at home Spring 2019

Spring 2019

IN THIS ISSUE Mountains-to-Sea Trail ......................6 Secret of super tomatoes ................ 10 Meet the “Coffee Club” ................... 14 Made in the Shade (Gardening) ....18 Caging tomatoes with bamboo .....21 Don’t forget the permits ...................22 Test your soil before you plant ........26 Cool houses with unique features ...28 Index of Advertisers.......................... 31

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Spring 2019

Wood rose

The nearly 1,200-milelong Mountains-to-Sea Trail runs through Oak Ridge and Summerfield, where volunteers are joining statewide efforts to relocate the footpath from busy roads to woodlands and along rivers

by CHRIS BURRITT OAK RIDGE/SUMMERFIELD – Armed with hoes and rakes, volunteers in northwest Guilford County are changing the course of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the 1,175-mile-long hiking path from Clingmans Dome near the Tennessee state line to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks.

Almost 700 miles of the trail in North Carolina run through woods and fields, leaving another 500 miles, including the section in northwest Guilford, following roadways. Efforts are underway in Oak Ridge and Summerfield to

move the trail off road.

“It is safer and more scenic and more enjoyable for hikers,” said Bill Royal, co-chair of Oak Ridge’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) Committee. “In its final form, the trail isn’t meant to follow roads.”

In the year since it started, about 150 people have signed up as volunteers to work on re-routing the section of trail that enters Oak Ridge from the northwest before it turns east along N.C. 150 on the way to Summerfield. They’re cutting a new trail starting at the Cascades Preserve, a park owned by Guilford County, through rolling woodlands and along the Haw River to Linville Road. Eventually hikers will follow a sidewalk to Oak Ridge Town Park, Royal said.

“It is hard, rewarding work,” he noted.

Along with the committee’s other co-chair, Martha Pittman, Royal has organized several work days for volunteers who use hoes and mattocks to dig and loppers to clear brush along the first section of the off-road trail in Oak Ridge.

In Summerfield, plans call for the MST to overlay the Atlantic & Yadkin Greenway that currently ends south of the town at a pedestrian tunnel under U.S. 220. The trail will meander along Lake Brandt before entering the town and traveling to Summerfield Community Park.

Construction on this segment of the trail in Summerfield is slated to begin in 2024, Town Manager Scott Whitaker said. Eighty percent of the funding will be covered by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, with the town responsible for the rest, he noted.

“At some point, we hope to extend our section of the trail and meet with the Oak Ridge trail along the Haw River at Eversfield Road,” said Jane Doggett, chair of Summerfield’s Trails and Open Space Committee.

So far, the leaders of the Oak Ridge and Summerfield groups have talked

Photo courtesy of Oak Ridge MST Committee

Martha Pittman, co-chair of the Oak Ridge Mountains-toSea Trail Committee, works on a section of trail being built by volunteers during a recent trail workday.

continued on page 8

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Volunteers are using hand tools and an occasional load of gravel to build the trail northwest of Oak Ridge, which will allow hikers to walk along scenic paths in the woods instead of along main roads.

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Spring 2019

informally together, Royal said.

They’re starting to see the promise of how the two towns could benefit economically from the trail.

An increasing number of “thru hikers” (meaning they’re just passing through town) are walking along U.S. 220 between Summerfield and the A&Y Greenway near Strawberry Road, Doggett said. In Oak Ridge, hikers are stopping at a campsite in the town park and patronizing restaurants in the commercial district at Highways 68 and 150, Royal said.

“We’re aiming to be a trail town,” said Royal, referring to places such as Damascus, Virginia, with overnight accommodations and restaurants that cater to Appalachian Trail hikers.

In North Carolina’s foothills west of Oak Ridge, volunteers in the Elkin Valley Trails Association

continued on page 25

Photos by Patti Stokes/NWO

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Recipe for bigger, better

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Dig deep hole, add

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Stokesdale’s Wayne Andrews grows more tomatoes per plant than the average farmer because, for starters, he digs deep holes

by CHRIS BURRITT

Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO

“I take better care of my tomatoes than most people do,” says Wayne Andrews, a retired postal worker who has experimented with different tomato varieties and planting techniques for more than three decades.

SUMMERFIELD – Wayne Andrews sits in a chair in the Summerfield Feed Mill with bags of deep-fried pork rinds over his left shoulder and the chatter of customers buying grass seed and pine straw to his right. Around the time it’s hot enough for proprietors Steve and Arlene Neal to turn on the air conditioner in the window, tomato plants will be growing from the red clay of Andrews’ farm in Stokesdale.

“I take better care of my tomatoes than most people do,” said Andrews, a retired postal service supervisor and grower of tomatoes so big one slice covers an entire piece of bread (white, of course).

As for credentials, Andrews, 74, grew up on a farm in eastern Guilford County. Over the past three decades, he’s “experimented,” as he calls it, with different varieties and techniques for growing tomatoes. The money he’s earned selling the vegetables has helped pay for hunting trips to Canada

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and the western U.S. So aside from his love of gardening, Andrews has had a financial incentive to raise productive tomato plants.

He estimates that, on average, he harvests 30 pounds of tomatoes from each plant. That translates into 40 to 45 tomatoes per plant, as much as double the yield of the typical plant, he said.

“He is the best tomato man I’ve ever seen,” said Summerfield’s Jimmy Beeson, 80, who grows about 400 tomato plants in his garden on Scalesville Road.

Growing prize tomatoes requires “seven days of work,” said Andrews, meaning successful gardeners don’t just stick plants in the dirt and let nature take its course. Untended plants usually shrivel and die from drought and disease if bugs and deer don’t eat them first, he said.

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The Stokesdale garden (above) of Wayne Andrews produces more tomatoes per plant than average and grows them bigger than most.

Andrews says he usually picks his tomatoes a little early, letting them ripen in his basement or garage for a few days.

3309 Burlington Road in Greensboro tests soil samples, as does the Southern States store at N.C. 150 and Lake Brandt Road in Summerfield. Do-it-yourself soil testing kits are available online and in some stores.

Andrews plants tomatoes at three times – early April, early May and early July – to spread his harvest over the summer and fall. The plants love sunshine, with at least six hours a day.

“The more the better,” he said.

To start planting, Andrews digs a hole two feet deep with post-hole diggers. He fills the hole about six to eight inches from the top with composted manure and fertilizer, creating a nutrient-rich, loosely packed mix for nurturing the roots as they grow downward.

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Andrews recommends mixing cow or horse manure, composted wood chips or leaves and, based upon soil testing, fertilizer and lime.

In his case, he uses what’s known as tobacco fertilizer. On the bag, it reads “8-16-24,” which refers to its mix of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Andrews once fertilized with cow and horse manure from pastures, but when pasture grass eaten by cows and horses has been sprayed with herbicides, the chemicals can wind up in manure and kill tomato plants, he learned. He now buys Black Kow organic compost by the bag to avoid the possibility of planting with contaminated manure.

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Spring 2019

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TOMATO TIPS

continued from page 11 A combination of composted horse or cow manure mixed with composted wood chips “grew the biggest tomatoes I’ve ever seen,” he said. Those were Big Beef tomatoes weighing as much as two pounds – more than twice the normal size.

“Sometimes they were so heavy they broke the stems,” he said.

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Andrews buys young plants 6 to 8 inches tall from nurseries and growers.

Plants raised in greenhouses are tender, so to make sure they’re “hardened off,” he puts them outside in a place protected from the wind and full sun for a few days. The exposure toughens them up before they’re planted.

Plants are ready to go in the ground when they’re about a foot tall. He sets the plant on top of the mix of manure, composted leaves, fertilizer and lime, and then fills the rest of the hole with more of the mix and dirt.

Plants are spaced two or three feet apart to allow air to circulate. He puts rows five or six feet apart.

Tomato plants like well-drained soil.

Andrews is careful not to water too much.

Plants watered late in the day tend to stay wet during the night and are at greater risk of blight and disease. So Andrews waters in late morning or early afternoon.

To repel cutworms, Andrews wraps newspaper around the plants a few inches underground and an inch or two above ground. The worms don’t usually climb, he said.

Removing grass and weeds from the garden helps keep away thrips, insects that sometimes carry the spotted-wilt virus that can wipe out tomato plants, he said. Spreading straw or leaves discourages growth of weeds.

Andrews sprinkles Rotenone, a naturally occurring pesticide, on the plants to protect them from sucking and chewing insects. He stops the application

when the plants start blooming so as not to interfere with pollination by bees or other beneficial insects.

When the plants start to bloom, Andrews “top dresses” them with the same mixture of compost and fertilizer he used initially, and then repeats the process every two weeks.

As the plants grow, they may lean under the growing weight of limbs and tomatoes, requiring staking or caging.

Andrews encloses his plants with fivefoot-tall concrete reinforcing wire. Sixinch openings in the mesh allow him to reach through the wire to pick vegetables while discouraging deer and groundhogs from eating the crop.

He drives stakes in the ground to keep the cages from falling over. Some growers use stakes and baling twine, string or pantyhose to hold the plants upright.

Andrews prunes the plants in a couple of ways. He tops them at about 6 feet tall. He also removes suckers, limbs that sprout from the main stems. By trimming the plants, he said, “the growth goes into the tomatoes instead of the vines.

“You can have a lot of vines but not a lot of tomatoes, so you try to reach that happy medium.”

For eating, Andrews prefers Big Beef, a mildly acidic variety. Heirlooms such as German Johnsons are less acidic, he said.

For growing to earn money, he favors Mountain Fresh because it’s a big producer.

“Tastes are different,” he said. “What is a good tomato to me may not be a good tomato to you.”

Picking time arrives in late June or early July for tomatoes planted in April. Andrews picks them a little early, letting them ripen in his basement or garage for a few days.

That is, except for the Big Beef tomatoes he takes inside to the kitchen.

He and his wife, Janet, sit at the table and eat tomato sandwiches – a simple pleasure that started with a deep hole in the ground.

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‘Coffee Club’ covers topics from gardening to politics (and much in between) Beginning around 6 a.m. weekday mornings, this group of mostly retirees gathers at Last Minute Market to enjoy friendship and conversation

by MEREDITH BARKLEY

Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO

“Coffee Club” members gather at the Last Minute Market on Haw River Road early on weekday mornings and discuss a wide variety of topics ranging from “raising a garden to world politics.” Shown here, members of the group who were present on the morning of April 1 gather outside the store entrance for a group photo, along with store owner Amy Nelson (front row, second from right) and her son Cole, age 6 (center, front).

OAK RIDGE – They call themselves The Coffee Club.

They gather weekday mornings around a table in a corner of the Last Minute Market on Haw River Road in Oak Ridge. There they consume pots of coffee, eat Moon Pies, catch up on local gossip, offer homespun advice and solve

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Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO

Coffee Club members gather around their table at the Last Minute Market on Haw River Road in Oak Ridge on the morning of April 1.

problems that have befuddled world leaders.

Three stuffed deer heads and a skinned rattlesnake overlook it all.

“If I could have started coming to this store sooner I could have skipped high school and college,” quipped Randall Kiser, 72, one early March morning. “If you have a problem you can’t figure out, you bring it here and it’ll get figured out.”

If only world leaders were listening.

Amy Nelson and husband Shane live next door and own the small convenience store at 8456 Haw River Road. Members of this unofficial club start trickling in soon after the 6 a.m. opening time.

They help themselves to coffee, top off cups for others, pull up metal folding chairs and join in. By 7:30 they have a quorum.

“It gets me going,” Bud Gravley, 85, an AMP retiree, said of the daily ritual.

They’re as much a fixture at the store as the shelves of snacks and

coolers of drinks.

“They all mean a lot to us,” said Amy Nelson, who runs the store during the day and homeschools children Cole, 6, and Sadie, 3, behind the counter. “They’re not just customers. They’re like family.”

A couple of them are family.

Shane’s father, Neal Nelson, 69, is a regular, as is Danny Nelson, 62, Neal’s cousin.

“It’s camaraderie,” said Neal, a Greensboro Fire Department retiree.

“We talk about everything from raising a garden to world politics.”

“Some people stretch some stuff,” cautioned cousin Danny, who said he once tobacco farmed 250 acres and had a 10-acre pickyour-own strawberry patch. Much of that land is now homes and shopping centers.

Sometimes as many as 15 people join the weekday gathering. They’re local folks, mostly retired, and many have known each other all their lives.

continued on page 24

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Have shade? No problem Local gardeners share tips on how to create rich, colorful and interesting settings in shady areas for yearround enjoyment

by CHRIS BURRITT

Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO

Rick and Patty Williams created a shade garden in the backyard of their Summerfield home

OAK RIDGE – For backyard gardeners wary of planting in the shade, Father Time isn’t on their side.

“Every gardener eventually becomes a shade gardener because things grow,” said Rachel Rees, president of Oak Ridge Garden Club.

Rees has relished turning her sunny yard into nooks and crannies of shade. She’s planted trees, shrubs, ferns, hostas and other flowering

plants that produce colors almost year round, dispelling the misperception that shade is boring compared to bodacious colors of sunny gardens.

“You are going to get more flowers in the sun,” Rees said, “but that doesn’t mean you cannot create great interest in the shade.”

Shade planting isn’t a consideration only for yards shaded by mature trees. It’s also a concern for owners of new homes in northwest Guilford where zoning ordinances require preservation of trees and vegetation in buffer zones.

In any case, Rees’ yard offers a blueprint for shade gardening. When she and her husband, Christopher, moved into their home almost 15 years ago, she said she started with a “blank slate” except for a row of

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Although they can be beautiful to watch, deer can wreak havoc with flowers and gardens. When fencing an area isn’t a reasonable option, setting out plants that produce fragrant blooms or are toxic can deter deer, advised Donna Claeys, co-owner of The Garden Outlet in Summerfield.

Leyland cypress trees that had been planted along Bunch Road.

Rees planted tulip poplars, oaks and maples that eventually provided a canopy of shade for “understory trees” such as dogwoods, redbuds and Japanese maple. Underneath she set out azaleas, rhododendron, mountain laurel and other flowering shrubs as well as evergreens such as camellias.

Planting so that blooms and flowers would appear in all four seasons was a consideration. With winter over, the white flowers of the snowdrop have come and gone, and the Lenten rose with its colorful leaves is wrapping up its season.

Trilliums, primroses and bloodroot will flower this spring, followed by multicolored hostas and hardy begonias in the summer. Fall is the season for Japanese anemone and cyclamen.

“A lot of shade plants are ephemeral (lasting for a short time),” said Rees, who also serves as an officer in the Guilford Horticultural Society. “They come up for their season and they disappear.”

For backyard gardeners, figuring out how much shade they’re getting is a first step. Drawing a rough sketch of the yard or garden and marking its progress during the day is a simple method to

determine degrees of shade.

“Every yard is a micro climate, so to be successful, it’s so important to know your situation,” said Ann Tangedal, buyer of perennial plants for New Garden Nursery & Landscaping. She leads gardening seminars for customers at the company’s New Garden Gazebo on Lawndale Drive in Greensboro.

Tangedal breaks down shade into four categories: light shade (three to six hours of morning sun); full shade (fewer than three hours of sun a day); deep shade (virtually no sunlight); and dappled shade, which refers to areas where sunlight is filtered by leaves of trees.

The shadiness of an area can change.

The leaves of deciduous trees fall in autumn, creating sunny areas until leaves return in springtime. To create more light, gardeners can remove limbs to thin the canopy of leaves, Tangedal advised.

In deeply shaded areas where plants struggle, gardeners can create points of interest by placing benches and colorful pots or building paths or water features such as ponds and waterfalls, she said.

“We face challenges growing in the shade, probably more so than in other areas,” Tangedal said. “But there’s so

continued on page 20

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Spring 2019

much we can do in the shade. It just takes a little more work.”

Planting among trees often requires digging around roots. And those roots draw moisture in the ground to water the trees, often robbing water from shrubs and other plants.

“If it gets dry in July and August, the trees are going to win and the plants are going to lose,” said Donna Claeys, owner of The Garden Outlet in Summerfield with her husband, Glen. She recommended watering and adding soil to help new plants establish themselves.

Planting in shaded, woodsy areas can make plants such as azaleas and hostas easy prey for deer.

“Deer travel the same pathway about every day,” Claeys said. “If your yard happens to be in that path and you’ve planted things they like, they’re going to eat them.”

When fencing the area isn’t a reasonable option, setting out plants that produce fragrant blooms or are toxic can

deter deer, she said. Astilbes, daphnes, brunnaras and mahonias are among shade-loving plants that don’t attract deer.

“They just devour everything,” said Patty Williams, who along with her husband, Rick, quit planting hostas and hydrangeas and abandoned their vegetable garden because deer ate their tomato and squash plants.

But with the help of Claeys at The Garden Outlet, the Williamses created a deer-resistant shade garden in the backyard of their Summerfield home. It was so shaded that the couple removed two trees to provide enough light for the garden.

They planted dogwoods with pink and white flowers and redbud trees under the shady canopy. Ferns define the shade garden, and Lenten roses provide greenery year-round as well as “a pop of color” in late winter when other plants are still dormant, Patty said.

The arching stems of Solomon’s seal produce small white flowers that dangle like bells. The foliage turns golden in the fall.

“Everything blooms at different times,” Patty said. “Season after season, you’ve got something going on.”

Tomato cages made of bamboo corral tall, unruly vines

by CHRIS BURRITT NW GREENSBORO – John Futrell looked in stores and couldn’t find cages sturdy enough for growing tall varieties of tomatoes. So he built his own trellises from bamboo he found growing in the wild.

Futrell prefers growing plants known as indeterminate, meaning they grow tall and produce fruit all summer long.

That is, as long as the weight of the tomatoes doesn’t cause the vines to collapse into a tangled pile on the ground.

Northwest Greensboro resident John Futrell found a way to control tomato vines by making cages out of bamboo he found in the wild. Pieces of the cages are held together by electrical tape.

“I was looking for a way to keep the vines apart and assure proper air flow,” said

continued on page 27

Photos by Chris Burritt/NWO

With the help of his tomato cages made out of bamboo, John Futrell was very pleased with his bumper crop of tomatoes last year and has begun preparing his garden spot for growing tomatoes again this year.

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PAR ADE G R E E N S B O R O B U I L D E R S A S S O C I A T I O N | 2 0 19

Remodeling without permits can backfire years later

OF HOMES

Adobe Stock photo

Bypassing the county’s required building permit/inspection process for additions and remodeling projects may come back to haunt homeowners when they put their house on the market.

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Spring 2019

Homeowners who add rooms or remodel space without obtaining permits for the improvements can face complications when they try to sell

by CHRIS BURRITT If you hired a contractor who didn’t pull permits before making improvements to your home, you may feel lucky if you weren’t caught by inspectors. But sometime down the road, you might be unpleasantly surprised if you try to sell your home with the help of a real estate agent.

Realtors are obligated to research whether improvements were made to homes before listing them for sale, said Clarence Westcott, inspection services

manager for Guilford County’s permitting office. And if their measurements of finished space differ from square footage recorded in county tax files, they’re required to report discrepancies to inspectors, he said.

“It’s not to homeowners’ advantage to bypass permits,” Westcott said in an interview. “It can get expensive and complicate” efforts to sell houses.

The county provides inspection services for building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical work in the towns of Oak Ridge, Summerfield and Stokesdale as well as unincorporated areas of the county. Inspections cover new construction and remodeling.

“Obtaining the necessary permit is the first step in ensuring your development is successful

continued on page 30

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Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO

Photographs of Coffee Club members working in their garden on Stigall Road adorn one wall of the area where the men meet at Last Minute Market in Oak Ridge.

COFFEE CLUB

continued from page 15 They figure they’ve been getting together about 20 years. Much of that time they gathered several miles away at a store near the GuilfordForsyth County line. When that store closed briefly some years back, at Neal Nelson’s suggestion they reconvened at the Last Minute Market. They brought along the table from the old place.

“We’ve been getting together a long time,” said MK Moore, 77, a Roadway Trucking retiree.

Politically, they lean to the right.

Several have President Trump’s “MAGA” (Make America Great Again) hats. They poke a little fun at Gary Smith, 66, whom one called “the only Democrat in the crowd.”

Joked Smith: “Well, whatever they’re for, I’m probably against.” Then he offered to take up a collection for MAGA hats for all.

This early March morning the guys

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Spring 2019

weren’t thinking much about politics.

They talked about bears in blueberry patches down east, a friend who lost his foot to medical problems, the Stoneville restaurant with the best cherry cobbler around and the 1950s, when gas was around 20 cents a gallon.

“Then it went up to $1 and everyone said ‘I’ll never go anywhere again,’ ” remembered Danny Nelson. “A lot of people would get two gallons of gas and three quarts of oil. Those cars would be smoking.”

Ray Miller, 83, a Roadway retiree, mentioned a story he’d heard about a guy in a far-off place who’d been eaten whole by a giant snake while up a tree harvesting coconuts. That prompted Neal Nelson to list off the kinds of snakes he hated: “big ones, little ones, live ones and dead ones.”

But these guys do more than gather several hours each morning and chat.

They look after each other and their neighbors. When Gravley’s wife died

recently they sent flowers. They got a heart-felt thank you note in return.

“Friends you can always count on mean so much,” it read in part.

Reflected Moore: “We’re at an age now where someone dies just about every week.”

The group also raises a several-acre garden on nearby Stigall Road. They sell some of their produce but also give some to folks in the community.

“People look forward to that,” said Danny Nelson. “These older people, they can’t get out and grow anything.”

Amy and Shane Nelson, who works days at a Kernersville machine shop, are trying to sell their home and store and move on. So, the group may have to find another place to meet.

“Depends on the new owners,” Neal Nelson said.

In the meantime, they’ll keep spending their early mornings at the Last Minute Market.

“We have a good time,” Neal said.

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MST

A tradition of

continued from page 8 are using the convergence of three sanctioned trails, including the MST, in Elkin to attract visitors and boost the economy while promoting exercise and healthy lifestyles for residents.

The Oak Ridge Town Council has embraced the trail, voting unanimously at its regular meeting in March to support a resolution of commitment to the trail. Adoption of the resolution was required as part of the town’s application for a North Carolina Recreational Trails Program grant totaling $50,000.

The grant would help pay for construction of a section of the trail from Linville Road to Pepper Road and a trailhead parking lot with a kiosk, Town Manager Bill Bruce said. The town would be required to pay 25 percent of the project’s cost.

A dedication and ribbon cutting for the first section of the trail finished last year in Oak Ridge is scheduled for May 3, Royal said.

“Investing in the Mountains-toSea Trail is a great way to connect neighborhoods in Oak Ridge,” he noted.

“We also want to build a brand for Oak Ridge among the thru-hiker community.”

want to learn more?

For the website of Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, visit www.mountainstoseatrail.org.

To see what’s happening in Oak Ridge, check out the MST Committee’s Facebook page.

Visit www.summerfieldnc.gov for information about the trail in Summerfield (click on the “Parks & Rec & Events” tab at the top of the page and then the “Trails & Greenways” link).

The Mountainsto-Sea Trail…

Was proposed in 1977 and added to the state park system in 2000

Is North Carolina’s state trail and longest marked footpath

Takes approximately

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Passes three lighthouses, including the nation’s tallest

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N.C. Extension Service recommends testing your soil before planting or fertilizing. Soil test kits (right) can be purchased at the Extension Service’s Guilford Center in Greensboro, at Oak Ridge Town Hall in Oak Ridge, New Garden Landscaping in Greensboro, or at Southern States, N.C. 150 and Lake Brandt Road in Summerfield.

Soil testing eliminates guesswork in fertilizing lawns, gardens Before you plant vegetables or spread grass seed on your lawn, the N.C. Extension Service recommends testing your soil for nutrients.

One of the most important things the soil test measures is soil pH, or how acidic or basic your soil is, according to the service’s website.

“Soil pH levels in North Carolina range anywhere from 3.5 (very acidic) to 8.0 (basic) or higher,” the Extension Service says on its website. “Soil testing is the only way to know if your soil is too acidic, if you need to add lime to raise pH, and if so how much.

Many people apply lime unnecessarily, which can raise soil pH too high, resulting in poor plant growth. Soil test results will also tell you which nutrients you need to apply for the type of plants you are growing. If nutrients are needed, they can be supplied with either natural (organic) or synthetic fertilizers.”

Spring 2019

“Fertilizing plants without knowing the soil pH and fertility levels is like driving a car in a dense fog – you are never sure where you are,” according to “A Gardener’s Guide to Soil Testing,” one of numerous publications on the Extension Service’s website.

The proper pH level is just one ingredient in healthy soil. To test your soil, the Extension Service offers a program that begins with putting dirt in a small cardboard box.

You can pick up the boxes and instructions for your soil at the Extension Service’s Guilford Center at 3309 Burlington Road in Greensboro. The cost for testing is $4. Guilford Center can be reached by

phone at (336) 641-2400.

Soil test boxes are also available at Oak Ridge Town Hall, 8315 Linville Road in Oak Ridge, and at New Garden Landscaping and Nursery’s Gazebo store, 3811 Lawndale Drive in Greensboro.

Southern States at N.C. 150 and Lake Brandt Road in Summerfield also offers soil testing for $15. Stop by the store or call (336) 644-7610 for information.

Soil testing devices can also be purchased online and in stores including Southern States and Tractor Supply on Marketplace Drive in Oak Ridge.

want to learn more?

For general information about soil, soil testing, fertilizers, composting and more, visit N.C. Extension Service’s website at www.gardening.ces.ncsu.edu/soils/.

TOMATO CAGES

continued from page 21 Futrell, owner of Common Ground, a Greensboro landscaping company.

Futrell, who considers himself an amateur gardener, is not alone in controlling tomato vines in ways that go beyond driving a cedar stake in the ground and binding the plant with twine. Online sites show cages and trellises resembling swing sets, lean-tos and tripods. They’re built of PVC pipes, livestock fencing, wire and lumber secured by nails, screws and hinges.

A year ago, after he had prepared his garden spot in northwest Greensboro, Futrell cut four 8-foot bamboo poles for each cage. They leaned inward, held upright by bamboo running horizontally and spaced about 15 inches apart. Green electrical tape held the pieces of bamboo together.

To keep the cages from leaning or falling over in the wind, Futrell used

posthole diggers to make four holes, or one for each pole. He packed the holes with dirt. Then standing on a ladder, he drove the poles deeper into the ground with a rubber hammer.

As the plants grew taller, Futrell pruned random branches known as suckers to funnel nutrients into the tomatoes. He kept fruit-laden branches from sagging with the support of skinny bamboo sticks resting on top of the horizontal pieces.

Futrell said he was pleased with the harvest of tomatoes “bigger than your fist.”

He plans to grow tomatoes again this year. He’s begun preparing his garden spot and eyeing the bamboo cages he leaned in the woods last fall.

They’ve gone from green to the bone color of bamboo fishing poles.

Futrell is going to make sure the cages are still sturdy, but plans no modifications to them.

“They worked perfectly,” he said.

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27

Unique features set some houses apart from the others Builders can take houses to a whole other level when incorporating their creativity and unique features. Check out what these local homebuilders have incorporated into some of their homes…

Photo courtesy of Builders MD

“This is one hot wine rack,” said Drew Stokes, who works for Builders MD. “David Flanders, who owns Builders MD with his wife, Casey, used a blow torch to char the wood and a wire brush to scrape it, using an 18th-century technique in Japan called ‘shou sugi ban.’ The technique was primarily used for weatherproofing cedar wood siding of houses. Flanders applied the technique to pull out the wood grains and create a unique look for the wine rack in the pantry of a home in The Reserve at Oak Ridge.”

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(336) 665-0291 newgarden.com

Spring 2019

It’s roughly the size of a doggy door, but the “Donnie Door” invented by custom homebuilder Don Mills allows homeowners to unload groceries directly from the garage into the pantry. Over the past decade, an increasing number of homebuyers have requested the door, and other builders have added the features to their houses, said Don, who owns Don Mills Builders with his wife, Annette. Shown in photo, the Mills’ daughter, Rachel Hill, demonstrates the door in the company’s house that is for sale in the Woodrose subdivision near Bur-Mil Park in northwest Greensboro.

Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO

An abundance of natural light drew Sean and Danielle Mehaffey to this home built by Ray Bullins Construction Co. in the Dawn Acres subdivision in Stokesdale, Here, their 7-year-old daughter, Harper, stands in the kitchen that opens into the family room. Ray and his wife, Lisa, designed this home so that natural light pours into other rooms, including Harper’s favorite: the children’s playroom upstairs.

We know we need to sell our home “ and move to a smaller place, but it’s hard to get past all those memories, attic boxes and his tools.

...Where do we start?” #Step 1: call Ann Powell Photo courtesy of R&K Custom Homes

It’s usually too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter to sit on screened porches. However, the growing popularity of window systems such as EZVue and EZE-Breeze are making the space comfortable year-round. Rich and Kathy Dumas, owners of R&K Custom Homes, added a fireplace to this sunroom in one of their houses in the Woodrose subdivision near Bur-Mil Park in northwest Greensboro. The windows are made of durable vinyl that keep the room cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Screens can be opened for ventilation.

“I know it’s overwhelming to think about moving after 25 years in the same place. Let’s talk about where to begin.”

Ann Powell (336) 327-3473 ann.powell@allentate.com

Spring 2019

29

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Spring 2019

and legal,” reads the website of the county’s permits section.

The site, which can be found by typing “Guilford County permitting & inspections,” explains how to obtain permits and schedule inspections.

To put it simply, permits are required for structural changes to houses. Those changes include adding new rooms or building decks, Westcott said. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical improvements also require permits.

Replacing roofs and installing siding do not require permits.

Basement remodeling is one of the most common improvements done without permits – perhaps in part because the work isn’t easily visible to inspectors or curious neighbors. Homeowners unwittingly violate building codes and create dangers when they fail to install smoke detectors or they build bedrooms without access to windows as a means of escape during fires, Westcott said.

“It happens more than people think,” he said.

When real estate agents prepare to list houses for sale, they measure the home’s square footage and compare their calculations to county tax records. The source of discrepancies is often obvious: new bedrooms or sunrooms were added by homeowners who didn’t obtain permits. Or sometimes permitted improvements didn’t get recorded in the tax files.

“If there’s a big discrepancy in square footage, we start asking questions,” said agent Betty Smith, president of Smith Marketing, which is affiliated with Allen Tate.

Among options for homeowners is to simply tell the county that

they want to pay permit fees and proceed with inspections after they failed to do so when they made improvements, Smith said. In some cases, sellers will disclose that they had failed to pull permits and find buyers willing to purchase the houses even though improvements hadn’t been inspected.

“There is a lot of gray area,” Smith said. “Our big advice is to disclose, disclose, disclose.”

Failure to pull permits for remodeling can be expensive for homeowners when they try to sell their houses – for starters because they can’t market improvements as finished space. This likely reduces the asking price, unless they notify the county of the unpermitted work and it then passes inspection, according to Keller Williams agent DeDe Cunningham, of DeDe’s Real Estate Group. She’s also a North Carolina licensed general contractor and a former inspector for the city of High Point.

In some cases, homeowners didn’t understand they were required to pull permits or thought their remodelers had taken care of the requirement, Cunningham said.

Informing inspectors of the oversight makes sense for homeowners trying to sell their property, said Westcott. Inspectors try to perform inspections without damaging property – such as cutting holes in walls to inspect plumbing or electrical work – so that owners don’t incur repair costs, he said.

“We are not here to cause problems for people,” Westcott said.

“We want to make sure their houses are safe.”

for making this publication possible BUILDING & REMODELING

Cardinal Millwork & Supply...................... 14

LANDSCAPE DESIGN / SERVICES

REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

Disney Custom Homes............................... 3

Colfax Furniture & Mattress...................... 15

Colfax Lawn Care..................................... 18

A New Dawn Realty................................. 10

Don Mills Builders.....................................32

Cool Breeze 1250.....................................26

Common Ground....................................... 9

Ann Powell, Allen Tate.............................29

Greater Greensboro Builders Association...22

DKB Cabinetry.........................................27

New Garden Landscaping & Nursery.......28

Dede Cunningham, Keller Williams..........23

Johnson & Lee..........................................11 Naylor Custom Homes............................. 12 R&K Custom Homes.................................. 5 Walraven Signature Homes................. 16-17

Eanes Heating and Air Conditioning.......... 2 Hedgecock Builders Supply Co................. 21 Maria Adams Designs.............................. 10

Gail Kerber, KERBAPPEALS.....................23

LEGAL SERVICES

Gil Vaughan, Keller Williams....................23

Ingle Law.................................................24

Jan Cox, The Cox Team/Keller Williams...23 Jeremiah & Maggie Hawes, BHHS............. 8

Marshall Stone......................................... 19

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

HOME PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Johnnye & Jake Letterman, BHHS...........25

Piedmont Fence, Inc. ..............................24

Dove Medical........................................... 13

Kelli Young, Allen Tate.............................23

Alarmguard Security................................ 19

Priba Furniture & Interiors.......................... 4

BEK Paint Company.................................30

Triad Dog Fence.......................................30

PUBLISHERS / PUBLICATIONS

Smith Marketing......................................... 6

Budget Blinds............................................. 7

Triad Land Surveying P.C. ........................27

PS Communications............................. 4, 31

Tim Atkins, Allen Tate..............................23

Kristi Lucas, Carolina RE Pathways..........20

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UE es IN THIS ISS and coach all teams

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footb Meet the majors schedules ors and drum rmances 2018 game results n band direct perfo 2017 seaso rs, coaches, hing bands’ halftime cheerleade Meet the preview of the marc Get a sneak

annual

For advertising info, contact us at (336) 644-7035, ext. 11 | advertising@pscommunications-inc.com

ELEGANT

ALL THE COMFORT OF HOME CUSTOM BUILT FOR YOU.

INVITING

Now building in Woodrose, next to Bur-Mil Park! Enjoy a community swimming pool, Par-3 golf, tennis courts & walking trails • Mid $400s and up • Northwest GSO location, city lots • Guilford County schools – Summerfield Elementary, Northern Middle & High

COMFORTABLE

DON MILLS BUILDERS, INC. | (336) 362-1777 | www.donmillsbuilders.com

Co-owners Don & Annette Mills