Into the Garden Week 13

Plant of the Week 

Love it or hate it, okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is more than just a veg. I plant okra primarily for its flowers—gorgeous butter-yellow blooms with purple centers. Part of the Hibiscus family, okra reaches 3 feet tall and loves full sun. Unfortunately, each flower only lasts for one day. If you’re like me (pro-okra) you’ll enjoy popping some fresh okra in your mouth while tending to your beds. Who doesn’t love a surprise snack? All seeds available https://www.johnnyseeds.com/

Guest

Diane Burns, head gardener at Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards, oversees a big vegetable garden. Divided into three sections (herbs, greens and lettuces, and large vegetables), all produce grown goes straight to the Pippin Hill kitchen. Diane weighs in on the nitty-gritty of large-scale vegetable gardening: hand-watering, compost fertilization, weeding, and more. Her favorite tomatoes include the aesthetically pleasing Striped German tomato, heirlooms like Carbon and Cherokee Purple, and the high-yielding disease-resistant hybrid Mountain Fresh. Carbon is a black heirloom tomato with a good yield. She also recommends heat-tolerant lettuce like Skyphos, which she sows every 3 weeks throughout the season, and Starfighter to brave the Virginia heat. Encore is a cool season lettuce that is cut and comes right back.


I’m not much of a veg gardener myself, but Diane has me tempted! 

Playlist 

  • Irises are coming and going. Clip away shriveled buds to let the best blooms shine. 

  • Cut your peonies and get them set up indoors. Pssst, tune in for a peony hack.

  • Daffodil foliage driving you crazy? Make it look neater and more intentional by finger combing it in one direction. 

  • Keep pre-pruning your floppy chrysanthemums, tall phlox, sedums, etcetera. 

  • Deer control! You can mix your own spray or purchase ready-made products like Deer Stopper (spray) and Deer Scram (granules).

Listen

Into the Garden Week 12

Plant of the Week

The pinxterbloom azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides) is a lovely woodland native found along eastern North America from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Deciduous, dense and bushy, this suckering shrub reaches around 6 feet tall at maturity. Its white and pink flowers are an early harbinger of spring, blooming before foliage emerges. This native is sure to attract all the bugs and birds to your garden. 

Interview

Today, the interviewer becomes the interviewee. Susan Terwilliger, my friend and colleague at WINA radio, asks me all about my garden. A garden is a never ending work in progress. We discuss how I’ve managed to turn problem areas into useful and aesthetically pleasing design solutions. A patch of overly compacted soil became the perfect spot for my bistro table, a drainage problem led to the addition of my beloved fire pit, and those unsightly piles of soft compost keep my garden beds well-fed. No matter the problem, there’s always a creative and garden-friendly solution. 

Playlist 

  • First and foremost, science says to play in your garden. Research shows that gardening leads to a significant reduction in stress and an increase in overall well-being. 

  • Bulb foliage: Is it brown? Cut it down!

  • Join me in my peony pruning experiment.

  • Don’t forgo leggy annuals at the nursery. Instead, pinch off the tallest stems to promote bushier growth. 

Listen

Into the Garden Week 11

Plant of the Week

The fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus), native to the Eastern United States, is both beautiful and easy on your horti-conscience. A great alternative to non-natives like the crape myrtle, this ornamental tree reaches 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide at maturity. Rescuing us from our post-dogwood blues, it blooms in May. Fringe tree flowers are a bright white with wispy, ethereal petals. Come autumn, the leaves turn a brilliant gold. What’s not to love?

Guest

My little sister Sue Ann Kane, one of my three lovely siblings, sat down to talk with me about starting a garden from scratch. Clean-slate gardening can be daunting. There’s a whole lot of space to fill and no understory or pre-existing features to work with. Balance is key: prioritize immediate needs like privacy shrubs, while exercising patience and getting to know the space intimately before embarking on bigger projects like hardscaping. It takes a couple years for a garden to establish itself and for all the new additions to reach maturity. Don’t worry, there are ways to spruce up your space in the meantime. Sue Ann cut mulched garden beds and added window boxes, cast-iron urns, privacy plants, and annuals for some fast flair. Her dreams for the future include introducing more native plants, starting with our beloved fringe tree—music to my ears! 

Playlist 

  • Forget-me-nots are going to seed. Quick, grab some flowers and shake-and-shimmy them all over your yard!

  • Pre-prune your perennials.

  • Grass is back! Keep your mower blade as high as possible to encourage new growth and prevent grass burnout. 

Listen

“The Surrey with the Fringe (tree!) on Top” from Oklahoma 

Into the Garden Week 10

Plant of the Week

Unfortunately, many of our spring favorites hail from overseas—tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, etcetera. Camassia, flowering in late April, is native to the Pacific Northwest! Winter hardy in zones 4 through 8, it blooms in both shade and sun, grows in wet soil, and is fairly deer-resistant. Purple star-shaped flowers bloom from top to bottom along the stalk, which reaches 1 ½ feet tall. 

Guests

Rod and Maggie Walker, founders of the Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species (PRISM, for short), join me on the show. PRISM is a volunteer-driven non-profit dedicated to reducing the negative impact of nonnative invasive plants in the Blue Ridge area. This organization works with the state and individual landowners, providing education and funding to protect the ecological health of our region. Rod and Maggie identify their two main targets as vines—canopy killers that cause long-term damage, and new invaders—those who have yet to become established and can still be eradicated. Invasive plants are notoriously strong and resilient, but the Walkers are here to reassure us: this is not a hopeless battle. 

Playlist

  • It’s time to sow those seeds. Remember to keep an eye out for cooler temperatures. 

  • Prune your early flowering shrubs, like azaleas and quince. 

  • Check on your peony stakes. 

  • ‘Tis the season for poison ivy. If you spot any babies growing in your garden, pull them out. Use a pair of gloves or a doggy doo-doo bag to protect yourself from the oils. As long as you wash your hands immediately after handling, you can even dispose of them using your bare hands. 

Listen

  • “You’re gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion”—“Poison Ivy” by The Coasters.

Into the Garden Week 9

Plant of the Week

Don’t let the name American boxwood fool you. Unfortunately, our beloved boxwoods are not native. First introduced to the U.S. from Europe in the mid-1600s, this classic evergreen has remained a favorite for centuries. It is deer resistant and thrives in the shade and sun. It does hate getting its feet wet, so no soggy soil, please! Growing anywhere from 10 inches to 20 feet tall, this sculptural shrub comes in a variety of shapes including round, skinny, squat, and columnar.

Guest

Michael Abbott of Bartlett Trees joins me to discuss boxwood blight. A highly contagious fungal disease that causes defoliation, it first made its presence known in Charlottesville and central Virginia in 2012. But wait! There’s good news: Boxwood blight is very treatable. Chemical fungicides are highly effective in saving your plant and preventing further spread. Still, prevention is our priority. Always buy your boxwoods from a responsible nursery and make sure you ask your landscapers to sanitize their tools. If you’re thinking of buying a boxwood, look out for a blight-resistant variety or cultivar. 

Playlist 

  • When pruning your boxwood, aim to promote air circulation and encourage new growth by lifting the skirt and pruning both internally and externally. 

  • Start staking your peonies. I recommend using bamboo stakes and green twine for a more natural look. 

  • It’s time to sow your warm-weather vegetable seeds like peppers, eggplants, cantaloupes, and tomatoes. 

To Listen

Into the Garden Week 8

Plant of the Week

Rising from the ground like columns, Tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) are impressive to behold. While the average backyard tulip poplar is 50 to 70 feet tall, they can reach up to 200 feet in nature. This week’s guest, Jason Larose, estimates that my tulip poplar is over 130 feet! In spring, they produce beautiful orange flowers with yellow and lime green detailing. Popular with eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillars, their high branches also make excellent spots for bat houses! Hello butterflies, goodbye mosquitos. 

Guest

Are you a homeowner with a tree? You need an arborist. This week, I talk trees with Jason LaRose, certified arborist and founder of local tree service company Queen City Silviculture. It goes without saying that Jason is a great lover of trees. His deep respect for these highly complex and evolved organisms informs his everyday practice as an arborist. While it’s tempting to take out your own chainsaw and save money, the risks outweigh the benefits. Certified arborists like Jason do the dangerous work for you and ensure the preservation of your trees for years to come.  

Playlist

Let’s go shopping!

  • Make sure you know what you’re getting into by checking the root system of a nursery plant before purchasing. Is its root system undersized or congested? These plants will need extra TLC to thrive. 

  • Beware the nursery’s tender annuals. The days might be getting warmer, but these babies won’t survive a 30°F night.  

To Listen

  • Vivaldi’s violin concerto “Spring” from The Four Seasons. 

Into the Garden Week 7

Plant of the Week

Named after gifted gardener Thomas Jefferson, Jeffersonia diphylla is a delightful woodland perennial grown in horticultural zones 5 through 7. Each leaf is split down the middle into two nearly separate parts, hence its colloquial name, twinleaf. It is happiest under a deciduous tree as it enjoys soaking up the early spring sunlight before the canopy fills out. Blooming from April to May, twinleaf sports the sweetest little white flowers. 

Guest

Peggy Cornett, Monticello’s Curator of Plants, has been with the Monticello gardens and grounds department since 1983. Under her leadership as “straw boss,” Monticello completed a ten-year restoration of Jefferson’s formidable vegetable garden. Thanks to Jefferson’s compulsive record-keeping, Monticello is one of the best-documented gardens in America. More discoveries are always forthcoming as Peggy and her colleagues work to interpret and adapt to T.J.’s vision. I encourage you to check out www.monticello.org for upcoming events like Gregory Britt’s online flower arranging workshop on April 10th! 

Playlist

I’m back with more pruning advice. What else is new?

  • If your forsythia is getting too crowded or has finished blooming, go forth and prune!

  • Hold off on pruning spring-flowering shrubs until after they flower. 

  • I’m not much of a vegetable gardener—isn’t that what farmer’s markets are for? I kid… sort of... Now is the time to direct-sow your cool winter veggies like arugula, radishes, turnips, beets, lettuce, and greens. 

  • Start your tomato seeds inside. My expert advice? Read the directions! 

To Listen 

Into the Garden Week 6

Plant(s) of the Week

With the help of Dos Amigos landscaping, I’ve finally found the solution to my backyard quagmire. We’ve decided to fill in the wasteland with two natives, Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), and river birch (Betula nigra). The hemlock, a columnar evergreen with tiny needles, will help to screen the neighbors’ looming terrace. River birches, known for their gorgeous exfoliating bark, can grow up to 70 feet tall. Attracting over 400 different moths and caterpillars, I expect the birds will soon be flocking. 

Guest

Award-winning horticulturist, artist, plantsman, and author Kelly D. Norris joins me to discuss his latest book, New Naturalism. Kelly encourages gardeners to “plant on the wild side,” embracing a looser, more natural aesthetic with far-reaching ecological benefits. Rather than working against the earth, we can partner with it. New naturalism is a mindful approach to horticulture that asks gardeners to become stewards. Our job? To keep the garden in motion. 

https://kellydnorris.com/

Playlist

  • It’s time to start hardening off your indoor plants. Watch the weather and be mindful of frost!

  • Early perennial division: Cutesy blue forget-me-nots (Myosotis) are great self-sowers. Ask a friend if you can collect some seeds and shake them over your garden—easy as pie.  

  • Other easy-dividing self-seeders to consider: Phlox subulata, foxglove, and columbine.

To Listen: 

  • Tom Christopher’s podcast Growing Greener.     

https://www.thomaschristophergardens.com/podcast

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