The last in a series highlighting each of the six private gardens featured on this year’s Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour scheduled for Saturday, June 8. The tour is presented by Mount Airy’s three garden clubs. Proceeds will benefit a variety of charities. Ticket-holders will have bonus opportunities to drive through the Healing and Prayer Garden at Northern Regional Hospital and to visit Master Gardner demonstrations at the home of Cheryl Ward, 129 Rawley Avenue. Tickets for the Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour are available at Eventbrite.com, the Mount Airy Visitors Center, Web Interiors, and at each garden site on the day of the tour. Advance tickets are $20 while tickets on the day of the tour are $25 (cash only). For more information contact mountairyblooms@gmail.com.
From the moment visitors enter the Pam and Charles Boles property in the Arrarat community, it is obvious that they both have “green thumbs” --and that education is in their blood. Not only can Charles, who has a horticulture degree from North Carolina State University, tell where each tree and plant on his property came from, but he has labeled each one using their common names.
The first thing participants on this year’s Mount Airy Blooms Garden Tour will notice is the variety of trees that provide a peaceful, enchanting setting. Dogwoods that Charles started from seedlings line the driveway. A covered porch running the width of the house invites visitors to sit and relax. Ferns in hanging baskets and pots of annuals, along with comfortable seating and overhead fans, create a shady, peaceful outdoor living space. From the porch, it is easy to view a variety of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals.
Pam and Charles have lived in their home off of Arrarat Longhill Road for almost 39 years. The property originally consisted of lots of rocks and weeds, Pam said, but they have worked over the years to create the beautiful landscape they have today. The Boles built the home’s basement in 1984 and the house in 1985, living with Pam’s father while the house was being constructed.
Prior to his retirement, Charles taught horticulture at Surry Community College for 30 years while Pam worked as a science lab technician at the college for 31 years. Both Charles and Pam grew up with families who loved and respected nature, especially plants. Pam said her primary interest is in flowering plants, while Charles tends to gravitate toward trees and his vegetable gardens.
The Boles originally owned more than 15 acres of land, but when their daughter married and started a family, they gave her family 6-and-a-half acres. That gift has ensured that their grandchildren are close by and visit often.
The Boles property offers the perfect environment for children to explore nature. The farm is home to 30 goats, including 18-19 kids this year. In addition, the Boles have American Buff Geese, ducks, and chickens, plus a 13- year-old Rabbit Beagle.
When their son and daughter were teenagers, the Boles had a one-acre pond built on their property just below the main back yard. The pond quickly became the hang-out place, Pam said. A large tree, no longer standing, served as the anchor for a rope swing. The Boles children and their friends spent many hours floating in tubes, swimming, and jumping from the rope swing into the water. Charles created large casseroles to serve when the teens were hungry.
When the pond was first built, the Boles stocked it with small bass, bluegill, channel catfish, and grass carp. Today, the fish are much larger and the pond provides entertainment for a newer generation. The Boles grandson especially enjoys fishing. Pam’s favorite fish in the pond are the large Japanese Koi.
A small koi pond near the walkway leading to the front porch is home to what Charles said are “rejects” from Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery. The small, colorful fish swim peacefully, surrounded by such water garden plants as cardinal flower, sweet flag, rush, and sensitive ferns. A Japanese waterfall maple provides shade for the pond.
Charles insists that his gardens represent “more of a collection than a landscape.” He has grown many of his trees and plants from seeds and seedlings. Friends and acquaintances give him seedlings and cuttings of unique plants. In addition, he often “happens across interesting trees or plants.” Charles looks for variations of plants in the wild. When he finds an interesting or unique plant, “I just grab it,” he explained. “I’ll see if I can find a place for it,” Charles said of his finds; unfortunately, “I’m beginning to run out of places.”
The Boles gardens are home to several unique trees and shrubs. For example, he has a boxwood that was rooted from the large boxwood on the Johnny Jones Plantation in the Eldora Township. The original boxwood was around 12 feet tall and 80 feet in diameter, large enough for adults to walk inside. Plantation owner Johnny Jones, an early Baptist leader, planted the boxwood in 1840. Over the years, the shrub grew to be one of the two largest boxwoods in the North Carolina. According to Charles, the boxwood was so remarkable that a White House remodeling committee wanted it for the centerpiece of the front lawn; however, that idea was scrapped for fear that it could not survive such a drastic move.
In discussing his most prized tree, Charles quickly points to the 40-foot-tall Caucasian Zelkova (also called a Japanese Elm). The Boles’ Zelkova, shipped from England more than 30 years ago by a friend, is one of only two living in the United States.
Other prized possessions include a crabapple from the National Arboretum, a Cedar of Lebanon, and a Dawn Redwood, normally only seen on the west coast. The Dawn Redwood, Charles said, is native to Asia and is the only winter-hearty redwood. Additional favorites include a tall, narrow, 30-year-old DeGroots Spire Arborvitae, ginkgo trees, and a “really old” watermelon red crepe myrtle that came from Pam’s parents. Pam is especially fond of a Chinese Paper Bush that blooms in February, a gift to Pam when she retired from Surry Community College.
Today, Charles said he is more interested in his vegetable gardens where he grows tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, onions, and corn. He plants crowder peas that are descendants of crowder peas planted by his grandmother. His garden is terraced to create raised beds that make cultivation easier.
Garden tour participants will find the easy, 15-minute drive to the Boles farm is well worth the effort. Along the way are spectacular views of Pilot Mountain and the Sauratown Mountains, including a glimpse of Hanging Rock. Once at the Boles property, visitors are sure to be inspired by an enchanting landscape of greenery and blooms.
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