
{"id":3080,"date":"2008-07-24T07:13:12","date_gmt":"2008-07-24T15:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3080"},"modified":"2008-07-24T07:13:12","modified_gmt":"2008-07-24T15:13:12","slug":"recently-a-roadside-garden-reflects-the-gardener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/07\/24\/recently-a-roadside-garden-reflects-the-gardener\/","title":{"rendered":"Recently: A roadside garden reflects the gardener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href='http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/recently072408.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/recently072408.jpg\" alt=\"A peek into the garden of Irene Stevens. Photo by Valarie Schwartz.\" width=\"150\" height=\"113\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a><em>By <strong>Valarie Schwartz<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>For years, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve admired the gardening I could see while driving past Irene Womble Stevens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 home on Damascus Church Road. From whichever direction one approaches this home perched on the crest of a hill, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no doubt that a gardener lives there. <\/p>\n<p>One day last year, I left a note in the mailbox claiming my admiration and included my phone number. She called and we talked about her gardening obsession, but the drought was on and not much was left for the season. After seeing how spectacular it looked while passing by last week, I stopped in and got a tour of the garden Stevens has created around the house her grandfather bought in 1905 and raised seven children in through the deaths of two wives.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe original home had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153two rooms up and two rooms down with a shotgun hall and a kitchen away from the house,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. The road was in a different place back then; in fact, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t called Damascus Church Road at all \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was known only by its Rural Free Delivery (RFD) route number. Irene remembers that the privy sat in a spot where today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s road runs. <\/p>\n<p>In 1995, after her step-grandmother had died, Stevens and her husband moved from Greensboro, where she had retired after a 40-year career as an office worker for Burlington Industries, and made the home their own. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We could have bulldozed it down and rebuilt for what we spent on restoration,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. But instead they preserved the character of the original house, ending up with a lovely spot that includes a screened-in porch for enjoying the garden and the pond beyond, at the bottom of the hill. <\/p>\n<p>The area is rich with Wombles. She grew up across the dell behind the house, on what is now Smith Level Road, in the house where a Wombles Farm sign stands, and where a brother still lives. Irene has siblings living shouting distance away in most directions. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so grown up now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, recalling how it used to be. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All the way around Damascus Road from Smith Level to Jones Ferry, there weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t but three, four, five . . . probably eight or nine families living out here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and she could still name them. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We really thought we were out in the country, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re only three miles from town.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>During her childhood, the road to town (now called Smith Level) curved east along Morgan Creek just below where Culbreth Road is now, winding it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way into Carrboro, a route she took on a bus to Carrboro Elementary School (then in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s town hall) and later to Chapel Hill High School (on South Columbia Street before it burned down right after she graduated).  <\/p>\n<p>Besides a plethora of flowers including a rose garden, all framed by crape myrtles from her childhood, Stevens grows a vegetable garden every year. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Daddy always said there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no point in putting your garden in until it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warm enough to sleep under a sheet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said as we looked at her tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, melons and French chard, and she explained why the beans \u00e2\u20ac\u201d upon her third planting \u00e2\u20ac\u201d were nothing more than sprouts peeking through the soil. She had planted them late, about the time we experienced a period without rain, so she was trying again.<\/p>\n<p>She loves visiting gardens, where she frequently learns about the next plant she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll add to hers. Many of the plants in her garden have stories attached about a visit to a garden where she was first introduced to a species or variety, like the white day lily she acquired after a trip up to Grandfather Mountain, or the angel trumpet plant from visiting the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo. Some plants have the names of the people who gave them to her \u00e2\u20ac\u201d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Miss Musgraves and Miss Oliver,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she pointed out. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say no if somebody says, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwould you like a cutting?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Her mother introduced her to gardening as a youngster. She also tried to teach her to sew and play piano but none of that took. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All I can do is dig in the soil,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I love the ground. Mama loved flowers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it was Irene\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s job to keep them watered. There was no running water and no watering cans. She carried buckets of water from the well and, using a tin can she had punched holes in the bottom of, sprinkled the beds. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We raised our own food \u00e2\u20ac\u201d chickens, hogs, a garden \u00e2\u20ac\u201d we had plenty of food and a family that loved us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<br \/>\nShe remains grateful for every day.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When you look around and see all the beauty you have to know there is a higher power.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>When I see this kind of yard, I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found a passionate person who appreciates color and loves to work hard with nature. She did not disappoint.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valarie Schwartz For years, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve admired the gardening I could see while driving past Irene Womble Stevens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 home on Damascus Church Road. From whichever direction one approaches this home perched on the crest of a hill, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no doubt that a gardener lives there. One day last year, I left a note in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recently"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}