Critter-proofi ng your yard and garden

Electric fences, traps and stinky concoctions are among tips for deterring deer, rabbits and groundhogs

By CHRIS BURRITT

NW GUILFORD – Because the deer came out at night, Summerfield’s Jimmy Beeson never saw them. But the aftermath of their browsing among his 55 azalea bushes was unmistakable.

“They ate all of the buds,” Beeson said.

To stop the destruction, he erected a fence with three strands, two of which are electrified.

“I think I’ve got the deer under control now,” he said.

Across our area, the battle between gardeners and four-legged critters is heating up as spring arrives and tender flower buds and soft lettuce leaves are continued on page 30

“Styles are very much mixed,” Bullins said. “If you like farm style, you don’t have to do it in all the rooms. You can do different things –it just needs to be cohesive.”

More functional space, please!

Always an issue, storage – especially in pantries and closets – has taken on even more importance for buyers. While bigger is better, buyers are also wanting these areas to serve multiple purposes.

More than just a place to store groceries and supplies, today’s pantries have evolved to secondary kitchen status. Room-sized pantries feature cabinets, drawers, countertops and plenty of space and electrical outlets for appliances.

The desire for this type of pantry reflects the open floor plan, which in many cases is part of a pared-down kitchen. Bullins said

Types of Equipment:

Photo courtesy of Walraven Signature Homes many homebuyers are eliminating upper cabinetry in the kitchen and opting instead for a large pantry that offers additional space.

“Our buyers don’t want that much cabinetry in the kitchen and they are replacing cabinets with lots of drawers,” she noted.

Johnson added that his buyers are requesting bigger pantries with lots of features.

“People want to keep their countertops clean,” he said.

Dumas said homebuyers are also requesting larger pantries and butler pantries as a place to install a wine cooler.

Along with pantries, closets – and especially those in the primary bedroom – are offering more functionally. Although they’re not greatly expanding, they have more features to accommodate homeowners’ belongings and eliminate the need for an overabundance of home furnishings.

“People don’t want to buy a lot of furniture,” Bullins said. “Because of this, we’re making the closets more functional by adding lots of shelving and some drawers.”

When it comes to functionality, buyers are also looking at how well space is being used and the way in which it plays into their lifestyle. A prime example is the formal dining room, which, according to Johnson, seems to be a thing of the past.

“We’re including fewer formal dining rooms and giving the kitchen a bigger eating area,” he said. “In some cases, the dining room is being turned into an office or a second bedroom for the main floor.”

Lighter, softer walls – but bright white, not so much

Neutral colors are still the mainstay for today’s homes. Walls are light and airy with an accent wall of color thrown in here and there for a little punch.

However, “light and airy” doesn’t equate to bright white. In fact, Walraven said he’s using less and less white in his homes. Other builders are seeing the same preferences among their buyers.

Bullins noted that white has turned more toward beige.

“It’s a softer, warmer look,” she said. “But, it’s not a yellow beige, it’s more of a brown undertone that pairs well with both browns and grays.”

At R&K Custom Homes, Dumas is seeing a similar trend.

“Walls have gone back to lighter, softer colors,” she said. “Lighter beige and gray are very much in right now.”

With the change in color scheme, more buyers are turning way from white cabinetry and opting instead for light, natural woods.

“Cabinets are trending back to lighter wood tones with smooth finishes such as oak, maple and fir,” Dumas noted, adding that darker color cabinets such as black and charcoal are also a popular choice with R&K’s homebuyers.

One place where white hasn’t lost its luster is with tile. Bright, white subway tile remains popular, especially in kitchen backsplashes.

Even if it’s not white, tile has become more neutral, finding its decorativeness in the way it’s laid rather than with color and designs that won’t stand the test of time.

“The tile’s character is found in how you lay it,” Bullins said. “Herringbone, brick and vertical designs add interest to the neutral tiles.” pickling this southern favorite.

Wray has already made a trip to her local Starbucks for the free coffee grounds the store gives away. She uses these in her flower beds and around her roses to help them flourish. Once pollen production subsides, the Wrays will undertake the spring ritual of pressure washing the exterior of their home to get rid of the unsightly yellow dust.

Wray is actually happy all these tasks are on the horizon, because they signal the arrival of her favorite season.

“I’m looking so forward to spring,” she said. “I’m not a winter person.”

“I love spring,” Oak Ridge resident Barb Engel said. “It is my favorite time of year, as everything colorful starts to bloom and takes the gloom out of winter.”

Engel, a member and a past president of Oak Ridge Garden Club, said she absolutely loves working in and reaping the rewards from her vegetable and flower gardens and is always eager to get going when spring comes calling.

“Some of the first things I do outside is to clean up the weeds in my veggie garden and get the soil ready for early vegetable plants such as lettuce, spinach and broccoli,” she said. “My strawberry plants and asparagus will soon be ready to start producing. As I’ve gotten older, I have really cut back on what I plant in my veggie garden.

“In my flower beds, I will clean up all the leftover leaves, dead plant debris and cut back all the grass plants – like the dried-up pink muhly grass – because these plants will soon be shooting up new growth,” she noted. “Eventually, we will put down new pine straw.”

Once the evening temperatures move to above 55 degrees, Engel takes most of her house plants outside.

Having a passion for decorating, Engel said at one time she changed out her décor on a seasonal basis, but that’s a thing of the past.

“I mostly just add a few things to my kitchen/family room area, but not very much,” she said. “I’m starting to declutter, and boy do I have a long way to go after 56 years of marriage!”

Stokesdale’s Alison Huber is rather laid-back in how she welcomes spring, and focuses most of her time on just being outside.

“I enjoy planting flowers, including petunias and geraniums, and walking with my neighborhood buddy, Jennifer Williams,” she said. “That’s what I look forward to most with the time change and the warmer weather.”

A resident of Greensboro, Michelle Mendoza likes to freshen up her home for spring and give it a lighter feeling.

“On the inside, I exchange the winter greenery throughout the house with spring branches, florals, etc., change out the winter color scheme for things like throw pillows and linens with spring colors; and on the outside, I pull cushions, etc., out of storage and get things spruced up.”

For Claudia Whitaker, spring means getting a front row seat to the show God puts on in this season of rebirth.

“Everywhere I go, I enjoy all of the beautiful spring flowers in bloom,” the Oak Ridge resident said. “At my house, I love seeing the forsythias, springblooming camellias, daffodils, winter daphnes and hellebores, which include Lenten roses.

“The flowering trees are putting on quite a show, too,” Whitaker added. “Many of the ornamental fruit trees have bloomed, and now the dogwoods are beginning! If you like to garden, plant a tree, bulbs or a bush and it will delight you for years to come. God has blessed our state with much beauty.”

With winter transitioning to spring, Debbie McClure of Summerfield can usually be found outdoors.

“We usually work in the yard, pruning and putting out mulch,” she said. “I have always had a small veggie garden, primarily with tomatoes.

“This year I will work on a perennial flower garden,” she added. “I love being outside and soaking up the sun. I also love bringing flowers into our home, which makes me happy.” tournament time.

“Time to fill out our brackets!” she said.

Teri Lewis likes to ease into spring and enjoy the journey.

“I walk around the entire yard picking up sticks and making a mental note of small things that need to be fixed, moved or cleaned,” she said. “Then I make an actual list, so the items actually get done. It’s nice to get small chores out of the way before tackling large projects.”

Having a knack for decorating, Jade Weaver loves redoing her home to reflect the seasons, and spring is one of her favorites.

“My annual tradition for ushering in spring is updating my outdoor décor – specifically, the front porch,” said Weaver, who lives in Oak Ridge. “Hanging a bright, colorful floral wreath on the door, adding a ‘springy’ garden flag by the walkway, trading out throw pillows in the rockers for a pop of color, adding a new welcome mat by the door and lastly, placing a few freshly potted flowers on the steps are my go-tos for making my spring fever come to life!”

Stokesdale resident Zandra Slaydon is thrilled when signs of spring start popping up.

“Spring is my favorite season,” she said. “It’s as if new life has been breathed into the trees, bushes and grass.”

Slaydon has taken advantage of the early entry of spring this year to get a jump on her annual spring ritual.

“I’ve already pulled weeds from my flower beds,” she said. “I look forward to late spring, when I can switch out my winter flowers to summer flowers in my flower beds and pots. Then it’s warm enough to hang out on the back deck and grill out with family and friends.

Rachel Foy of Stokesdale loves the change that spring brings.

“I love to see the daffodils pop up,” she said. “It’s just so nice to spend more time outside in the sunshine.”

But there’s another side of spring that Foy enjoys as well – it also means NCAA

“I also enjoy decorating for St. Patrick’s Day and then Easter,” Slaydon added. “My husband and I used to go to North Myrtle Beach each spring for St. Patrick’s Day, but since COVID we haven’t had a chance to go. We’re heading back down this year and I’m really excited!”

Wilson and his wife, Geneva, who died in 2016 at age 82.

Over the past year, Petersen and Buttonow have conducted two oral history interviews and are preparing to turn them over to staff at Town Hall to be posted on the Town of Summerfield’s website. Subtitles will accompany the videos for the benefit of people who don’t hear well or may not understand Southern dialect and expressions.

As an example, Petersen recalled talking to Wilson several years ago, and Wilson described farmers who grew “bakey” (pronounced back-ee) in the fields around the store.

“What’s bakey?” Petersen wondered, before he figured out Wilson was referring to tobacco.

In their first interview last year, Petersen and Buttonow talked to Pam Fox, one of Wilson’s daughters, after Wilson’s Grocery had closed (the property recently went under contract to a buyer who has not yet been identified).

With Petersen asking questions and Buttonow operating a voice-recording camera, the interview took place inside the store. As she talked, Fox showed Petersen and Buttonow photographs on the wall of relatives, and the rear of the building where one of her uncles lived and operated the store before Shorty and Geneva took it over in 1972.

One of Fox’s memories stuck with Petersen.

Weeks shopped in Greensboro, not Summerfield, a reminder that opportunities to purchase essentials in Summerfield were very limited nearly a century ago.

As they’re planning future interviews, Petersen and Buttonow said they want to learn more about Summerfield’s Black community members. Other possible interviews will be with Historical Committee members Mark Brown and Gary Brown (who are unrelated), both of whom have decades of memories about Summerfield.

The interviewers also hope to hear from others willing to share their memories of Summerfield.

The history doesn’t “have to be old,” Petersen said. “We’re interested in more recent times, too.”

This past January Petersen and Buttonow conducted their second interview and enjoyed talking with 106-year-old Hazel Weeks, who lived for many years between Summerfield and Greensboro on property that’s now partly taken by Lake Higgins.

Her interviewers were surprised to learn that

have a story to share about Summerfield?

Contact Historical Committee members Bruce Petersen at bpetersennc@gmail.com or Heather Buttonow at hezbuttonow@yahoo.com to share your stories about Summerfield.