Developer Tom Ryan received approval for the 38-acre complex from the Fletcher Town Council in mid-January. It’s modeled after similar developments in Europe. There will be solar hot water, solar space heating (a design attribute), and even solar air conditioning using solar absorption chillers. Not that one needs much AC here in the highlands, but it’s handy for a few days every year.

Better yet, it’s not a private rich-people gated community. The project is for work force housing according to federal guidelines. 18 acres of the property will be designated a conservation easement with the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, with walking trails that will be given to the town of Fletcher as part of its greenway system.

With encouragement coming from both federal subsidies and state initiatives applying to individual homeowners, home builders and community developers through the Smart Communities Network and the North Carolina Solar Network, plans are being developed for more and more sustainable communities in our state. When it comes time for my new roof, I’m joining the Million Solar Roofs Initiative partnership in my area.

Surf some of the great links below for more information related to green initiatives in North Carolina, and see how this can translate into even more tourism dollars in our state coffers to provide even more support for our storied independent attitudes and strong valuation of our wonderful natural resources!

Links

Appalachian Energy & Green Partners

The Green Scene

Green subdivision in Fletcher may be wave of the future

North Carolina Solar Center Million Solar Roofs Initiative

Smart Communities Network

North Carolina Green Building Technology Database

North Carolina visitors who harbor dreams of living ‘green’ have a host of great opportunities to indulge their interests while enjoying North Carolina’s stunning rural scenery, from mountains to sea. There is much to see, do, learn and enjoy on our active organic farms, many of which offer learning programs, hands-on work programs, pick-your-own fruit and produce opportunities, recreational facilities, lodging and home-grown, home-cooked meals your family will love!

North Carolina’s history as a tobacco growing state could have spelled disaster to farmers and farming communities as that crop has become untenable in the modern marketplace. Yet instead of giving up, the necessary change has engendered a strong commitment to innovative alternatives. Family farmers have invented new ways to keep their farmland productive while at the same time leading the movement toward sustainable practices, new income-producing crops, and clever private-business-government partnerships that add to NC’s important tourism industry.

In the mountainous west, smaller farms on hilly terrain have embraced the “organic revolution” heartily and their offerings for visitors are abundant. In rugged Madison County north of Asheville, there is Eagle Feather Organic Farm, part of the agri-tourism consortium. The farm is home to the North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Company as well as the Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Plants.

Eagle Feather Farm has been designated a Native Botanical Sanctuary by United Plant Savers, and the NC Department of Agriculture has named it a North Carolina Nursery. Eagle Feather offers books, a video, classes, apprenticeships and tours that demonstrate natural ways of growing beneficial medicinal herbs in their own natural habitats, specializing in woods and forest crops. Owner Robert Eidus leads the tours, workshops and classes. The full schedule is available on the websites, so planning a weekend or a week at one of Madison County’s wonderful Bed and Breakfasts while spending afternoons on the farm will inspire visitors to consider the opportunities presented by caring for the land as it comes naturally, and being rewarded for it with valuable cash crops!

Closer to the resorts and tourist corridors of Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, Boone, Linville, Grandfather Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway, there is The Mast Farm Inn Bed and Breakfast in Banner Elk. The Inn is situated on a historic mountain farm and offers guest rooms in the farm house, romantic getaway cottages and rustic cabin for guests. Gourmet dining features organic vegetables and herbs grown by a master gardener for chef Ed Winebarger.

No matter where you’re staying there are many Western North Carolina farms who offer pick-your-own outings in season. Everything from apples, grapes, strawberries, cherries and blueberries to tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, broad beans, sweet corn, eggplant, pumpkins and melons. There are cooperative classes open to the public on canning, pickle-making, drying fruit and vegetables, ice cream making, and how to make prize-winning berry pies. Check out the offerings at Western North Carolina Pick-Your-Own Farms.

Farther east in north-central North Carolina (Franklin County) is another agri-tourism partnership project, Vollmer Farms. This is a unique outreach collaboration between the NCSU College of Design (Department of Landscape Architecture) and the NCSU College of Natural Resources with the Vollmer family farm. The farm offers spring pick-your-own strawberry tours, an educational puppet show and the “Back Forty” play area for school groups, company picnics and other events. There’s a Farm Market & Cafe (opens April 1), and offers apprenticeships and farm hand job opportunities to eager would-be organic farmers.

There are share farms and organic growing operations in almost all of North Carolina’s rural counties, and the number is growing every year. North Carolina’s greatest treasures include natural beauty, fertile soil, abundant forests and friendly, hard-working people who serve this natural heritage with their hearts and hands. Visitors from in and out of state will find fresh air, healthy food and a new appreciation for the land by getting to know our outstanding organic farms and farmers up close!

Links:

North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Company

Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Plants

The Mast Farm Inn

Western North Carolina Pick-Your-Own Farms

Vollmer Farms

When my daughter was earning her theater technical degree at UNCA, she designed a set for a rather bizarre theatrical production of “Hansel and Gretel at Auschwitz” or something like that, which I never saw and didn’t really want to see. She brought home the ugliest of creepy metal trees made out of welded rebar and promptly installed it out by the footed bathtub from her production of “Hair,” which we now use as the final hole for the top nine disc golf course.

Now, we live in a lovely chestnut cabin on some seriously ‘graded’ acreage next to the Pisgah National Forest. So it’s not hard to imagine that I’ve no particular use for an ugly rebar tree. Yet that was six years ago, and today that ugly metal tree is one of my favorite lawn sculptures. The English ivy she planted around the base has grown up to cover the trunk in variegated dark and light green lushness. Wild pink roses and Japanese honeysuckle now compete for sunlight over the entire top and branches, trailing almost to the ground in places and spectacular in bloom.

So I’m not all that adverse to ideas about how to combine modern, recycled materials and technology with real natural greenery and flowers to make interesting homescapes. The eastern wall of this cabin is half rock, and when we moved in it was covered in ivy. Made for a really pretty picture, but we had to pull it all down when we discovered it was rotting the siding, providing shelter for a variety of stinging pests, and crumbling the rocks.

So it caught my eye when I saw an article about the ‘Vertical Garden’ walls of botanist Patrick Blanc in an interview with him for Ping. I’ve just gotta get me some of those!

The system is sort of hydroponic. A metal framework onto which PVC plastic is attached and covered with felt. Regular tap water mixed with something like Miracle Gro drips from the top of the wall and keeps the felt wet, and all sorts of plants grow just fine without any soil! This keeps the walls light-weight enough to put up almost anywhere, though if they’re indoors they’ll need some grow lights. Blanc describes it for Ping:

The Vertical Garden is composed of three parts: a metal frame, a PVC layer and felt. The metal frame is hung on a wall or can be self-standing. It provides an air layer acting as a very efficient thermic and phonic isolation system. A 1cm thick PVC sheet is then riveted on the metal frame. This layer brings rigidity to the whole structure and makes it waterproof. After that comes a felt layer made of polyamide that is stapled on the PVC. This felt is corrosion-resistant and its high capillarity allows a homogeneous water distribution. The roots are now growing on this felt.

Watering is provided from the top with the tap water being supplemented with nutrients. The process of watering and fertilisation is automated. The whole weight of the ‘Vertical Garden’, including plants and metal frame, is lower than 30 kg per square meter. Thus the Vertical Garden can be implemented on any wall without any size or limitation of height.

I’m thinking that I could maybe use such walls as an alternative to new siding, at least on the front of the cabin where it’s seen on approach. It would certainly keep the south wall much cooler in the summer, and Blanc claims his walls are great insulation against the cold as well. If I were really clever I could also cover the deck rails and foundation and make the cabin practically invisible to the unaided eye!

But alas, I know what would happen. Skinks and copperheads would take over, the whole place would be one giant garden spider web in no time at all, and those house-eating carpenter bees and hornets would immediately move right back in. I just live too far out in the woods for a real vine-covered cottage.

But there’s good news! Blanc’s walls work indoors as well. Check out this photo of “organic wallpaper.” A wall like this is way beyond Feng Shui at bringing nature into a living space without bothering with all those philodendrons and spider plants and ferns I always forget to water.

I’m definitely going to get my sister the plant physiologist interested in one of these walls for the inside of her new log home in Lake Lure. It’s definitely her style, and she’s got just the windows for it!