ast gardens, filled with native ornamentals as well as fragrant flowers, brought Kate Reynolds a great deal of joy during her years at Tanglewood, a country estate not far from Winston-Salem. But in the years following the death of Reynolds and the man she charged with maintaining the grounds, her gardens fell into a gentle decline.Today, North Carolina Cooperative Extension and its Master Gardener volunteers are restoring the grounds to their former glory and at the same time adding their own chapter to Tanglewood’s rich history.
The Reynoldses – Kate and her tobacco magnate husband, William Neal – willed the 1,100-acre estate to Forsyth County in 1951. It became a public park, with areas for picnicking, hiking, golf, swimming, horseback riding and more.
Four years ago, Forsyth County officials asked Cooperative Extension to revitalize and manage the arboretum, which was in the hands of the Garden Club Council. The goal: to turn the site into a 5.5-acre showplace that would boost tourism and serve as an outdoor classroom for school students as well as home gardeners and landscape professionals.
Toby Bost, the first Extension agent to direct the arboretum, secured a grant from Winston-
Salem Foundation to kickstart the restoration. And, today, Extension horticulture agent Stephen Greer guides the arboretum activities with the help of about 30 Extension-trained Master Gardener volunteers.
“The volunteers tend the site’s eight gardens, contributing their time and energy as a part of their continuing enthusiasm for the garden,” Greer says.
Thanks to their efforts, landscape professionals are now able to follow a self-guided tour to study for the plant identification portion of certification exams. And home gardeners can attend classes ranging from shade gardening to pruning and pest control.
In the children’s garden, a whimsical area with a brightly painted mural and giant wooden spider web sculpture, groups of third through seventh graders learn about biology, soils and the environment. And at the overlook garden, brides and grooms regularly exchange vows amid picturesque white blooms.
On Wednesdays, the arboretum hums with activity, as eight to 12 Master Gardener volunteers spend hours shoveling, building, potting, planting and pruning.
On one recent workday, Beverly West and Rosemary Wheeler were busy clearing honeysuckle and poison ivy from the arboretum’s newest garden, the Wildlife Garden.
West and Wheeler envision the wooded garden as a place where children and grownups can enjoy rare native plants, like black cohosh and trillium, that are rescued from construction sites.
While bulldozers pose the first threat to the plants, the second comes from a growing deer population that eats and tramples the tender transplants.
So Greer and his Master Gardeners are now working to test new options for keeping deer out of the garden. Ultimately, they intend to develop a demonstration project that other home gardeners can learn from.
And helping others learn is what master gardening and the Tanglewood Arboretum are all about, says Greer. It’s precisely why so much effort has gone into turning the creeks, trees, soils and breeze that delighted Kate Reynolds for years into a place that both delights and teaches.
As West says, “We want to make this a place where people, and especially school children, can learn about plants and see things they wouldn’t otherwise notice. It’s hard work, but we all love plants and hope to make this a peaceful, educational place that can be enjoyed for generations to come.
—Dee Shore