TLC’s field trip to five gardens, hosted jointly by TLC and the Reid Chapter of the NC Native Plant Society, celebrates how private gardens and residential properties contribute to the health and beauty of the Triangle’s environment. The gardens on the tour illustrate ways to steward home gardens that enrich our lives with birdsong, flowers, shade, and homegrown food, while enhancing the environmental health of the community. In addition to showcasing the beauty of native woodland wildflowers, these “conservation gardens” provide wildlife habitat and demonstrate environmentally friendly practices such as water conservation, rainwater harvesting, composting, mulching, and alternatives to lawns.
Paths through the gardens are mostly unpaved and narrow. Terrain in several of the gardens is steep in places, with uneven trail surfaces and steep stream banks. Please wear appropriate footwear, stay on paths and exercise caution during your visit. Children are welcome if supervised. Please leave pets at home.
Details
● Participants may visit any or all of these gardens; registration is not required.
● Visitors should please keep in mind that these gardens are all private residences and respect the privacy
of the homeowners/gardeners who are so generously opening their gardens for our tour.
● Please visit only during the defined tour time period of 1 to 4 p.m.
● Please be considerate of the gardens' neighbors, especially being sure not to block driveways
when parking.
● Print this locator map (617K pdf)
to get the general sense of where each garden is in relation to the other gardens and to other areas of Raleigh.
● Or print this map (143K pdf)
with enough detail to find your way from one garden to the next.
● Print this page for basic directions and a description of each garden.
● You may also want to print the MapQuest maps linked from this page to help you find each garden.
1. Margaret Reid Wild Flower Garden
1439 Dixie Trail map
From Wade Ave, turn north onto Dixie Trail. Reid Garden is on the left at the corner of Lewis Farm Rd (3rd left), entrance
on Lewis Farm Rd. Please park on the street on Lewis Farm Rd.
A 1.5-acre woodland garden surrounding a residence at the corner of Dixie Trail and Lewis Farm Road.
Created by Margaret Reid over the course of 50 years, the garden is now protected by a conservation easement held by Triangle Land Conservancy and is owned and cared for by lifelong plant lovers Robert and Julia Mackintosh, founders of Woodlanders Nursery in Aiken SC.
More than 200 different kinds of plants native to the Triangle area are featured, many originating from plants rescued from development sites around Raleigh. They are arranged in naturalistic woodland plant communities, following the ecological principles Margaret Reid learned from her mentor, B.W. Wells. Narrow paths wind along the wooded slopes and through the floodplain of a small stream.
In mid-April, Pinxterbloom Azaleas, Crested Iris, Catesby Trilliums, Golden Alexander, and many more accent the greening forest as the leaf buds start to open. The diversity of plants and habitat attract a wide variety of birds and wildlife, including hawks, bluebirds, box turtles, and chipmunks.
2. Joslin Garden
2431 W Lake Drive map
From Glenwood Ave northbound, turn right onto Anderson Dr/St Mary's Rd. The road forks immediately—go
left on St Mary's, then make the first right on Lake Dr. Make the second left, onto E Lake Dr, go to the end and turn left on
White Oak Rd, then immediately left on W Lake Dr. Please park on the right-hand side of the street (west side).
William and Mary Coker Joslin’s garden covers 4 acres in the White Oak Road neighborhood. Begun in 1951, the diverse collection of plants is arranged in a variety of formal and naturalistic settings.
Visitors can explore the garden's distinct areas by following informal paths that connect a collection of camellias, an arboretum of unusual trees, a native woodland, and a formal patio garden. Naturalistic groupings of special native, cultivated, and exotic plants include some rare specimens. The paths through the garden traverse changes in topography and cross a natural stream via several wooden bridges.
The Joslins have made their garden a generous bequest to NC State University. The property will serve as an extension of the JC Raulston Arboretum and an invaluable resource for University faculty, staff, and students and the community. Triangle Land Conservancy holds a secondary conservation easement over the property.
3. Hooker/Myers Garden
610 Kirby Street map
From Western Blvd (heading eastbound), turn right onto Bilyeu St. Kirby St is the 1st and 2nd lefts (makes a circle).
Please park on the street.
This densely packed garden surrounding a blue-roofed house on a one-sixth acre lot illustrates how sustainable gardening practices and permaculture principles can be applied on a small residential property. Features include fruit trees, vegetable garden (including greens through the winter), chickens, and water harvesting. Sculpture, color, bamboo structures and other playful elements further enliven this garden for the family and neighbors. The Kirby Street neighborhood— close spaced bungalows enlivened by an eclectic mix of gardens and yards—backs up to the sweeping landscape of the Dorothea Dix hospital.
4. Kinney Garden
4900 Richland Drive map
From Blue Ridge Rd northbound, turn left on Ebenezer Church Rd. Richland Dr is the 4th left. Please park on the
street.
A 2-acre residential woodland garden overlooking Richland Creek on the edge of William B. Umstead State Park.
The Kinneys’ wooded front garden features a mix of native and exotic ornamental plants. The garden path to the Kinneys’ front door steps up and over a wooded bank that is planted with a mix of native and exotic plants, then descends beside a naturalistic boulder-edged cascade and garden pool.
Behind the house, where the land slopes steeply down to Richland Creek, low rock walls create narrow planting terraces that are filled with ferns, trilliums and other native wild flowers rescued from development sites in the NC mountains, the Greensboro area and the Triangle. A stone wall near the creek marks the ruin of an old mill. The garden attracts a variety of bird life, and withstands visiting deer.
The naturally mulched and vegetated ground layer on the wooded slopes serves as a buffer for Richland Creek, filtering rainwater runoff. The water in the cascade comes from rainfall and a well, and is re-circulated. The paths in this garden, particularly those behind the house, are narrow and very steep in places.
5. Spearman Garden
3508 Andrews Lane map
From Wade Ave, turn north onto Ridge Road. Andrews Lane is the 3rd left. Please park on the street.
The Spearmans’ garden, surrounding their house and set within the surprisingly extensive oak woodland between Ridge Road and the Beltline, focuses on Pat and Bob’s growing sculpture collection.
A stroll along the winding paths through the garden is a journey of discovery, revealing sculptures and found natural objects carefully placed within the landscape, including a site-specific installation created by Thomas Sayre, and pieces by Virginia Gibbons and Joel Haas, among others.
The garden is designed to accentuate the sculpture; under a canopy of oaks a mostly evergreen plant palette of natives and garden ornamentals loosely divides the garden into a series of rooms while crushed stone and low groundcover plantings create simple settings around the base of the sculptures.
Approaching the house, one sees a sculpture of Pat Spearman’s daughter, Dorothy, gazing into a stone edged garden pool. Deeper into the garden, a mossy path leads into a sheltered room and widens to form a lush carpet around another sculpture. Behind the house, a terrace and series of steles by Sayre draws the eye out into the woods beyond the garden, accentuating the interplay occurring throughout the garden between the work of nature and of humans.
Last updated on 11/24/2008