Gardenig in state New Jersey. Tips & Guides

IF YOU THINK nothing’s on the to-do list in winter, fellow gardeners—that we’re all meant to be dormant, like the cannas in the cellar and the herbaceous perennials outside and the flower beds—well, think again.

Perennials are the heart of so many gardens, coming back year after year to fill our spaces with beautiful flowers and foliage. But because they don’t usually bloom as long as annuals, and change through the seasons, they can sometimes be difficult to use effectively in a garden design—but not for the gardens we visit today in our look back at some of favorite perennial gardens featured on the GPOD.

We get to see tons of beautiful plants on the GPOD, but almost nothing gets people quite as excited as beautiful displays of roses. So today we’re celebrating some of the most beautiful rose-centric posts we’ve had on the GPOD.

How to Create Colorful Flower Borders Learn how Heather Thomas of Cape Cottage Garden keeps her flower borders colorful from spring through fall! Tour Heather Thomas’ colorful flower borders in New Jersey

I prefer to top-dress my flower beds while my perennials are napping safely underground, but I often find myself doing this while the plants are up. That chore is made much easier with a 58-ounce cast-aluminum scoop. It’s small enough to maneuver among plants but holds enough compost, mulch, or—as shown here—composted wood chips to cover real estate quickly. Lastly, it leaves a hand free to hold plants aside while I’m applying the product.

I am very prone to love at first sight. In fact, it happened just last week. I saw a tall southerner “across a crowded room”, as the song says. My heart stood still (as another song says). I was enraptured.

The Blueberry is a native American fruit harvested from wild plants since the country was settled. About 1910 the late Dr. F. V. Coville of the United States Department of Agriculture began the domestication of the High-bush Blueberry. A breeding program based on selected wild types has produced through the years a number of varieties vastly superior to their wild ancestors. Considerable research on cultural problems has developed a body of knowledge on which a highly profitable and extensive commercial industry is growing rapidly.

The record existed until 1976 when Bob Ford of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, USA exhibited a 451 pound specimen at the U.S. Pumpkin Contest in Churchville, PA. Yearly International Competition was revived again in 1979 when Canadian Howard Dill of Windsor, Nova Scotia won his first of four consecutive international pumpkinship titles at the Cornell Contest in Pennsylvania. Mr. Dill’s first world record of 459 pounds came in 1980 which he supassed in 1981 by harvesting a 493.5 pound pumpkin.

Today’s photos are from Phyllis Strohmeyer in northwestern New Jersey (Zone 6A).

While searching through our archive of episodes we discovered something: There are a few specific plants we just can’t stop talking about. As the years have progressed here at Let’s Argue About Plants, we find ourselves experimenting with more and more varieties, so we have something new to report back to you on. But frankly, there are a core of plants that we could talk about every episode because they are just that good. We try to mix it up, but these stars have made it into more than a couple recordings—and rightly so. With that, we decided not to fight nature and give these stars their spotlight. In today’s compilation episode you’ll hear about Carol and Danielle’s top four plants…again…but for good reason. They are selections that no garden should be without, in our humble opinions.

My name is John Markowski, and I garden in Zone 6B in central New Jersey. My property is inundated with deer, and the soil drains poorly, so I’ve built my garden around ornamental grasses and native perennials. The grasses are shining right now in combination with the slowly declining perennials.

EVERY GARDENER has their obsessions—or maybe a nicer way to say that might be to call it their “signature plants,” the ones that help define their garden. I confess to a serious issue with gold-leaved things. And last time I checked my friend Ken Druse had more than a few plants with variegated leaves of all kinds of daring patterns and hues that catch your eye in his New Jersey garden.

Header image: TheOldBarnDoor/Shutterstock.com

Everyone loves falafel—it’s a year-round staple, and the frozen options at Trader Joe’s make it incredibly easy to prepare. But today, you should probably rid your freezer shelves of any Trader Joe’s falafel: In the company’s third food recall this week, on July 28 Trader Joe’s recalled its fan-favorite Fully Cooked Falafel after being informed by the supplier that rocks were found in the food.

Did you know this week is National Moth Week? July 17 – 25, 2021, marks the tenth anniversary of National moth week. This program started in New Jersey but now has a global reach. The goal this year is to encourage young people, in particular, to observe and document moths. To that end, they have many resources and tips on their webpage at https://nationalmothweek.org/. In 2019, the South Carolina Botanical Garden participated in this worldwide event by hosting a Magical Moth night in partnership with the Clemson Entomology Club. It was so much fun that we hope to do it again next year.

This year, the newest shrub addition to my garden is a Burgundy Spice sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus var purpureus ‘Burgundy Spice’). When I spotted it across the nursery, it was as if a big neon arrow was pointing at it with a sign saying “Buy Me.”

The spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) (SLF) is the latest non-native species to take hold in the U.S. This planthopper is large (about a half-inch long) and originally from several countries in the Far East. It was first found in Pennsylvania in 2014, and active infestations are now established in Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and as of just last week, North Carolina. SLF has not been detected in South Carolina, but it is an insect for which we need to be on the lookout.

I must be selective in the kinds of shrubs and trees I add to my landscape. Very simply: I don’t have the room. Like the village matchmaker, Yente, in Fiddler on the Roof, I match the plant with my landscape, paying particular attention to sun exposure, drainage, and room to grow. I also consider its maintenance requirements, particularly water, fertilizer, pruning, and pests. As a tough-love gardener, I have no tolerance for needy, wimpy plants.

I’ll be roaming the Northeast in the early going, in places as close to home as the Berkshires of Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley of New York, but also across Massachusetts and as far as New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey and coastal Connecticut. Events here in the garden will begin again in April; stay tuned for a fuller schedule of those, with just the first couple mentioned below.What’s planned already:Saturday, February 19, 2 PM: Lecture to benefit Berkshire Botanical Garden, Monument Mountain Regional High School, Great Barrington, MA.Thursday, March 3, 7 PM: R.J. Ju

The Deer’s Delicate Palate: We all wonder (often in loud expletives when something has been chewed) what it is that deer won’t eat. I loved this online tool created at Rutgers University Extension (based on observations in northern New Jersey) that rates things from “Rarely Damaged” to “Frequently Severely Damaged” (above) in a five-point scale that seems more sensible to me that saying anything’s “deerproof.” We could all benefit from this kind of thinking, a sort of risk-assessment philosophy of planting in the presence of these beasts. (You know me; I don’t. I gave up and got a deer fence.)Compost-Bin Envy: I have never met Ryan Boren, one of the lead developers (read: software engineer) for WordPress, the platform I so love and that this site is built on. Who knew that Boren is also adept with wood-working tools and built himself a composter-to-covet at the Texas home he shares with his growing family and some mighty cute goats. The “after” shot of his three-stage compost bin is here; the detail shots here.An Old Friend, Overplanted:

Michael Wojtech of Know Your Trees dot com and author of “Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast” (Amazon affiliate link) can answer those questions, plus this one: Can you actually learn to identify trees by their bark (an especially useful skill now through spring, when many are leafless)? Hint: The answer is yes.Michael left a 15-year business career to pursue his love of natural history and writing, and earned his Master’s in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England. His thesis, on tree bark, became the basis for the field guide. Though the book’s plant ID section covers trees of the Northeast, much of the ma

IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE, since it’s true so many other places still: In the asparagus rows, males are in charge. ‘Martha Washington’ and ‘Mary Washington’ were names you used to see most often in catalogs, but no more. Their weakness: The Washington strains include both male and female plants, and the males are far more productive if what you want is lots of spears. Who doesn’t?

COARSE AND SLIGHTLY UNKEMPT AS IT MAY BE, Viburnum sieboldii was one of my first viburnums and is still beloved here.  And as if it knows it has some rough edges to make up for, it gives me little extras, in addition to being easy to grow. There is fruit the birds enjoy that evolves through several colors as it ripens over a long period, and foliage that smells like a somewhat funky pineapple to me whenrubbed or crushed (one not-quite-aroma-therapeutic way to tell if V.

More of a good thing, I guess you could say, and also deer-resistant.The Japanese plum yew has linear, dark green flat needles that resemble its namesake’s: the yew, or Taxus. Those are its needles and also its male reproductive structures, below; ‘Prostrata’ is all-male, and therefore makes no female seed-producing structures.While Taxus is deer candy, though, Cephalotaxus is rated as not to their liking by experts from geographic areas as diver

Like a carefully crafted sentence, the garden needs proper punctuation to read well, and clearly convey what’s going on. On the November 28, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast, Ken and I discussed design challenges that these tall and narrow things answer; the technical difference between the columnar and fastigiate plants; and some of his favorites.Read along as you listen to the Nov. 28, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).columnar tree and shrub q&a with ken druseQ. You got me thinking on our phone call the other morning—we were talking about earthworms and all these other crazy things…A. [Laughter.]Q. …and then you started talking abo

Selecting a short-season variety, giving the seeds an indoor headstart of four or five weeks, then transplanting to a raised bed that was warmed up first with a mulch of black plastic puts melons on a path to success. Covering transplants with Reemay for the first four to six weeks outdoors is Stearns’s other key headstart tactic (details below, and in the podcast).“It’s like they’re in their own little New Jersey,” the Vermonter says of his plants that are positively bursting to escape from the insulating fabric by the time he uncovers them a week or so after flowering begins.Instead of a spindly little vine or two perhaps 1 to 2 feet long, Stearns says, melons given this extra protection may have as many as 10 vines 3 or 4 feet in length by the time they’re out from under cover to allow insect pollinators to do the melon-making.  Sound good?more

The new edition comes two-dozen years after the first, and includes 11 species not previously included.“The book itself really is a framework,” says Dunne. “It’s the ante that gets you into the game.” Bird identification, he says, “is really just a matter of learning a new acquaintance’s name–once you get past that that’s where the real fun begins, and you can start to get to know the person.” Er, or bird.It’s not just physical field markings, says Dunne—memorizing who has how many wing bars or what tail size and shape—any more than getting to know any of us is about our mere eye color or hair length.Important insights come from noticing what birds do, and where they do it. When speaking of habitat, and what clues it can offer, Dunne uses the analogy of going to a concert hall versus a football stadium: you expect to hear music in one, and watch a game in anot

Kelly is a Pollinator Conservation Specialist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, an international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. In her dual role, she is also a partner biologist, based in New Jersey, with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.Kelly, who took her Masters in Entomology at Iowa State, provides technical support for planning, installing, and managing pollinator habitat across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. She also conducts research aimed at the development of best practices for conserving beneficial insects in agricultural landscapes.Our Q&A follows, from the latest edition of my weekly public-radio program (details on how t

“I’m off to pick the overflow crop of ground cherries that I planted, because of a letter that Ma Ingalls wrote to her daughter. Ground cherry preserves anyone?”Well, the Ma Ingalls in that reply is none other than the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the belove

If this sounds familiar, maybe you thought it was “your fault.” Chances are it was basil downy mildew, a devastating disease that in 2014 was reported to thwart backyard and commercial growers alike in at least 35 states plus the District of Columbia—up from 20 plus D.C. in 2013.For farmers, a once-easy, profitable cash crop is challenged; for gardeners, a beloved ingredient elusive. Is there a resistant variety, or a cultural trick to outsmarting the destructive pathogen?University researchers are collaborating in a

My annual Seed Series continues with this seed source that is all new to me, including many unusual varieties available nowhere else but Experimental Farm Network dot org, the nonprofit cooperative whose co-founder, Nate Kleinman, was my latest radio/podcast guest. We talked about the EFN mission and the fascinating assortment of goodies they offer, including a whole stash of perennial edibles in their 2020 online catalog.A core belief at EFN: that agriculture can and should be used to help build a better world, not help destroy it. Co-founders Nate Kleinman (in New Jersey) and Dusty Hinz (in Minnesota) grow most of EFN’s seeds. Each year they’re adding more growers to their roster, including inspiring plant breeders who often wor

Because you keep asking your questions in comments here on the website, in emails, on Facebook, and now at @awaytogarden, on Instagram, too, my friend and fellow garden writer Ken Druse keeps coming back to help me answer them.Read along as you listen to the May 20, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).the may urgent garden questions

Its author, Rick Wright, has long delved deep into the world of birds, and he has a rich academic background, too, in languages, philosophy, life sciences, and even medieval studies. Through it all he kept on birding and is a leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, and the author of state-specific American Birding Association guides, for Arizona and for his home state of New Jersey.We talked about learning to identify sparrows; about the sparrows that don’t look like sparrows at all–the juncos and towhees–about how particular birds are built for migration (or not), and more. And I’ve included a book giveaway: enter to win by commenting at the very bottom of the page.Read along as you listen to the April 8, 2019 ed

Her 2018 book from Princeton University is called “Butterfly Gardening, the North American Butterfly Association Guide,” and offers practical advice—both the overall principles and also plant-specific palettes, region by region. We talked about the role of native and non-native plants; about what the Number 1 plant gardeners around the country credited as being an effective attractant; about taking into account the borrowed landscape around you, and what an adult butterfly looks for in a flower, anyway.Read along as you listen to the July 9, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).butterfly-gardening q&a with jane hurwitzQ. Now, you garden in New Jersey, just for perspective so, people know but, this is a book

I didn’t even remember the botanical Latin name for the ubiquitous dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, below, until I became a regular on the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station “weed gallery” recently. The Rutgers weed tool is generally appropriate for my region, and  I can browse by common names or by thumbnail photos (or by Latin names if I ever know one). The University of Minnesota’s “Is This Plant a Weed?” tool is another place you’ll find me, narrowing the field of possibilities until I get an ID by clicking through a series of photo-based prompts (such as grass or broadleaf….upright or creeping…and so on). It almost makes weeds fun. (Note the almost.)Steve Brill, the so-called “Wildman” forager who teaches in Central Park in New York City and elsewhere, has p

Author Marta McDowell (below), a gardener and landscape designer in contemporary New Jersey, has a particular passion for digging into noted authors and their gardens and has written books on Beatrix Potter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and now a fully revised version of her popular one on Emily Dickinson.Read along as you listen to the October 21, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Enter to win a copy of the book “Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life: The Plants & Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet” (A