| | Charlie's Late April Newsletter  It seems Mother Nature likes to toy with us in our zone 5 Vermont garden. One day it's 70F and sunny and I'm ready to plant tons of vegetables and annual flowers. The next it's snowing and 25F and I'm glad I resisted the temptation to plant. But spring is moving along quickly in most parts of the country. It's just that we've had a few speed bumps along the way this spring.
One topic that I've been speaking and writing a lot more about is gardening in tune with Nature. One of the ways to do that is to select plants that help pollinating insects such as bees, hummingbirds, and flies. A good criteria to use for pollinator friendly plants is growing heirloom or open pollinated flowers. These tend to be insect favorites because they haven't been bred to be pollen-less or not set seeds. I highlight some of my favorite heirloom flowers in this article I wrote for the National Gardening Association.
 Beets have really become a more popular vegetable to eat and grow. I think it's because of all the colorful varieties that are now available. The traditional red beets are now joined by yellow, orange and white colored varieties. It makes for a colorful beet salad and fun to grow. I talk about colorful beets, that should be planted now, and how to grow them here.
I was in a local garden center recently and they just got a shipment of tuberous begonia baskets. They were stunning. Tuberous begonias are different from the waxed begonias commonly used as annual flower bedding plants. Tuberous begonias grow best in containers and elevated off the ground. I talk about growing them in this newsletter.
I've been talking to many groups this spring about my new book, The Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening. Thanks to everyone who has purchased the book. This Thursday, April 29th at 7pm Eastern time, I'll be offering tips and techniques for using no-dig gardening methods in school gardens and with kids. I'll be joined by Sarah Pounders of kidsgardening.org who will be hosting the talk. Join us if you're interested in how no-dig gardening might make gardening with kids easier and more educational. Read more about my talk in this newsletter. Happy Gardening. Until next time, I'll be seeing you in the garden. Charlie
Where to Find Charlie:(podcasts, TV and in-person)
 In the last issue I talked about ways to grow a pollinator garden. Here I want to focus on heirloom flowers. Like heirloom vegetables, heirloom flowers are varieties that have been grown for decades. They're open pollinated, so you can save the seeds and grow them year after year in your garden. For the bees, flies, butterflies and hummingbirds, heirloom flowers are a tremendous food source and critical to their survival. Many hybrid flowers have been bred to not resemble the original species so they are hard for pollinators to find. Also, some have been bred to not produce viable pollen or seeds, reducing their importance as a food source. Heirloom flowers are a good food source and have lots of diversity of plant sizes and flower colors. Here are some of my favorites.
 Flowering tobacco or Nicotiana is a beautiful annual flower. Modern hybrids have created colorful versions of this flower that bloom in pink and purple. They are more compact growing and easy to grow in the landscape. The heirloom version, though, is taller, more striking and a benefit to pollinators and birds. Nicotiana sylvestris is an old fashioned variety that grow 3- to 5-feet tall producing large, white flowers with an intense fragrance. It's perfect for the back of a flower border as a show piece.
Verbena is a popular creeping annual flower that grows well in hot, dry conditions. Hybrid versions feature flower colors that range from yellow to red. They also make nice container plants. An heirloom version that we grow and love is Verbena bonariensis. This purple flower colored variety grows 3- to 4-feet tall, flowers in late summer and is a magnet for bees, flies and butterflies.
Sweet peas are favorite spring flowering annuals that love cool weather. Modern varieties can be shorter and more colorful, but the heirloom varieties are the ones to grow for height and fragrance. Varieties such as 'Cupani', 'Old Spice' and 'Miss WiIlmott' feature pastel colored blooms with intense fragrance. They're perfect as cut flowers indoors. Plus, the flowers are attractive to pollinators.
 Cleome or spider flower is a popular annual bedding plant with many colorful selections that stay short and bloom well all season. However, many don't have viable pollen or seed. 'Color Fountains' and the 'Queen Series' feature plants that can grow up to 40 inches tall with colorful cherry, white or purple colored flowers. These are a great alternative to hybrids for the pollinators.
Finally, amaranth is a great heirloom flower that doubles as an edible leaf plant and produces edible seeds. It's often used in breakfast cereals. Heirloom varieties, such as Love Lies Bleeding, features bright red flowers with a weeping growth habit that can stand 5 feet tall.
Whichever plants you're growing remember to place them in the correct sun exposure for that plant on fertile, well-drained soil for the best performance. You don't have to forego all your hybrid varieties. Just make sure you plant some of the heirlooms to help our pollinators and feathered friends.  Beets are making a comeback. Considered a staple food years ago because of their ease in growing and storability in winter, they fell out of favor for many years in home gardens. But they're back! With new varieties that are more tender and sweet tasting and a rediscovery of older heirlooms with different colored skins and flesh, beets are popular again.
 Certainly red beets remain popular. 'Detroit Dark Red' and 'Early Wonder' remain regular varieties in many gardens. If you like beets on the small, "baby" size, try 'Robin'. It's best harvested when the roots are less then 2 inches in diameter and are perfect for roasting. 'Chioggia' is an Italian heirloom favorite. It features red and white striped flesh that looks great in salads and even when steamed. 'Touchstone' is another favorite for the bright, golden colored flesh with a sweeter flavor than red beets and less of an "Earthy" taste. Golden beets also don't "run" their colors when cooked like red beets. 'Avalanche' is a unique white colored beet. It has an even milder flavor compared with other colored beets.
 Beets like it cool. They also tolerate part shade so they're a good crop for sun challenged gardens and containers. Plant the seeds (which are actually dried fruit containing more than 1 seed), in spring before the last frost date for your area. Build raised beds and plant in compost-amended soil. Beets need good water drainage. Even if you space the seeds properly, you'll still get 2 to 3 seedlings per seed. That's natural. Simply thin them to 1 seedling. Keep well weeded and watered. Beet roots grow partially on the soil surface, so don't feel like you need to cover them with soil. Harvest on the small size for tender young beets, or wait for the full size for a bigger harvest. Remember beet greens are delicious and should be used in salads and sautees as well. Eat beets shredded raw in salads, steamed, roasted or even sliced and grilled. The sweetness really comes out after cooking.  Tuberous Begonias  Many gardeners are very familiar with wax leaved begonias. These are the white, pink or burgundy colored flowered begonias found in garden centers in spring. Some even have maroon colored leaves. They grow well in shade gardens with impatiens, torenia and other shade lovers. Some gardeners are even familiar with Angle's Wings and Rex begonias as indoor and outdoor plants. But tuberous begonias always seem too fancy to grow for some home gardeners.
Tuberous begonias grow from bulbs or tubers into stunning plants with single or double flowers in a wide range of flower colors. From white to the deepest reds and yellows, tuberous begonias in full bloom are quite a show. Brilliant red colored varieties, such as 'Double Scarlet', feature double blooms with a show stopping color. 'Sunny Dream' is a cascading, yellow flowered variety with a strong fragrance. If you can't choose the right color try the 'Cascading Mix' with a blend of white, yellow, orange and red blossoms.
 Tuberous begonias grow best in a container. For more upright varieties try growing them in pots on the ground, window boxes or railing planters all at or below eye level. For the cascading tuberous begonias, grow these on hanging baskets, window boxes of railing planters where they can be appreciated for their cascading blossoms.
Plant tuberous begonia tuber in spring after all danger of frost has passed. They like a cool location shaded from the hot afternoon sun. Tuberous begonia stems are brittle and easily break so handle the plants carefully. Also, tuberous begonia leaves and flowers are easily damaged from wind and rain. That's why it's usually best to grow these delicate plants on a porch or under an eave protected from the elements. Some of the best tuberous begonia baskets I've ever seen were growing in a hoop house.
 Once flowering, tuberous begonias will bloom all summer. Plant them singly in a container or mix and match them with other cascading, part shade loving, flowers such as alyssum and lobelia. Deadhead spent blooms and dead leaves to prevent fungal diseases from starting in the container. Keep moist, but not too wet.
Although they do need care, tuberous begonias can reward you with an amazing container filled with colorful flowers all summer long. In fall, remove the plants, cut back the foliage and store the tubers as you would dahlias and canna lilies.  Many of you have purchased my book, watched my webinar, or at least heard about my new book, The Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening'. It's been selling well and it's even been translated into Dutch! Much of the book is about how to set up a No-Dig Garden Bed using various techniques, planting the bed with different planting schemes, and maintaining the no-dig bed. I also talk about variations on no-dig gardening such as hugelkultur, keyhole gardening and straw bale gardening.
The focus of the book is for adults gardening in their yards or community spaces. But what about no-dig gardening with kids? That's a good question, so I'm teaming up with kidsgardening.org to offer a webinar on Thursday, April 29th at 7 pm Eastern time all about adapting your no-dig gardening  techniques to kids gardening in schools and at home.
It should be a lively discussion with kids gardening,org's head educator, Sarah Pounders. She's well-versed in gardening with kids in schools and at home. And Sarah gardens with her own children at their home, too. We'll talk about ways to adapt the no-dig techniques to kids and the best ways to build and grow plants in no-dig beds.
The 40-minute presentation will leave plenty of time for your questions about gardening with kids in a no-dig garden. There will be slides to illustrate some of our points as well.
So, join us this Thursday at 7pm Eastern time for a fun discussion of the benefits and techniques of no-dig gardening and how it can help kids learn about science and Nature, too. | | | | |
|
0 comments:
Post a Comment