Connecticut Garden Journal

This Thanksgiving season is a good time to mend fences. I'm not talking just about relations with family and friends, but literally, fixing your garden fences. The weather is cool, the ground hasn't frozen yet and it's a good time to assess not only fences, but other garden tools and features to see if they need fixing, removing or replacing. Let's start with the fence. We have a 7-foot-tall wire...

When I was a boy growing up in Waterbury, each November my mom would send me “into the woods” of my grandfather's farm to gather branches of mountain laurel. Mom had a brick planter box as part of our front porch and she liked to decorate it for the holidays. Mountain laurel was perfect because this broadleaf evergreen shrub grows in abundance in Connecticut and lasts into winter. It got me thinki...

Fall is a great time to harvest root crops. But if you have lots of carrots, beets, parsnips, potatoes and other roots, consider storing them indoors so you can enjoy them into winter. The first step is to know the storage needs of your roots. Root crops generally like a cold, damp place in winter. Ideally it would be a room that stays between freezing and 40 degrees and has moderate humidity. Roo...

With all the warm, fall weather we've been having, getting out in the garden is a pleasure. One of the fall tasks we can do is a soil test. A soil test is an inexpensive way to get a snapshot of soil nutrients in your garden, the pH and organic matter content. While you can purchase simple home test kits, I like to use the pros to sample my soil. The University of Connecticut Soil Lab in Storrs wi...

So, you bought more pumpkins and winter squash for carving and decorating than you have willing hands to help. Now you're wondering what to do with those extra pumpkins and gourds Why not make planters out of them? This is a simple way to add to your Halloween decorations and have a planter for the holidays! You can make planters out of large or small pumpkins and gourds. Simply cut off the top, h...

With the leaves dropping and the weather still warm, it's a perfect time to start fall garden cleanup. This time honored process has undergone some recommended changes over the last few years. Let me explain. First, if the flowers are still blooming and veggies and herbs producing, leave them. Enjoy every last moment of this year's garden before frost takes it all away. In annual flower and vegeta...

Now is the time to plant tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinths and all types of bulbs for a spring flower display. While many gardeners like planting similar bulbs together in groups, if you only have a small yard or area for planting, there's another technique you can use. Layering is planting different bulbs together in a large hole. If done properly, you can have many types of bulbs blooming in...

I recently visited a garden center in Massachusetts and was amazed at the variety of pumpkins. No longer are there just large, medium or small pumpkins. Now there are pumpkins with different skin colors, shapes and interesting abnormalities. Let's look at some options. Pumpkins for carving haven't changed much over the years with orange, yellow and white skinned versions. But for Halloween display...

Fall is upon us and before we get ready to give up on the herb garden, consider overwintering some herb plants. Now is the time to start moving some of those herbs indoors. Not only will you save the plants, but also you'll have some fresh herbs in winter. Some herbs are better adapted to the move than others. I find chives, mint, parsley, oregano, thyme and rosemary all can be moved indoors succe...

Fall is a great time of year to build better soil in your garden. Soil is the soul of your garden. It's loaded with billions of microbes that help your plants take up water and nutrients and keep them healthy. By amending the soil with local, organic materials, you'll be feeding the microbes for a healthier garden. But not all microbes are alike. In annual garden soils, bacteria dominates and it l...

September is a great time of year to plant perennial flowers. Most gardeners shy away from fall planting because they worry the plants won't survive winter. But if you plant in September, your perennials will have plenty of time to put down their roots before the cold. Another advantage to fall planting is nurseries and garden centers are offering sales to move their stock. You can even find publi...

People often wonder why we grow potatoes. After all, they're plentiful year round in grocery stores. But there's something very elemental about potatoes. They grow easily from little seedling potatoes that yield an abundance of new potatoes. They are a treat to harvest, especially with kids. And I think they taste better. One question I often get is when do I harvest my potatoes. You can start har...

My mom always loved flowers but in her later years she really couldn't garden much anymore. So, when she was still living at home, my brother planted a Rose of Sharon shrub in the front lawn just outside her kitchen window. Mom spent a lot of time in the kitchen and even though it wasn't the best spot for the Rose of Sharon, she loved seeing the late summer blooms. Rose of Sharon is in the hibiscu...

As students are getting ready to head back to school, it has me thinking of gardening with kids. Many schools have integrated gardens into their classroom curriculums with great success. Research has shown that kids who garden at school learn to appreciate nature more, eat more fresh vegetables at school and at home, score higher in science achievement tests, learn to work better with other kids a...

Whether it's a cantaloupe, honeydew or watermelon, there's something about the sun warmed, sweet, juicy taste of a melon. All of these melons grow well in our Connecticut gardens, but we do need to know when to harvest. Some melons are easy to spot when ripe and others take practice. Probably the easiest melon to grow and know when it's ripe are musk melons or cantaloupes. Watch the netting on the...

It's August and in many perennial flower gardens, the color show has waned. Maybe the rudbeckias and echinaceas are still going strong, but many flower gardens can benefit from a pop of color from some late summer and fall bloomers. While the traditional asters and sedums will provide some color, if you're looking for a big splash, nothing beats the hardy hibiscus. Unlike the tropical hibiscus, th...

It's berry season. Whether you're growing your own or harvesting berries at a pick your own farm, knowing when to harvest the berries is key to getting the tastiest, sweetest fruits. So, let's talk about harvesting some popular and unusual berries. First of all, become familiar with the type of berry and variety. Some berries mature to different colors making it important to know what to look for...

As the nights become cooler in late July and August, powdery mildew disease starts making its appearance on many vegetables flowers, trees and shrubs. This fungal disease thrives when humidity goes up and temperatures cool in late summer. There are a number of different fungi that cause the disease. It can attack plants such as lilacs, crabapples, bee balm, phlox, tomatoes, squash, zinnias, and ma...

Each year the Perennial Plant Association chooses a perennial plant of the year to highlight and encourage gardeners to grow. This year they chose a beauty. Little bluestem grass is a hardy, clumping grass native to the prairies that has visual interest from summer through winter. Unlike other ornamental grasses where the show really starts in fall, little bluestem has attractive blue gray, spiky...

There's nothing like the taste of home grown cantaloupes and other melons from your garden. The warm summer weather is perfect for melon growing, but now also is a time when problems can arise. So, let's do a little melon troubleshooting. Melons like heat, well-drained soil, water and fertility. Ideally, grow on raised beds amended with compost. Once they start vining, add a small handful of an or...

Gardeners are very interested in creating pollinator gardens to support all the insects and creatures that help pollinate our food plants and flowers. But the first order of business is to know who's a pollinator. The poster child for pollinators is the honey bee. This European, native insect lives in groups in hives and is used commercially to pollinate a variety of plants from almonds to apples....

Potatoes and eggplants are fun vegetables to grow in Connecticut gardens, but as they start putting on growth you may notice someone else is interested in your plants. Adult potato beetles are large black and tan striped beetles that are active now, laying yellowish-orange eggs on the undersides of leaves. Potatoes and eggplants are their favorite plants to attack, but you'll see the beetles on ot...

When the peonies and Siberian irises are blooming you may notice another perennial flower making a statement. Baptisia, or false indigo, is a hardy native perennial that features colorful, pea-like flowers on a large, flowing plant. The traditional species of Baptisia australis features a blue colored flower. But there are newer varieties and other species that have purple, yellow, red and pink co...

There's nothing like fresh sweet corn for a summer dinner. Sweet corn is a great home garden vegetable to grow, if you have room. But even if you don't, varieties such as 'On Deck', can fit in containers. With new and unusual varieties available, it may be time to grow a sweet corn patch this summer. We're all familiar with white, bi-color and yellow sweet corns and with the newer supersweet varie...

On one of my Garden Tours to England, I became entranced by their cottage gardens. Cottage gardens are known for their abundance of flowers, shrubs, trees, vines and edibles all grown together in what I call “organized chaos”. But there's a plan to this chaos. Here's a few design ideas when planting a traditional English cottage garden. First, start with the structure of the garden. Co...