First off, welcome to our little piece of heaven here. If you love to garden, you will love it here. I'm a Charlotte NC area native and now live in the Sandhills of SC. It is hot in the summer, humid too. Today was a high at my house of 100 with a heat index of 108. The humidity was between 40% and 50% most of the day on my little home weather station. You can grow herbs, veggies, beautiful trees, and a huge variety of perennials and annuals. If you want to play with some of the more tropical varieties, then you can with proper overwinter techniques. I plant in Zone 7 and 8 plants with little worry. As for snakes and other poisonous pests, we do have a few, but not as bad as some of the other areas of the country. I'm out on 15 acres now, and honestly, I saw more snakes in my yard in a subdivision just out side of Charlotte than I've ever seen here. We have in this general area, Copperheads, Water Moccasins, a Rattlesnake, Black Widow spiders, and Brown Recluse spiders. In my 30 some years of gardening, I've ran into harmless garden snakes when weeding, a lot of little salamanders and spiders. The salamander lizards are totally harmless, very cute to watch! :-) The only times I've ever ran into a poisonous snake was camping in Western NC close to a creek, and the occasional Copperhead that wanders up in the yard. There may be some others but I haven't seen them or hear of them. As for the spiders, I've ran into quite a few Black Widows out here this year around my garden shed and such. Just wear gloves and keep a tool close by to smack them with. They aren't huge, I tend to find them around my bags of dirt and mulch.

I am in upstate SC and it's a pretty great place to be a gardener. We have a really long season. The downside is the heat and the drought, but we cope with it by selecting drought tolerant plants, giving plants a little more shade than they might need in other areas, water barrels, water crystals.. whatever seems to help.

As for snakes, I'm not afraid of anything in the garden except snakes and I'm more afraid of snakes than anything else in the whole world. In the years that I have been gardening (about 8, with about 4 of those being hardcore), I have only encountered 1 small harmless snake that was in the pool and 1 small harmless one in the mulch pile. The fact that they were harmless didn't stop me from screaming, running, crying, shaking, vomiting and almost killing myself trying to get away from them though. Irrational, I know, but they are my phobia. Luckily I was "rescued" both times by people who were not the least bit afraid of them.

I have not seen any venomous snakes, and parts of my property are pretty much jungle. It's always a fear of mine, but I try to kind of stomp when I walk outside, carry a shovel that I bang on the ground when I walk and pray that I don't see a copperhead. From what I understand, copperheads are the dangerous ones that are most common in my immediate area. A friend of mine told me that her husband stepped out their front door, didn't see the BIG copperhead that was sunning itself on their rock steps until he was bitten. He said it hurt like a bee stink x100 but he went to the hospital and was fine.

I've always been told that snakes are as afraid of you as you are of them... and I say that's just not possible. However, I don't think they really want human encounters any more than we want snake encounters, so if you make a lot of noise to let them know you are around and don't keep piles of brush, mulch or anything similar to that around then you are probably fairly safe.

While I'm sure it really "stinks" to be bitten by a copperhead snake, I meant to say that he said it hurt like a bee sting x100.

Bee stink heh. I read typonese so well I didn't even catch it.

As far as copperheads being the most dangerous snake in NC, that depends on what you mean by dangerous. While I hesitate to call them aggressive, copperheads are more of a "bite first, ask questions later" snake. Other snakes have some form of warning they give off before biting but the copperhead's warning is its bite. Research at Davidson college has shown that when a copperhead bites as a result of being stepped on and handled that it does not inject the same amount of venom as it does into something it views as prey, something it is trying to kill. Copperhead bites are very rarely fatal but I have heard they are very painful.

Venom-wise, out of the six poisonous snakes recorded as living in this area, the cottonmouth is probably the most dangerous snake we have running stiff competition with the Timber Rattler. Both are "last resort" biters though so stepping on them or picking them up is usually the way people get bit.

Most of what I have seen here have been Black Rat snakes which are big and kind of scary looking but harmless. In fact they eat other small snakes including baby venomous snakes so I invite them into my garden. I have a huge brush pile out back where one has been nesting. We very rarely see it and when we do it doesn't mind us much. One day it just followed us around the yard for about thirty minutes just looking at us then it went right back into the brush pile. I think it ate the chipmunks because I haven't seen them nor their holes for about a month now. I miss watching them from the garage window but I certainly don't miss their tunnels.

Like gnomey said, you can stomp on the ground and they are sensitive to the vibrations and will often go somewhere else. When I have to get ankle or higher deep in something I stomp and wave a stick around in the brush. Whatever you do though, if a snake is minding its own business and not messing with you, don't kill it. It's much better to find out why it is hanging out and remove what attracts it. Keep the grass cut and weed eat regularly. Don't accumulate brush or other materials in piles in the yard. Don't leave pet food out that rats or other food sources for snakes will be attracted to. Stuff like that...

LOL I had forgotten the big Black Snakes. I had one that lived under my barn back 20+ years ago when I had horses. He would steal an occasional hen egg, but kept my feed room rodent free. What a wonderful pest control system! :-) The only drawback is that he would spook my colts sometimes, but they would quickly settle back down. I honestly think he was as scared by the colts as they were by him. Great snakes to have around the property!!

"What a wonderful pest control system!"

That is what I was thinking while writing about having the chipmunks eaten. I can't bring myself to kill them but I certainly will praise nature for working it out for me.

aezarien - you'd never have to worry about me killing a snake.. it's hard for me to even breathe when I see one, let alone think about murder. The only time I think I could even bring myself to do something like that would be if it were posing some sort of threat to my son or my dog. Even then I'd be freaked out beyond belief, but I'd do anything to protect my boys. That's the only circumstance that I'd even come close enough to a snake to even be able to kill it.

I even get very nervous at the reptile house at the zoo and won't go near the glass.

Gerri

Gerri don't feel too bad, I was introduced to snakes in my teens so I sort of had an early intro to them. I was accustomed to the "tame" snakes but still pretty intimidated by "yard" snakes myself. Several years ago I had my husband kill a snake that I thought was a copperhead. It occurred to me AFTER the snake was dead that I could look it up online and see what it was. Unfortunately it was a harmless baby northern brown snake which now that I know more looks nothing like a copperhead. I still feel pretty bad about that. Since then I have taken an interest in learning all I can about the snakes that live in our area. I still squeal like a little girl and run (and some pretty colorful words spew forth) when they sneak up on me but I have found that knowing more about them has put me more at ease with their presence. One time I was sitting in a chair bent over yanking some weeds with a hand cultivator and accidentally flung one at myself. I fell backward in the chair trying to get away and ended up dragging myself backward across the lawn until I could get up on my feet. After the initial shock of seeing one however, I am quite comfortable being a foot or two away and examining them a little. This one made a quick escape though. By the time I found my marbles he was long gone. Maybe it was the screaming or maybe the flailing and thrashing around that scared him...

Welcome to North Carolina!

If you keep a neat yard, I don't think you'll run into problems with the snakes. We have a (welcome) black snake or two.

Of more concern to gardening are the "cute" critters that love to munch plants...rabbits, deer, chipmunks, squirrels, etc.

I've done a lot of experimenting with deer resistance and blog about it. Hopefully, you'll find some helpful information.

Cameron (in Chapel Hill)

Here is a link that might be useful: gardening blog

Welcome creativegarden - you don't say if you are planning on moving to the Outer Banks or just the sound side of the coast. There is a difference. The zone chart shows basically a zone warmer on the Outer Banks (it's usually ten degrees cooler in the summer and ten degrees warmer in the winter!) in relation to the center of the state. Though inland you can grow just about anything, the salty air and constant wind limit what you can grow out on the islands. If you're thinking inland a bit from the coast you simply have to grow camelias, azaleas and gardenias (it should be a law), there are hardy palm trees that like the area and some hardy citrus (you won't get a crop every year).

The soil is sandy so you have to ammend it all the time. The coast gets more rain then I do in Raleigh, but they are suffering in this drought too.

Gardening is gardening no matter where you are - you can grow all year if you want down here (few people do). Expect mosquitos and biting flies just like in Minnesota (same number, just smaller) except the season is longer. You might see snakes near the water - but they are pretty rare. You will probably see alligators but not in your yard (they like golf courses along the coast!). If you're lucky you might see Red Wolves (or hear them), similar call as the Grey Wolf but they are smaller and look more like a Coyote. Depending on the area, you might see the same amount of Black Bears as you have up north. In one afternoon of hiking near Lake Bemidji MN I saw 5 black bears. On one morning hike in the Alligator River State Park near Manteo NC I saw 6 - though most people here have never seen a bear in the wild.

Welcome,
I live in a fairly wooded area, with a large 3 acre lot in Johnston County. We do have copperheads in my area, however, I can say that I've never seen one in my three years of gardening here. We do have Black Widows, the day we moved in my husband had to knock a web off our front window and that thing fought back, and of course the Brown Recluse as well.

I second Cameron, in that the biggest problem in my garden, are the cute critters, Bambi and Thumper!!! However, without a doubt the biggest challenges are the red clay, but like John and others said, you'd have sand at the coast, and the drought. My original plan was to plant things I love, and now I'm only planting items that thrive in this heat and drought. Live and learn I guess.

And while I can say that I love the fact that you can garden practically all year here, the heat does take it's toll on me. I can barely summon up the energy to water my plants come August, as my garden can well attest!!!

I jinxed myself by talking about snakes here. Yesterday I moved a pot and stepped where it had been and didn't see the snake curled up there until my foot was going down on it.

Have you ever seen a cat that gets startled and jumps up and back at the same time? The neighbors who saw me said that's what I looked like.

Not as bad at the last time when I injured myself running away from one. I fell up my front steps and thought I broke my foot, but actually just hit my cheek on a plastic container and scraped up my knee. It was still pretty humiliating because my son, who was then 3, started telling people that when you see a snake you run and go lay on the porch.. because that's what I did.

Thanks SO much, everyone!

I had never thought about the venomous spiders. :/ A friend of mine from Florida had talked about the Brown Recluse, but I didn't realize that they went that far north/east. :/

The area that I'll likely be settling in at would be Wilmington or maybe something a little farther south like Southport, Shallot, or Supply. With all of the giant oaks down there, so I thought that there might be some spots that would work ok for gardening. (I know I'm going to miss the black rich dirt from up here already, though.)

I just discovered camellias, fell in love with them immediately! I definitely agree with your other suggestions, Trianglejohn.

Sorry about the snake, Gnomey! It looks like I'll just have to have my eyes peeled..and make plenty of noise.

Thanks again..

Yep, bang on the ground a lot...the little critter that I stepped on was really undaunted by my banging though, but he was completely harmless and there to eat my slugs. I don't like slugs either, but they don't freak me out like snakes do.

You can still have rich black soil down here... you just have to work at it. :) Some areas of my yard are rich and black about two feet down now. I started my soil building routine several years ago and have added thick layers of mulch and compost each year. One area I did this with for several years before I started planting there and was happily surprised this year to find that the soil was really good (dark and soft) down to about 18 inches and required just some fresh compost while I was planting. It has been the best part of the garden this year.

If you start out with really rock hard clay, I'm not even going to lie - your back will hurt. The tradeoff is that over the years you improve your soil and it gets better and you have a longer growing season to play in the dirt, along with a wider variety of hardy plants.

Hope you'll like Carolina gardening. There are challenges, but I really believe there's not much that can't be overcome. (Delphiniums, lupines and lilacs are some of those challenges that I'm still working on...these are tough.)

Gerri