South Durham Green Neighbors

This time of year, if you’re heading out at dusk to walk your dog, get some fresh air, or just get the mail, it’s wise to watch where you step. I’ve already come across three Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) at dusk this summer, one of which a person had just unknowingly walked past with their dog.

Copperheads are the most common venomous snake you’ll find across much of the southeastern US. They occur in a variety of habitats, including woodlands, along lakes and streams, by wood piles, and around homes. Given their great camouflage, it’s wise to be careful where you stick your hands while gardening or where you step during the warm months. In hot weather like we’ve been having, Copperheads are often most active at dusk and then through the night. Copperheads often avoid the heat of the day and then emerge from cover at dusk to warm up on a warm sidewalk, walking path, or driveway. That’s why I always use a flashlight when I’m walking at dusk or at night. The sky and streetlights are often bright enough for me to see where I’m going, but I’ve had several instances where I could have easily stepped on a copperhead if I hadn’t been using a flashlight or headlamp.

Despite being venomous, there’s no need to fear or harm Copperheads. There’s a good chance you’ve walked right past several in your life without even knowing it!

Mountain Mints (Pycnanthemum spp.) are one of the best native plants you can grow to attract pollinators. I always find a wide range of bees, wasps, butterflies, flies, and other insects visiting their flowers this time of year. The preferred habitat type varies between species, but the margins of ponds and woodlands are typical areas to find Mountain Mint. See the comments to view some of the species found in the southeast.

“it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world…”

~Mary Oliver, from ‘Invitation’

I’ve been taking a social media and people break. I decided to pop on to share some info.

We haven’t had rain here at Kindred Acres in a long time. It’s been well over a month (nearing 2 months now) and it’s been hot (90’s F). Our water useage has been something we have been mindful of.

I had a friend reach out from NY asking what she should do as her well ran dry. Yes! This can happen! Kaliah and I have been super mindful with water use for this very reason. Needless to say I informed her of the little bit of info that I do know about this situation and she was able to get it fixed. She had called a few well companies and their first go-to was to tell her she has to drill another well. This isn’t the first steps I’d take if it were me and there is no guarantee you’d find more water. I advised her that if it were me, I’d first try to get water brought in a pump it down there to clear it out. Often when a well is running dry it’s clogged and pushing water through can help fix that. I advised her to check with her fire department to see if she could hire them to bring a truck load. There are companies that do this sort of thing too. I only learned of this because when something makes me feel uneasy or concerned, I research a LOT and the well running dry was one of those thing I thought about these last few summers with increasing drought and heat. I actually called my county a few years back to find out how deep my well is and if it has ever run dry. They advised me that our well is 120’ and this particular well has not run dry based on their records but it happens in our area a lot, is what she said, so it’s definitely something to be mindful of. Anyway, she was able to get the fire department to pump a truck load of water down there and that was enough to move things along and break up whatever was clogging it. Water came spewing up before it slowly starting sinking back down. She hasn’t had any issues since but she does plan to have a well company come out and take a look still. It’s just they are a minimum of 4 weeks out and she couldn’t wait that long for running water. At least she has some now and hopefully it stays that way.

Whether you are on a well or city water, it’s important that we ALL conserve. Here are some tips I can share about conserving water:

- Turn the water off when brushing teeth and washing hands (while you rub the soap on and scrubbing your nails).

- Turn the water off while scrubbing the dishes (vs leaving it running while you scrub the food off etc). Easiest to fill the sink with just a little soapy water to use for scrubbing. Wash all the dishes then rinse at the end vs washing and rinsing each dish as you go.

- Be sure you adjust the water level on your washing machine to only use what is needed for that load or wait until you have a full load.

- keep showers to a max of 5 min during drought conditions.

- save water from boiling veggies or other foods, or soaking beans or rice, etc. to use on plants once it has cooled down.

- apply woodchips, straw, or some sort of ground cover to the garden to help retain water so you don’t have to water so much.

- use permaculture practices like Earthworks, to help slow, spread, and sink whatever percipitation you do get on your property.

- consider adding a grey water system if your city/state allows it.

-if you are changing out your toilets any time soon, put the eco friendly ones in that use less water.

-install low flow faucets on kids bathroom sink (or anywhere else in the house you can stand to have a slower water flow). They even sell the aerators that you can just screw on to the faucet tip if you don’t want to change the whole faucet out.

Feel free to add any additional tips you’d like to share in the comments below! And please feel free to share! We really need to spread the reminder about being mindful of our water use. Water IS LIFE and it’s a precious element we all need to survive.

If you hope to attract pollinators to your yard, the NC Botanical Garden has some great resources on native plants to get you started: https://ncbg.unc.edu/plants/resources-for-gardeners/. Native plants have super long roots that create little channels for rainwater to soak into your yard, reducing stormwater runoff and helping to water the other plants nearby.

The new space for Biden-Harris and the Durham County Dems!