Have some fun learning about Charlie's summer hat collection with stories about where they are from and why he likes them. stay cool and protected this summer. Wear a hat! Excerpted from Connecticut Public TV's New England Gardening with Charlie Nardozzi...
Learn about the various types of herbaceous peonies that you can grow including information on diseases, ants on the peony flowers, dividing and moving peonies, supporting the heavy blossoms and the seed pods. Learn more about peonies here.
All earthworms are considered non-native in the United States. The European earthworm or night crawler came with the colonists hundreds of years ago. The newest arrival is the Asian jumping or snake worm. The Asian jumping worm has spread across the north and Southeast of the United states and can also be found in the Midwest and some states in the Northwest. The concern is the Asian jumping worm has a bigger appetite compared to the European earthworm. It devours organic materials faster and can strip the forest floor of healthy soil and...
Bio Charlie Nardozzi is a nationally recognized garden writer, speaker, radio, and television personality. He has worked for more than 20 years bringing expert gardening information to home gardeners through radio, television, talks, on-line, and the printed page. Charlie delights in making gardening information simple, easy, fun and accessible to everyone. His energy, exuberance, and love of the natural world also make him an exciting public speaker and presenter. He has spoken at national venues such as the Northwest Flower Show,...
Scotland Garden Tour, Hardy Geraniums, Storage Tomatoes and Pruning Blueberries As the calendar turns to April, the activity ramps up in our zone 5 garden. A late snowstorm last week didn't deter me from starting more seeds indoors and getting plants ready for spring. In this newsletter I'll be talking about hardy geraniums (one of my favorite, low maintenance perennials), some cool varieties of tomatoes that last months after harvest fresh and pruning blueberries. Before we jump into all the gardening how-tos, I want to let...
Trees with Interesting Bark, Hardy Catmint, Get Started with Leeks and African Violets The calendar has turned to February. No matter the groundhog sees with his shadow, we still know in our zone 5 garden that we have months of winter to come. But that doesn't mean we can't be doing gardening activities now. One thing about winter is it lets some plants show off more than they would when the foliage is out. I'm thinking of the bark of some of our trees. Growing trees for their bark color and texture is good to remember, because in cold...
Plants for Problem Places, Seed Catalogs, Growing Asparagus, and Norfolk Island Pine It’s a New Year with all kinds of possibilities. I appreciate you for getting this newsletter and being part of my gardening universe. I have recently changed my email server. If you happen to be getting this newsletter after you had unsubscribed, I apologize. Please just unsubscribe again so I can have a clean list or let me know and I'll unsubscribe you. Thank you. I always get excited come January because for us it's the beginning of a year long process...
Black Raspberries, Vivacious Veronica, Japanese Iris and Wild Parsnips It's July. Happy Independence Day! We've had a wet and warm June, so our gardens continue to look colorful and lush. The warm season flowers and veggies are loving the latest heat wave especially since there is ample water in the soil. We've moved on from our honey berries and June bearing strawberries. The next fruit up is the black raspberries. This lesser known bramble is a great one in the garden. It doesn't spread like its cousins the red raspberry...
Early Summer Flower Garden, Gardens of Sardinia, Curious Cucumbers and Jumping Worms I've just returned from leading a Garden Tour of Sardinia, Italy. It was a fabulous trip exploring this large island off the Italian coast. Sardinia certainly has lots of Mediterranean influenced gardens but surprisingly in the interior where it's wetter and cooler, there are some familiar temperate climate trees and shrubs growing as well. We spent time with a Sardinian landscape architect exploring dry land gardens and his own...
Callas and Caladiums, Growing Artichokes, Building A Hugel Mound and Aloe Vera My flower show talks have wrapped up for 2025. It was great visiting small regional shows and the largest flower show in the country to get inspired for spring. Hopefully you got a chance to visit your regional flower show for some ideas. One talk I did at our Vermont Flower Show this year was on Summer Bulbs. While we often think of dahlias, gladiolus and lilies when we talk about summer bulbs, there are others that are worth growing even in the North. I...
