Newsletter

  Scotland Garden Tour, Hardy Geraniums, Storage Tomatoes and Pruning Blueberries   As the calendar turns to April, the activity ramps up in our zone 5 garden. A late snowstorm last week didn't deter me from starting more seeds indoors and getting plants ready for spring. In this newsletter I'll be talking about hardy geraniums (one of my favorite, low maintenance perennials), some cool varieties of tomatoes that last months after harvest fresh and pruning blueberries. Before we jump into all the gardening how-tos, I want to let...

  Raised Beds and Succession Planting, Reblooming Iris, Spring Weeding, and Witchhazel   It's April and I hope I don't get fooled by it. The weather has shifted with temperatures predicted to stay in the 50Fs during the day and 30Fs at night. I won't get seduced, though, because I know things can chnage quickly in our zone 5 garden, with even snow still a possibility. For now, we're enjoying the early spring bulbs blooming along with hellebores and witchhazel. Regardless of the weather, now is a good time to start building raised...

  Lovely Lavender, Unusual Beans, Classic Clethra and Squash Bugs   It always surprises me how quickly things can shift in our garden. Our blueberries suddenly are almost finished, the echinacea are showing signs of moving on and the hardy hibiscus that were small plants seemingly days ago are ready to start flowering. Summer moves fast in our zone 5, Vermont garden so I appreciate watching every stage as it happens. One multifaceted plant that's in its glory is lavender. We grow the English and hybrid lavender varieties such as...

Trees with Interesting Bark, Hardy Catmint, Get Started with Leeks and African Violets The calendar has turned to February. No matter the groundhog sees with his shadow, we still know in our zone 5 garden that we have months of winter to come. But that doesn't mean we can't be doing gardening activities now. One thing about winter is it lets some plants show off more than they would when the foliage is out. I'm thinking of the bark of some of our trees. Growing trees for their bark color and texture is good to remember, because in cold...

    My Book is Out and a New Webinar Too!, Hellebores, Microgreens and Large Houseplant Care   Well Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and went back to sleep for 6 more weeks. I'd like to do the same with this continuing cold weather. Maybe in six weeks it will get above freezing in our zone 5 garden? But there is some good news. My new book, The Continuous Vegetable Garden is officially out! I've been doing lots of radio and podcast interviews and people seem genuinely excited about the book. The goal, as the subtitle says,...

Bee Friendly Lawns, Perennial Vegetables, Soil Protection and Norfolk Island Pine Houseplant Happy New Year! I hope you all had a good holiday break and New Year's celebration. Even though the temperatures haven't gone above freezing in a week in our Vermont garden, it's still time to do some garden planning for 2026. It's never too early to buy seeds and make plans for new gardens this spring. With that in mind, let's talk about a garden that most of us ignore; the lawn. Most lawns are ecological deserts with a few species of grasses and...

  Black Raspberries, Vivacious Veronica, Japanese Iris and Wild Parsnips   It's July. Happy Independence Day! We've had a wet and warm June, so our gardens continue to look colorful and lush. The warm season flowers and veggies are loving the latest heat wave especially since there is ample water in the soil. We've moved on from our honey berries and June bearing strawberries. The next fruit up is the black raspberries. This lesser known bramble is a great one in the garden. It doesn't spread like its cousins the red raspberry...

    Early Summer Flower Garden, Gardens of Sardinia, Curious Cucumbers and Jumping Worms   I've just returned from leading a Garden Tour of Sardinia, Italy. It was a fabulous trip exploring this large island off the Italian coast. Sardinia certainly has lots of Mediterranean influenced gardens but surprisingly in the interior where it's wetter and cooler, there are some familiar temperate climate trees and shrubs growing as well. We spent time with a Sardinian landscape architect exploring dry land gardens and his own...