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That leads me to another question: Can you grow a garden in NC? My sister in law who lives in Chapel Hill talks about the difficulty since it's all clay. It would be nice to have a little flower garden and veggie patch. It doesn't seem possible though. Has anyone had success in growing a garden?
It all depends on the location specifically. Red clay is difficult for gardening, yes, unless you invest heavily in adding soil and mulch. This sorta goes back to my earlier post---if there's an organic topsoil layer, you're better off.
For example, my neighborhood is much older with lots of mature trees....trees that drop leaves, pine needles, twigs, etc on the ground. Folks here, instead of obsessively raking it have left it on the ground, or composted it, leaving a very rich organic layer of soil...60+ years worth! You hafta dig deep to get to the red clay. As long as there's decent rain, our garden and flower beds are very productive!
But brand new subdivision built where a pasture once was, no trees to speak of in the yard (except those sad little baby bradfords)? Yeah, you'd be lucky to find any good topsoil in that.
That leads me to another question: Can you grow a garden in NC? My sister in law who lives in Chapel Hill talks about the difficulty since it's all clay. It would be nice to have a little flower garden and veggie patch. It doesn't seem possible though. Has anyone had success in growing a garden?
Sure its possible -- take a look around -- with all the naturally-occurring native plants and trees around, you know this is a great place to grow stuff. In fact, its hard sometimes to keep stuff from growing!
Beneath the topsoil here is a layer of red clay, for sure, but its typically a foot or more below the surface. Perhaps your S-I-L's neighborhood was cleared and the topsoil stripped off -- a nasty, but common practice for many developers. Most places don't have such a problem, but even when the topsoil is stripped away, can be rebuilt with a bit of time and patience.
My current garden is right where a parking area was located when I bought my house...pretty much the worst case for gardening -- it was compressed soil, clay, and gravel under asphalt. I removed the paving and carried it to a recycler in west Raleigh. Then, I rented a heavy-duty tiller to break it up and then starting putting mulch on it....leaves, grass, vegetable scraps, whatever organic material I had. Now, a few years later, its an awesome garden and because of the mild climate, I have stuff growing year round. My winter garden is going now -- lettuce, spinach (can't get fresh in a store now, can you?), parsley, cilantro, garlic, plus assorted other herbs all around the yard.
My wife is a gardener who specializes in native plants and there's lots of beautiful flowers and other things that thrive in this climate.
Realistically, we have found deer and rabbits to be more of a problem than the soil.
I just did a search on teh HGTV web site and it said I was in zone 7B (Holly Springs) You mentioned zone 8. It is done by zip code on that site. Are there several different zones withing the Raleigh area?
The site I used said 7-8 for Wake Forest but it really is not by zip, it is the topography that affects it. http://www.arborday.org/treeinfo/Zon...=Look+it+up%21
I am used to living with lots of trees on the perimeter of my property & I mulch a lot which usually gives me teh flexibility to veer toward the warmer end of the chart, and I plan to do that here in NC, too...
Basements in the Raleigh area are infrequent due to the topography. Where lot contours permit basements are offered. While not as common as other areas of the US, we have what is called the southern basement that many other areas don't have - the bonus room. Sometimes called a FROG (Family Room Over Garage) it is usually smaller obviously but is much more frequent.
As to price, the Raleigh area is the most expensive housing market on the east coast between Washington, DC and Miami. Richmond, VA and Atlanta, GA, Nashville, TN - all are less expensive. Nashville can be as much as 20% or more less expensive.
Cost of a typical four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath, 2,200 square foot house with a two-car garage in a nice neighborhood, according to Coldwell Banker's Home Price Comparison Index. Based on average sales prices of listings for that kind of home sold in the 12 months ended July 31, 2006.
VA Alexandria $805,000
VA Vienna $754,372
VA Leesburg $598,750
VA Woodbridge $506,712
VA Virginia Beach $355,949
VA Richmond $346,850
VA Winchester $346,250
VA Roanoke/Blacksburg $275,210
VA Lynchburg $262,325
Gardening is a major hobby of mine. I'm coming from Boston where one can grow just about anything (albeit for a short period of time). Is the clay really an issue? I will be yet another transplanted yankee, living in either cary or morrisville, in a new development with a small lot. I am under the impression that one can garden 10months out of the year. I've lived in Atlanta... can anyone compare the two climates, soils?
Yes, I can research all this myself, but i would rather hear from other gardeners. If I can't garden bc of poor soil or bc of convent restrictions, I'm not moving!
^ I'm sure you can garden something fine. You oughta talk to the experts at the gardening store, let them know what kinda ground you got there, sun exposure, etc, and I'm sure they can find some things that work good.
If it's too clayey, you may just need to invest in a really big pile of manure and mulch. Create your own topsoil.
FL Miami $690,855
I was a real estate agent in Miami and I can tell you that for a 4 br 2200 sq foot house in a decent area was more like 800,000 easily. We sold our house in an upcoming urban area for almost 600,000 and it was only a 2br 1-1/2 bath 1300 sq foot with a cottage.
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garden...
