Vermont Garden Journal

It's time to start thinking about your vegetable garden. Many gardeners have transitioned from flat, straight rows to raised beds. Raised beds warm up faster in spring, drain water sooner and allow you to garden more intensively without as much work. But the next level of raised beds is the keyhole bed.

The name "lavender" comes from the Latin word meaning "to wash" — referring to the Mediterranean herb's use in baths, beds and clothing. Its oil is used medicinally as an antibacterial, anti-convulsive, antidepressant, anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic. Queen Victoria even used it to soothe her nerves. This herb also adds a slightly sweet flavor to breads, soups, salads and desserts — and it can be grown here in Vermont!

With spring knocking at our door, sort of, I'm always on the lookout for signs of the season. One shrub that fails to disappoint in my garden is the flowering quince or Chaenomeles.

The cucumber as we know it from our salad bowl is, in fact, a 3,000 year old vegetable from India. There are many variations of this melon-friendly veggie; let's look at a few.

The days are getting longer, the sun is stronger and with warm weather this week, gardeners are thinking about sowing seeds. Though it's still too early to sow outdoors, you can start seeds indoors and you may already have seedlings popping up. But sometimes your little seedlings don't look very happy. This could be due to a number of factors. So, let's do some seed-starting problem-solving.

We're getting closer to indoor seed-starting time. Actually, some vegetables seeds, like leeks, could have been started already. But if you're new to indoor seed-starting or need a refresher, let's walk through the basic steps to growing transplants in your home.

It's almost Valentine's Day and, of course, the flower of love is the rose. But this year, instead of giving the usual cut roses, why not a rose plant? Miniature roses come in many shapes, with some being three- to four-feet tall, but still called miniature. But I'm thinking of the micro-mini rose plants found in garden centers and floral shops. These grow around 12- to 18-inches tall with small, colorful, fragrant flowers and can be grown indoors and outside.

Monarch butterflies and honey bees have become the poster children for the plight of pollinating insects. More and more, we are realizing the importance they play in our food system and ecology. While the threat is global, there are things we can do in our own yards to help the local populations, like creating a pollinator garden.

Everyone loves cottage gardens! They overflow with color, texture and exuberance. This informal design is not simply “letting things go,” but more aptly called organized chaos. There's a method to the madness and and some elements to consider.

I'm always looking out for new flowers. Not necessarily the next color of petunia, but flowers that aren't widely known. This year, pentas have struck my fancy.

Some may say that oxalis, or the shamrock plant, is an invasive weed, a sour-tasting groundcover or a cute houseplant. All three are correct. In warm climates, oxalis can be an attractive groundcover or a weed. In colder climates, yellow sorrel is an oxalis that grows as an understory plant in the forest. Then there's the tender houseplant versions. This is where oxalis becomes more interesting.

In our culture, potatoes, carrots, beets, radishes and sweet potatoes are favorite roots in gardens and on tables. But there are other unusual roots worth growing.

One of my year-end rituals is to start perusing seed catalogs. I love sitting by a roaring fire with tea and cookies while looking for new vegetable varieties. Read on or listen to the podcast to hear what I've found so far.

This time of year, our houses are filled with poinsettias, Christmas cactus and amaryllis flowers. All of their colorful flowers are quite festive during the holidays. But if you're still looking for a holiday gift for the black thumb in the family, allow me to share three suggestions for shade-tolerant, low maintenance houseplants that even they will find hard to kill.

Wildfires in California, floods in Texas and Florida, drought, sudden bursts of high and low temperatures, you get the idea. We're officially in the world of weather extremes. Even in Vermont, an intense, unusual wind storm this fall destroyed my greenhouse and uprooted 50-year-old trees. How does a gardener prepare for all this extreme weather?