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1 week ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
A number of years ago, a listener sent a note to Charlie, letting him know she was having some success growing peanuts in Vermont. The listener even sent along some seeds so he could plant the crop in his backyard garden. After some experimentation — and failures, thanks to hungry mice — Charlie came up with a system that does, indeed, work for growing peanuts in our region.
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2 weeks ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
Sometimes pests can pester your pepper plant. Or perhaps your hibiscus or hydrangea seem lifeless. Or maybe your tomato seedling is scrawny. Should you keep it, compost it or cut it? In certain common gardening scenarios, it can be hard to know which direction to go. Charlie Nardozzi runs through a few gardening quandaries and provides the proper path to take for each. Keep it, compost it or cut it? Gardening scenario #1: Cutworms cut off my pepper stem, but the remaining stem is still green.
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3 weeks ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
Warmer temperatures this week, plus rain forecast for next week provides perfect conditions for your garden to really take off. And along with growing plants, flowers, trees and shrubs come questions. The All Things Gardening inbox is full of queries about a variety of garden-related topics, and Charlie Nardozzi answers a few of them:What's the best soil and compost for raised beds? Q: I will be planting flowers and vegetables in two, 12" x 48" raised beds.
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4 weeks ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
Perennial flowers like Siberian irises may already hold a special place in your gardens and landscape. But there's another flower in the iris family that you might consider adding for its color and movement, especially if you've got some soggy spots in your yard. It's the Japanese iris. The perennial Japanese iris, or Iris ensata, blooms later in the season, in June or early July, after the Siberian irises and other flowering perennials have come and gone.
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1 month ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
Spring's wetter and warmer weather encourages garden growth, of course, but those conditions also make weeds flourish. Now is the time to remove them, lest they grow, well, like weeds. The key to successful weed removal lies in knowing which kind of weeds you have, because removal techniques vary. So, refrain from just ripping out weeds and identify them before you begin.
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1 month ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
When you visit your favorite garden center this time of year, you'll see annual flowers that come in all different colors. If you plan to add flowering plants to window boxes and containers, consider adding in some of the annuals that grow with colorful foliage, too!Certain foliage annuals can be great additions to pots and window boxes, but they'll also serve as colorful ground-cover plants.
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1 month ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
For millennia, Indigenous peoples have practiced what Western science terms "phenology." That is the deep knowledge of cyclic phenomena occurring in nature that helps inform planting, harvesting and gathering. Essentially, when certain things occur in nature — like tree frogs, known as "peepers," announcing their presence with a high-pitched "peep" sound — that provides a clue to do something in a garden or farm setting.
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1 month ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
When it comes to choosing berry-bearing shrubs to plant in your yard, first ponder if feeding birds is part of your plan. If it is, then the choice is clear: native berry bushes are the way to go. The benefits of planting native shrubs — especially for birds — comes down to the berries' higher nutritional value. The sorts of feathered visitors that come to your yard are either migrating or overwintering birds.
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2 months ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi |Mary Engisch
If you forage and eat wild greens like wintercress in early spring, you’re already a fan of their flavor and texture. Now, seed companies offer certain cultivated wild greens that can be planted in your backyard gardens and raised beds. You’ll have a ready-to-pick selection of delicious wild microgreens that also look beautiful and have a milder flavor than their wilder cousins. The shining star of wild greens might be the leaves of the common and cheery yellow-flowered dandelion.
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2 months ago | 
vermontpublic.org | Charlie Nardozzi
Pruning hydrangeas is a spring gardening chore you can do now, as weather permits, so long as you know which type of hydrangea you have growing in your yard. And the key to knowing when and how to prune also depends on when your hydrangea blooms. Late spring and early summer bloomers have branches that overwinter. Those bloom on the previous year's growth, or "old wood." This goes for hydrangea types like blue or pink hydrangea, mophead, lacecap, oakleaf or climbing hydrangea.
