A Beautiful Place for Great Classical Music

Just now, in springtime, it is a particularly beautiful place. Clumps of foot-high yellow flowers dot the grassy field. At dawn and dusk, herds of whitetail deer, and their new fawns, roam the land, nibbling on tender green shoots. A green belt of thick forest seals off the pastoral scene from the view of the suburban development in this fast-growing part of northern Wake County, NC.

On clear days, one can see for miles across a vista of rolling piedmont. In the evenings, sunsets of gold, peach and ruby descend in the west. They make excellent photo opportunities, just as the program log requires our announcer to check that all the automated safety beacons on the main antenna are ready for nighttime.

While we enjoy sunsets like this one at our home near Wake Forest, NC, be assured that it never really sets on The Classical Station. The music always plays, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

And human hands have made this land even prettier.

On a recent sunny, cloudless morning, members of the Wake Forest Garden Club have arrived, tools in hand, to get the flowerbeds they tend here ready for spring.

There was a shin-deep forest of suckers that had grown up from the roots of a Bradford pear tree to cut back. There were weeds to pull.

Brenda Pate, leading the hearty team of gardeners, checked the health of plantings installed about five years ago.

They focused on native plants, which are hearty, don’t require much care, and support pollinating insects. The winter was kind to the flowerbeds. Its green border, made up mostly of rosemary and catnip, appears to have done its job.

“The deer don’t seem to like the scent and texture,” she said. “It looks like it’s working.”

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A riot of yellow iris, right on time, had bloomed a week earlier. Other flowering plants were successfully budding, a promising indicator of more color and fragrance in the weeks ahead as spring turns to summer in Central North Carolina.

The native plants had proven their worth, surviving and thriving despite one of the driest springs in 20 years. Recently, the US Drought Monitor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln reported that nearly 95 percent of Wake County is in parched Level 3 on a four-level drought scale.

The gardeners used a nearby hose, fed by a well, to water recently planted additions.

“As a general rule, the garden is not watered,” Pate said. “That is the benefit of native plants, being able to survive on their own once established.”

Our 1,200-foot antenna was recently repainted in safety red-and-white.

Founded in 1924, Wake Forest Garden Club may be one of the region’s oldest continuously meeting small-town volunteer organizations. In 2026, Pate and a team of members are searching old meeting minutes and local newspapers to write the club’s history.

What began as a community beautification push by the wives of business owners, town leaders, college professors (and even a college president or two) has transformed, as the Town of Wake Forest has. The group is a primary local source of information on successfully planting gardens, conserving native plants and rooting out invasive species and using gardens and landscaping to preserve the environment and conserve water. Many flowers in many gardens around town have sprouted from free seed packs the club gives away. Crowds enjoy the club’s spring tour of exceptional private gardens and a Fall Festival with arts, crafts, and plant vendors.

For most of the last century, the club has met on the morning of the second Tuesday of the month, September through May, at the Wake Forest Historical Museum (where the club also maintains the gardens). There’s usually a speaker, and guests are always welcome. There’s more information at wfgardenclub.org.

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