Homefront Mac'swood: Images of Spring, 2017 | Eastern North Carolina Now

As my immediate grounds improve in condition, I begin this series that will pertain to the enriching task of gardening, its benefits, and the images of its bounty.

    For the last 16 1/2 months, I have existed in a reconstructive state regarding my 2.3 acres (4 building lots) property where my home sets in Mac'swood, Washington, North Carolina, county of Beaufort. For reasons completely beyond my control, the lots devolved into a near temperate jungle; however, those conditions changed abruptly on December 1, 2015, as well as my ambitions in a near immediate fashion.

    Since December 1, 2015, I have toiled, as often as I have the time and good health, to beat back the jungle, and do it in as fashion, so I can keep it beat back. You may wonder: Why so much troublesome toil; it's only 2.3 acres? In short, of those 2.3 acres, I have far more space for bushes and trees than I have grass, plus, I want to preserve as much as I can of the older foliage that I had planted over many years.
The spring flowers of my Mac'swood home - mostly Azaleas - will be my continual muse in all of their many shapes and robust colors: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    In the fertile natural areas of my jungle yard, the multitude of vines (most of which were/are poisonous) and undesired bushes and trees were so prevalent, I could not see the improved property of my neighbors on either side ... it was a terrible mess. Factor in the reality that all of my property was once hewn from a dense forest - many of those trees remain, only taller - therefore, one can well understand the difficulty of negotiating the dense root-mat biomass under any ground that I wished to work. Consequently, there existed a veritable jungle below as well as above the Earth's natural plain.
From Dogwoods to Azaleas, the colors are so boldly beautiful. The fat bumble bees especially love the rich nectar of the Azaleas: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    The Earth's natural plain, relative to my 2.3 acres corner of the World, was a thick strewn mess of undesirable stuff; stuff that I would need to pull or dig up to effectively create a space that I could till, that I could well cultivate, and, for me, cultivation of flowering bushes and trees and edible plants is a gardening essential. For me, to establish this level of industry, I will need to know that I can create a sustainable garden of useful plants, bushes and trees.
The colorful reproductive seeds of the Maple tree and the busy bumble bee are easy symbols of the renewal of life in my biocentric petri grounds: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    That commitment of purpose firmly established, undesirable vegetation will always be supplanted by that which is far more desirable.; it is a purpose that I am continuing to effect with great prejudice. Also, and this takes time, I am a gardener, a propagator of plants, not a planter. Planters buy plants and bushes and trees, dig holes in hopefully good soil and plant. I don't buy plants, but I do buy seeds, and I will plant in my well conditioned soil the occasional plant purchased by my wife. Rather: I make bushes through propagation; I am given sprouts from friends; I use abundant volunteer growth, which is far more plentiful as I till and tend my grounds to better manage for such; and I continually compost everything organic.
The single Azalea flower exhibits unique and varied shapes and colors: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    After 16 1/2 months, of clearing, cutting, digging and transplanting, my efforts are showing results. This year, I will have my second summer garden that I did hew from the Mac'swood jungle, plus I have had two Winter gardens of varying success. Regardless, more ground is hand-dug, cleared of weeds, vines and roots, and put into production. This summer, I will produce more fruit and food, and this last Spring, I had more blossoms than at any time in the last 10 years.
We end with the curious and very hungry Bumble Bee, and the spreading, on my grounds in great profusion, North Carolina's state flower - the Dogwood: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    This post, the first of a long series, will celebrate those blossoms in images, and the rest of this growing season, even this next winter, and next spring, I expect more in successive increments. Keep visiting BCN, and the images of many natural shapes and colors shall grow in great abundance.