots filled with English ivy and impatiens that they started out with attest to their initial ignorance of native plants.
Even still, “we have some things that would be technically on the invasive plant list,†Cheryl said. Like the hellebores she loves. But even before the drought, they had learned the importance of preserving native plants and restoring endangered species of plants.
“We can’t save everything, but everybody can do something,†Cheryl said.
Buying a ticket to the tour, and buying raffle tickets (for 90 prizes worth over $7,000), makes a difference because the funds raised by the Chapel Hill Garden Club go to support the building of the new education center at the N.C. Botanical Garden here in Chapel Hill, where even more people will learn about native plants.
Peter White, director of the botanical garden, told club members last week, “I have been so impressed with the professionalism of your club . . . . It’s really amazing what you’re all able to imagine and put together.â€
You’ll be impressed too.
See chapelhillgardentour.net to take a virtual tour, learn where to purchase $15 advance tickets and buy raffle tickets. Tour tickets may also be bought on tour days at the N.C. Botanical Garden or at any tour garden for $20 ($5 for children 7-18). Call 962-0522. .
Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com