Notes from the Field: Elizabeth Lawrence Garden

Florence, Anne, and Andrea meet up at the Elizabeth Lawrence House & Garden

In mid-September, Hurricane Florence brought record rainfall to the Middle Atlantic states, with extensive flooding across the region. On September 14, 2018, just hours before the hurricane hit Charlotte, NC, Garden Conservancy Associate Director of Preservation Anne Welles arrived at the Elizabeth Lawrence House & Garden for the annual easement monitoring and assessment.

Plenty of wind also arrived at the same time, followed by more than ten inches of rain in Charlotte. Fortunately, Anne managed to finish the monitoring and assessment before the brunt of the storm hit and traveled home safely. And despite ten inches of flooding and some minor physical damage, the garden weathered the storm well.

Elizabeth Lawrence Garden Curator Andrea Sprott reports minimal damage from the hurricane. “We were extremely fortunate,” says Andrea, “which is especially important because we have just entered our busiest season, with a plant sale, a fundraiser, and many other events in the coming weeks.”

Not all public gardens in the region were as lucky. Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, NC, has closed while it deals with garden cleanup; read more at www. airliegardens.org/hurricane-florence-recovery-efforts. Veterans Employment Base Camp and Organic Garden in New Bern, NC, reports that it suffered “catastrophic loss;” read about the garden’s recovery efforts, including a GoFundMe campaign, on www.veteransorganicgarden.wordpress.com.

The American Public Gardens’ online Garden to Garden Disaster Response Center is a useful central clearing house for gardens that need assistance as well as those that may be in a position to provide it.  

Other news from the Elizabeth Lawrence Garden
Curator Andrea Sprott (left) launched a project in March to restore a garden bed, removing an invasive bulb, Nothoscordum fragrens, that had overrun the bed. To "decontaminate" the bed, all plants were removed, had their roots washed, and have been potted up and are awaiting replanting. Eight to ten inches of soil will be removed and replaced before the plants are replanted.

During the excavation, a rock wall was cleaned out and had to be rebuilt. In the process, Andrea discovered the foundation of a wall that does not coincide with the current wall. While there are no historic photos of the area, she believes that tree roots may have pushed the wall out of its original location. Before the wall is rebuilt, she is consulting the National Park Service’s Historic American Landscapes Survey for advice on the best choice for where to reconstruct it.

Learn more about the Elizabeth Lawrence Garden