Gardenig in state Vermont. Tips & Guides

So second-best, I’ve been inviting some of them to the radio show and podcast this year to browse with us aloud, including Helen O’Donnell of Bunker Farm Plants in Dummerston, Vermont, who’s here to talk about special annuals and perennials we may want to seek out for our gardens.Helen owns Bunker Farm Plants, part of a family farm operation in Vermont that produces meat and maple syrup, besides Helen’s own selection of exceptional garden flowers that she raises mostly from seed–like Verbascum chaixaii and Agastache ‘Heather Queen,’ above, plus annual vines and more. She’s also a garden designer, so her choice of plants always includes their ability to perform.flower-garden favorite

But how good are all these new cultivars as garden plants? And maybe more important, how good are they at supporting pollinators? The native plant experts at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware have just released a report on the results of a multi-year trial of Echinacea, and their insights are our topic today.Today’s guest, Sam Hoadley, is manager of horticultural research at Mt. Cuba Center, a longtime native plant garden and research site, where he trialed 75 different Echinacea. Before joining Mt. Cuba, Sam was lead horticulturist for Longwood Garden’s h

His book, called “Spirit of Place,” profiles the making of his own garden in New England, but at the same time teaches us to take contextual cues from where we are gardening, along with other guiding principles of good garden design for any place—like how to create distinct outdoor spaces and also a sense of privacy, something that we all struggle with in gardens large or small.Bill Noble is the former Director of Preservation for the Garden Conservancy, and has worked with individual homeowners and public and private organizations to create, restore and preserve gardens for many years. In our

The native plant experts at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware have just released a report on the results of a five-year trial, that focused mostly on an important native species, Hydrangea arborescens, and what both gardeners and pollinators have to say about its range of cultivars.The last time Sam Hoadley visited the show, we compared the dizzying range of cultivars and species of Echinacea. Today’s topic is hydrangeas. Sam is the manager of horticultural research at Mt. Cuba Center, a longtime native plant garden and research site, where he trialed 29 species in cultivars. Before joining Mt. Cuba, he was lead horticulturist for Longwood Ga

Sam Hoadley is manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba, where he and the team trialed 70 differentCarex over a four-year period. Sam’s report on the findings will be published on the Mt. Cuba website January 13.Sam is also teaching a virtual class on February 1st on these important native plants. (That’s Carex haydenii, above.)Before joining Mt. Cuba, Sam was lead horticulturist for Longwood Gardens’ hillside garden, and he received his degree in Sustainable Landscape Horticulture from University of Vermont.Plus: Enter to win one of two tickets to the virtual event on Carex by commenting in the box at the bottom of the page.Read

Cumin, Cuminum cyminum, is probably my all time favorite culinary spice.Since I use it in just about everything that I cook, I am

I love citrus fruit, but living in the Vermont mountains, I don’t often have access to freshly grown lemons, limes, or oranges.Fortunately, while perhaps not quite

I’m Sheila Abair, and I garden in northern Vermont (Zone 4b/5a). I have sent in pictures before (Sheila’s Vermont Garden).

DR. JAMES NARDI says you can tell a lot about a tree by the company it keeps. From life in the soil around their roots to the action up in their canopies, trees are swarming with engagement—unseen microbes and fungi, countless insects and other arthropods, and vertebrates like birds, squirrels, and even porcupines.

Up here in Vermont, the winters are long.For me, this means mont

Native to Madagascar, areca palmsare popular as both indoor and outdoor plants. The foliage looks appealing and gives a tropical vibe to homes and offices.

It recently came into news and attracted the attention of environmentalists and biologists. According to the Fox News–“In brief, the sap prevents your skin from protecting itself from sunlight, which leads to a very bad sunburn.”

One of my favorite summer activities is roaming through the woodlands near my home in Vermont, foraging for lowbush blueberries.A few summers ago, I decided to bring the berries to me and planted severa