The Successful Gardener Guide: North Carolina

The Successful Gardener Guide: North Carolina Review

Eleven years ago, Leah Chester-Davis founded Extension’s Successful Gardener®, a newsletter published by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension to address the high demand for gardening information across the state. Toby Bost, extension agent and acclaimed garden-book author, joined her team. Together, they worked with horticulture experts statewide to deliver a top-quality gardening publication to North Carolinians. The newsletter has won numerous awards through the years, including the Garden Writers Association Award. The Successful Gardener Guide is a compilation of the best material from 10 years of research for the Extension’s Successful Gardener® newsletter. Novice and expert gardeners alike will find useful information in this book’s six color-coded, easy-to-reference chapters.
• Extension agents address common gardening concerns and recommend ecologically sound principles for pest and garden management.
• Plant species and cultivars from tried-and-true favorites to new introductions are specifically recommended for North Carolina’s zones.
• Monthly calendars for the mountains, Piedmont, and coastal regions of the state provide seasonal gardening advice.
• A collection of the best “Enviro-Tips” offers budget-friendly advice for a sustainable landscape.
• The state’s most frequently asked questions about pest management and plant-growing concerns are answered.
• Detailed descriptions and planting tips are offered for some of the best and most exciting plant introductions.
Readers can rely on the information in The Successful Gardener Guide as scientifically accurate and written for gardens in their region. Thousands of North Carolina gardeners have benefitted from the research of extension agents. Now, they have the best and most useful information in one accessible volume.Leah Chester-Davis was the founding editor of Extension’s Successful Gardener® and has served as the newsletter’s editor and team leader for 11 years. She is a communications specialist and coordinator of communications and community outreach for N.C. State University’s MarketReady program at the North Carolina Research campus in Kannapolis. She is currently working on a biography of Dr. John L. Creech, world-famous plant hunter. She lives in Davidson, North Carolina.Toby Bost has been a popular garden writer for over 30 years. He served as assistant editor of Extension’s Successful Gardener® and is a consulting horticulturalist and field faculty emeritus of N.C. State University’s Cooperative Extension. He has published three gardening books, including North Carolina Gardener’s Guide and The Carolina Gardener’s Guide, which he coauthored with Jim Wilson, former host of the PBS television program Victory Garden South. Toby currently writes garden features for Carolina Gardenermagazine. He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads (Touring the Backroads)

Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads (Touring the Backroads) Review

Have you ever been to the mountains of western North Carolina and wanted to see the scenery but escape the crowds? Maybe you were tempted to take off down a side road but hesitated, fearful of getting lost. Now, Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads can help you make that escape.

The book's 21 tours cover the entire mountain region of western North Carolina and provide numerous opportunities for seeing unspoiled landscapes and pastoral scenes. But scenery is not the only focus. Once you're on the backroads, you might speculate about the history behind the old white clapboard farmhouse that dominates the valley ahead, or you might wonder about the rest of the story behind the two sentences on the historical marker at the side of the road. Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads fills in those details. Drawing from local histories and early travel writings, each tour is designed to be a journey through the history of the ages, and stories about early settlers combine to present a perspective that makes the scenery come alive.

This third edition features updated directions, additional sites, new photographs, suggested spur trips, and nearby recreational opportunities. Use this guidebook to plan your next day trip, weekend getaway, or cycling adventure!


John F. Blair's Touring the Backroads series includes travel books that literally take readers off the beaten path to historic sites and landmarks. Each book departs the highways and thoroughfares in favor of the backroads, giving directions, suggested routes, and historical details along the way. These books can be read at home, or they make excellent travel companions for those looking for something beyond the norm.

Encyclopedia of North Carolina

Encyclopedia of North Carolina Review

The first single-volume reference to the events, institutions, and cultural forces that have defined the state, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina is a landmark publication that will serve those who love and live in North Carolina for generations to come. Editor William S. Powell, whom the Raleigh News & Observer described as a "living repository of information on all things North Carolinian," spent fifteen years developing this volume. With contributions by more than 550 volunteer writers—including scholars, librarians, journalists, and many others—it is a true "people's encyclopedia" of North Carolina.

The volume includes more than 2,000 entries, presented alphabetically, consisting of longer essays on major subjects, briefer entries, and short summaries and definitions. Most entries include suggestions for further reading. Centered on history and the humanities, topics covered include agriculture; arts and architecture; business and industry; the Civil War; culture and customs; education; geography; geology, mining, and archaeology; government, politics, and law; media; medicine, science, and technology; military history; natural environment; organizations, clubs, and foundations; people, languages, and immigration; places and historic preservation; precolonial and colonial history; recreation and tourism; religion; and transportation.

An informative and engaging compendium, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina is abundantly illustrated with 400 photographs and maps. It is both a celebration and a gift—from the citizens of North Carolina, to the citizens of North Carolina.

National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: The Carolinas

National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: The Carolinas Review

National Geographic Field Guide to Birds provides affordable, portable, reliable region-specific information, perfect for the novice or experienced birder. In each guide, an introduction by an expert birder from the region offers guidance on where to look for key birds. An opening section gives pointers on how to look for key birds and what to focus on when you spot them. Each guide features approximately 150 birds, grouped by family. Two indexes: one alphabetical and one color-coded help readers identify a bird quickly.

Each entry has a vivid photograph showing the bird in its native habitat. On the facing page, there is a list of bulleted points of field identification clues as well as behavioral and habitat information, and the best local places to find the bird. Special field notes give additional i.d. or behavioral information and detailed maps show the range of each bird's habitat. With comprehensive coverage of the region and valuable advice from experts, these user-friendly guides will quickly become favorite companions on the journey to lifelong birding.

North and South Carolina, a favorite among bird watchers, are homes to a wide variety of birds that live in the western mountainous terrain or the eastern shorelines.

Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook (North Carolina Literary Trails)

Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook (North Carolina Literary Trails) Review

Read your way across North Carolina's Piedmont in the second of a series of regional guides that bring the state's rich literary history to life for travelers and residents. Eighteen tours direct readers to sites that more than two hundred Tar Heel authors have explored in their fiction, poetry, plays, and creative nonfiction. Along the way, excerpts chosen by author Georgann Eubanks illustrate a writer's connection to a specific place or reveal intriguing local culture--insights rarely found in travel guidebooks. Featured authors include O. Henry, Doris Betts, Alex Haley, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, John Hart, Betty Smith, Edward R. Murrow, Patricia Cornwell, Carson McCullers, Maya Angelou, Lee Smith, Reynolds Price, and David Sedaris. Literary Trails is an exciting way to see anew the places that you already love and to discover new people and places you hadn't known about. The region's rich literary heritage will surprise and delight all readers.

Touring the Carolina's Civil War Sites (Touring the Backroads)

Touring the Carolina's Civil War Sites (Touring the Backroads) Review

History buffs and tourists have been following the signs to famous Civil War sites in the Carolinas for years, among them Fort Fisher in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Fort Sumter off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. However, many of the sites from the states' rich Civil War heritage are off the beaten path.

Touring the Carolina's Civil War Sites helps travelers find the states' battlefields, forts, and memorials, as well as the lesser skirmish sites, homes, and towns that also played significant roles in the war. The book's 19 tours cover the entire Carolinas, combining riveting history with clear, concise directions and maps. As facinating to read as it is fun to take on the road, this second edition includes additional historic houses in Charleston, a new battlefield in New Bern, updated driving directions, new photos for each site, and more.

A Walking Tour of Asheville, North Carolina (Look Up, America!)

A Walking Tour of Asheville, North Carolina (Look Up, America!) Review

There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way.

Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.

The history of Asheville, as a town, begins in 1784. In that year Colonel Samuel Davidson and his family settled in the Swannanoa Valley, redeeming a soldier’s land grant from the state of North Carolina. Soon after building a log cabin at the bank of Christian Creek, Davidson was lured into the woods by a band of Cherokee hunters and killed.

In response to the killing, Davidson’s twin brother Major William Davidson and brother-in-law Colonel Daniel Smith formed an expedition to retrieve Samuel Davidson’s body and avenge his murder. Months after the expedition, Major Davidson and other members of his extended family returned to the area and settled at the mouth of Bee Tree Creek.

The United States Census of 1790 counted 1,000 residents of the area, excluding the Cherokee. The county of Buncombe was officially formed in 1792. The county seat, named “Morristown” in 1793, was established on a plateau where two old Indian trails crossed. In 1797 Morristown was incorporated and renamed “Asheville” after North Carolina Governor Samuel Ashe.

Nestled between the scenic Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina, Asheville provides visitors with abundant natural beauty as well as historic and cultural diversity. Since the late 19th century, famous architects, landscape designers, and entrepreneurs have recognized Asheville as an area of great promise.

In the early part of the 20th century, Asheville’s pristine environment and clean mountain air became known for its ìhealingî qualities. Tuberculosis hospitals and other places of healing brought many famous Americans to our city including Edwin Wiley Grove and George Willis Pack. Often times they fell in love with the mountains and the city and decided to stay. Much of their early influence can still be seen in the buildings and green spaces around our community including the Grove Park Inn and Pack Square.

Today downtown Asheville, which is known for its early 20th-century architectural treasures is one of the nation’s better small cities for strolling around and gazing at buildings. We will start our walking tour in Pack Square, the public square has been a central feature of Asheville since the town’s creation in 1797...