Au natural" landscaping
by Arlene Farrrow

After spending over 35 years living in the Las Vegas desert, we moved to western North Carolina. We were in awe of the beauty of the area. It was so green and lush. We leased a house for a while, and then chose a home, which we bought four months ago. During the process of looking for our home, we soon realized that there was virtually no flat land on which to build a house. So, we searched around and found a lovely new house for sale on an acre of steep sloping hillsides. The view was magnificent looking out to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was perfect!

Rising up outside our front door was a bare steep embankment of red clay soil, which we decided to landscape. We had always loved gardening, so we were very enthusiastic about starting our landscape project. We bought some local plants to put along the top of the embankment. My husband began preparing the soil. I went to the garage (which was out of sight from where my husband was working) to get my gardening gloves and some plant fertilizer.

As I came back from the garage and looked up on the embankment I did not see my husband anywhere. "Strange," I thought, "where in the world could he be?" Then I heard my name being called. I looked around. I knew it was my husband, but I couldn't see him. Again I heard my name being called. This time it sounded louder and a bit desperate. I called out to him. "Where are you?" "I'm here," he answered. "Where is here?" I asked. "Under the front deck," he yelled, sounding quite upset, and a bit annoyed.

I ran to the deck and peered underneath. There he was, on the ground under the deck. He had lost his footing and rolled all the way down the embankment coming to a stop underneath our front deck. He was a little banged up, but mostly embarrassed! I couldn't help laughing. He didn't think it was funny at all. We have since decided to let the embankment naturalize itself, and it is reforesting beautifully.

So, if you plan to landscape in the mountains of western North Carolina, a word to the wise-get a professional landscaper or go "au natural"!