Gardener’s Corner — Winter 2024

Gardener’s Corner — Winter 2024

With Director of Horticulture Eric Kimbrel As winter sets in, SHR staff and volunteers are cleaning seeds like a bunch of squirrels as snow falls with temperatures below freezing. It is important to inventory seeds so we can plan for germination and stratification....
Gardener’s Corner — Fall 2023

Gardener’s Corner — Fall 2023

With Director of Horticulture Eric Kimbrel With groundbreaking for our new greenhouse scheduled this fall, we are emptying out the hoop houses and planting everything we can. We’re adding the perennials and wildflowers to various beds throughout the garden. We’re...
Winter Adaptations

Winter Adaptations

By Terry Ashley You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to conclude that plants are different from animals. Animals travel: they swim, fly, crawl, climb, run. Plants don’t, yet they occupy as many different habitats as animals. Most animals adapt to extreme changes in...
Drought 2023: Observations and Mitigations

Drought 2023: Observations and Mitigations

By Mary Miller We who call Transylvania County home know it can be a very wet place. It is the Land of Waterfalls, after all, and much of it is a temperate rainforest. According to February 2023 data from the National Centers for Environmental Information,...
2023 Volunteer of the Year

2023 Volunteer of the Year

Volunteers play a critical role in helping us achieve our mission at Southern Highlands Reserve. Since launching a formal volunteer program in 2019, we have grown significantly in scope and numbers. Each week on volunteer day, we welcome as many as a dozen...
Garden Discoveries: Cordyceps militaris

Garden Discoveries: Cordyceps militaris

By Rowan Nygard Often, fungi are overlooked when we consider the rich biodiversity of the world around us. By design it’s easy to miss them. As a result, there are niche pockets of life that we leave out when we speak about ecology. The minutiae in nature are...