Connecticut Garden Journal

Sometimes the simplest vegetables are the best. Snap beans are one of the easiest vegetables to grow and most rewarding. Many of us first grew beans in biology class in elementary school in cups sitting in the class window. The seeds are large, the plants reliable and the fruits tasty.

While snap beans are easy to grow and delicious to eat, there is one group that's even more satisfying.

I love growing French filet beans. These varieties have been bred to grow slender, long beans that don't get stringy and tough, even when mature. Of course, the key is to keep picking them when young (about 4 inches long) when they have the best flavor. These are fresh eating beans and don't can or freeze well. Steamed, sautéed in butter and topped with lemon and parmesan cheese or simply eaten raw, French filet beans melt in your mouth. Some varieties I've grown include 'Nickel', 'Maxibel' and 'Tavera'. 'Velour' is a purple colored French filet variety and 'French Gold' is a pole bean version featuring yellow beans.

Grow beans on raised beds in well-drained soil. Go light on adding compost and fertilizer. Beans are legumes and can fix atmospheric nitrogen into a form of fertilizer they can use. Grow lettuce and other greens around the beans to take advantage of this fertilizer production. Wait until the soil has warmed to plant, to about the time you'd plant tomatoes. Bush beans mature quickly and also fade quickly. So plant in short rows in succession every 2 weeks into early August. This way, you'll have a constant supply of fresh beans to eat.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Easter is here and for those celebrating, flowers are often part of the festivities. The Easter lily is probably the best known Easter flower. I remember going to church as a boy in Waterbury and having the whole building perfumed with the dozens of Easter lilies on the alter.

The Easter lily is a type of summer blooming trumpet lily that's native to Japan. They're forced into bloom early in greenhouses for the spring holiday. After World War II the West Coast from Vancouver to Long Beach, California took over being the center of Easter lily bulb production. Today a small group of growers are left on the Oregon/California border and that region is known as the Easter Lily Capital of the World.

When purchasing Easter lilies, look for ones with green leaves all the way to the bottom of the plant and 5 or more flower buds. Once home, remove the cellophane wrapper, water when dry and place it in a cool room with bright light. In spring, plant it outdoors and it will bloom next year in summer.

For something different, consider gifting other plants this holiday. Asiatic lilies have brightly colored flowers and are great garden plants. They just don't have the same heady fragrance as Easter lilies. Calla lilies are often found in garden centers this time of year. Many have attractive speckled leaves. Their colorful flowers are actually bracts, similar to poinsettias, that last a long time so this plant will be beautiful indoors for weeks. Plant this annual flower outdoors in early summer in a part-sun location and it should keep flowering until fall.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most gardeners think of Asian greens as Chinese cabbage or bok choy (or pak choi). But these traditional veggies have gotten a face lift with new colorful and different sized varieties for salads and cooking.

Asian greens are fast maturing, have beautiful leaves, are easy to grow and are tasty in many foods beyond traditional Asian recipes. Asian greens are often in those baby greens salad mixes we buy.

Some new varieties include 'Rosie' bok choy. It has strawberry colored leaves that can be harvested in 20 days as a baby green or allowed to mature into a full sized, bok choy in 45 days. Tat Soi has dark green colored, spoon shaped leaves. 'Red Cloud' is a burgundy leaf selection that adds color and a little peppery flavor to salads. 'Tokyo Bekana' is a non-heading Chinese cabbage with blonde colored leaves that are ready to eat in 18 days as baby greens. These are fast maturing greens.

Asian greens like cool soil and air temperatures. Sow seeds now indoors to transplant as seedlings into the garden at the end of this month. Once the soil warms and dries, sow seeds of Asian greens in the garden. The combination will give you a longer season of greens as the transplants will yield sooner than the seeded plants. Harvest individual leaves for salads and leave some plants to mature. To ward off flea beetles, plant radishes close by a week or two before planting the Asian greens. The flea beetles will flock to the radish greens where you can spray them with diatomaceous earth.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ahhh, I know it's spring when pussy willows start showing up. The stems with gray, fuzzy, catkins are fun to cut and collect for arrangements in the home. Pussy willows are native to our Northern climate and are actually important for pollinators as well. Their early blooming, fuzzy, catkins give way to flowers which are loaded pollen and nectar for emerging bees and insects. By the way, the word catkin comes from the Dutch word for kitten, because they look similar to the tail of a cat.

Like many willows, pussy willows root easily. In fact, we often put some water in a vase of cut pussy willow stems and watch as the roots emerge and the plant grows in the vase. Once the roots are at least a few inches long, you can pot up the pussy willow stems. Keep them in sun and keep the soil moist. By May, plant them in their permanent spot. Pussy willows like full sun and wet soils that have some drainage. They grow into large shrubs and benefit from severe pruning every few years to promote more new growth, which leads to better pussy willows and catkins that are easier to reach.

While gray is the color of our native pussy willow catkins, there are other colored types, such as black and pink. The Asian black pussy willow produces black catkins on plants that are a little more tender than our native. The pink pussy willows are from Asia or Europe and provide a cool color contrast to the black and gray ones. All of these are good for pollinators and grow under similar conditions as our native into large shrubs in the yard.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As spring is officially here, lots of gardeners are thinking about planting. If you're interested in adding native plants to your landscape, bolster plantings along stream banks, create a pollinator garden or add some edibles to your yard. Consider the Connecticut Conservation District's annual spring plant sales.

The conservation districts help educate the public on the ways to preserve and revive our local ecosystems. They hold workshops for the public and offer support to municipalities, farmers and residents along coastal waterways, helping revitalize these areas. One of the ways of preserving and reviving ecosystems is to plant more native plants. Native plants attract pollinators, provide food for birds, are an integral part of the forest, riparian and meadow ecosystems, and can be attractive additions to your garden. To encourage residents to plant more natives, the conservation districts have an annual spring plant sale where you can purchase many of these native plants at a discount. It's a good way to add natives to your yard for any project, without breaking the bank.

You'll need to order your plants on-line before the end of March. You can pick them up the end of April, depending on the district. Go to conservect.org to find your conservation district. They will have links to plant sales with online order forms and details.

So, plant more native plants for a healthier yard, community and state. It's a small way to make a difference in our yard by repairing damaged ecosystems overrun with exotic invasives and support bees, butterflies, birds and many other creatures on our land.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the warmer weather many of us want to plant something and often garden peas come to mind. Peas are a good choice because they germinate in cool soils and need cool air temperatures to produce their best. However, mid-March is a little premature. It's best to wait until early April in warmer parts of the state or late April everywhere else.

That doesn't mean you can't get started. There are basically three types of peas; shelling peas, snap peas, and snow peas. With shelling or English peas, just eat the peas. Eat the pod and all with snap peas, and harvest snow peas while they're still flat. You can also eat them pod and all.

I've grown many varieties over the years beyond the common ones. 'Golden Sweet' is a yellow podded snow pea with beautiful pink flowers. 'Royal Snow' is a purple podded version. There are peas that stay only one foot tall ('Sugar Ann'), ones that grow 8 feet tall ('Tall Telephone') and a variety that has mostly tendrils. These tendril peas are good for growing indoors as microgreens where you eat the leaves and tendrils while they're still young.

Plant peas on raised beds with fertile soil but don't add much compost or fertilizer. Soak seeds in a bowl the night before planting to hasten germination. Place a trellis in the middle of the bed and sow peas in rows on either side. Cover the seeds with row covers if cold, wet weather comes so they don't rot. Keep well watered and weeded and you'll be eating peas in a few months.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With St. Patrick's Day coming up soon, many people will be touting green clothes, green hats and drinking green beer. Those traditions are fun but, as a horticulturist, the one tradition I don't enjoy are the green carnations. I generally love all flowers, but a white carnation dyed in green just doesn't cut it for me. If you want to give a flower for St. Patty's Day, I have some better options.

The shamrock is the symbolic flower of St Patrick's Day. The original Irish shamrock is thought to have been a clover. It's not the best gift plant. Luckily, florist shops and garden centers are filled with oxalis this time of year. Oxalis grows from a small bulb and has stems with three leaflet leaves and a dainty little flower. There are green varieties, purple varieties and even one called 'Iron Cross' with a red center edged in green. Oxalis can be grown as a houseplant now, and used later in your outdoor container or garden. If oxalis gets leggy or insect-infested simply cutback all the foliage to the soil and it will regrow.

Mini roses are a great gift, especially ones with yellow or white flowers. They contrast beautifully with all the green around. Select varieties that stay only 1- to 2-feet tall and grow them as houseplants now and outdoor plants for years.

Perhaps a true Irish gardener would love some seeds of Bells of Ireland. This annual flower grows stalks with green blooms in summer. Bells of Ireland likes cool weather, self sows, is a great cut flower and would be appreciated all summer long.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As I cook the last of my frozen sweet peppers from last summer, I'm thinking about this year's crop. I love growing peppers. I've experimented over the years with different varieties and have found a few that grow really well for me.

For sweet peppers I lean towards the bull's horn type. These Italian frying peppers grow easily and produce abundantly. And they turn their mature color, such as red, yellow, orange, faster than bell peppers. This is a treat because even though I like any pepper, I love mature sweet peppers. My two favorite varieties are the red 'Carmen' and the yellow 'Escamillo'. They produce reliably each year. I don't always find transplants in local greenhouses, so I start my own seedlings indoors each April.

I've also grown a variety of hot peppers. These varieties are great because unless you're a hot pepper fanatic, just a plant or two will produce enough to keep your meals spicy all summer and fall. 'Padrone' hot pepper is a variety I first tasted at a restaurant in Barcelona on one of my garden tours. It was grilled with a bit of olive oil and salt. With a pitcher of sangria, those peppers didn't last long. Another keeper is 'Thai Hot'. I grow this attractive, pepper plant mostly to process the mature red fruits for winter. Some peppers get tossed in freezer bags whole and others are dried slowly in the oven and used as crushed hot pepper flakes in my pastas and soups. The stored peppers last frozen or dried about 6 to 8 months indoors. There's nothing like the taste of your own veggies in winter in your meals.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They're baaack. At least some of them. I recently returned from speaking at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle. It was a blast speaking in front of a live audience again, and with masking and vaccination requirements, it felt pretty safe. Next up, I'll be speaking at the Connecticut Flower & Garden Show at the convention center in Hartford on Saturday. I'll be talking about creating a pollinator garden and selling my books. Stop by if you can.

Indoor flower shows are truly a North American phenomenon and I missed them last year due to Covid. They're a blast of spring during our long, cold, snowy and icy winters. Indoor flower shows have display gardens with hundreds of bulbs, shrubs and flowers forced into bloom in greenhouses in winter and transported to the venue in time for the show. These landscapes feature pergolas, waterfalls, ponds and walls, greenhouses and other structures meant to inspire your imagination. The recreated gardens fill the air with the scents, sounds and sights of spring. But there's more. Many shows bring in top notch gardeners from around the region speaking on topics including vegetable gardening, container gardening, native plants and landscape design. Plus, there are vendors selling gardening products, seeds, plants and crafts.

Not all of our regional flower shows are back, though. The Boston Flower & Garden Show is still on hiatus because they can't find a new venue. The Philadelphia Flower Show will be conducted outdoors in June at FDR Park. But the Connecticut Flower & Garden Show is happening right now and the Rhode Island Flower Show runs April 7th to 10th. Check them out.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's getting to be indoor seed starting seed time. It's nice starting your own vegetables and flowers indoors from seed. You can grow many more plants for less cost and get to choose from a wider range of varieties. Even if you're not an indoor seed starter, at some point you're probably going to be buying potting soil. That's where soil mixes can become confusing.

There are seed starting or germinating mixes, transplant mixes, potting mixes, mixes with fertilizer, organic mixes, mixes for specialty plants.... it can be mind boggling. Let me try to help.

When starting seedlings indoors, get a seed starting mix. This is the usual peat-based mix, but it’s been more finely milled so the small seeds can germinate better. When transplanting seedlings into larger pots indoors, use an organic transplanting mix. This has more bulk in the mix and some compost, which helps keep the plant growing strong. For container plants in summer, a good potting mix should be fine.

If the plants are perennial, buy a product with compost, or even some bark, in the mix. That will help reduce potting soil compaction over time.

Peat moss is often the key ingredient in many mixes. There is concern about peat moss because the peat is mined, destroying the bogs. While bogs can be restored, it can take years to bring them back. An alternative is coir. Coir is a bi-product of the coconut industry. It's made from milled, coconut husks and is often found in many soil mixes. It absorbs and drains water better than peat moss and is a recycled product.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.