What's New

What's New at Pine Knot Farms

Here we are frantically trying to rake up (seemingly) millions of acorns before they germinate. The Oak trees were good at nut production this year at Pine Knot while in the Triangle the Great Easter Freeze of 2007 killed them all off. It's a shame we can's send our nuts to the squirrels in Raleigh (and I don't meant those elected to public office). After the Acorn Wars comes the Leaf Parade. We mulch all the gardens with chopped up leaves, always in plentiful supply in a deciduous forest. The chore is getting them up before they smother the small plants, running them through the muleteer and putting them back. Last year we ran out of time (as if there's ever enough) and did not get as much mulch made as usual. So therefore when we mulched the beds we did not have enough leaves to spread to that nice 3" depth the plants and I like so much. And of course this past year we had the Summer From Hell. The Record Hottest, the Record Driest, and the Record Most Miserable in all the years they've been keeping records. Well, I made up that last bit, the weather-people don't keep Most Miserable Data, but they should. There have been weather records kept in this part of the world for many, many years and nothing like this year has happened before.
One good think we learned the plants which could really handle drought and which wimped out, went dormant or simply curled up and died. Two of our favorites, Helleborus and Epimediums came through the summer with flying colours. I will be interested to know if the amount of bloom on the hellebores will be compromised by the dry summer.

What's Missing

Hellebores

from

Pine Knot Farms