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PerennialsPodcast

How to Grow: Asters

Learn how to grow asters, including how to plant and grow them. Listen to podcast: podcast transcript How to Grow: Asters Aster spp and hybrids Other Name Michaelmas daisy   Sun Requirements full sun   Bloom Period and Seasonal Color late summer to fall in colors such as blue, purple, red, pink and white   Mature Height x Spread 1 to 6 feet x 2 to 4 feet   Added Benefits Native, attracts beneficials   This native wildflower is a sure sign of late summer and early fall in New England. You can see it blooming next to goldenrod...

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PerennialsPodcast

How to Grow: Astilbe

Listen to this podcast and read about growing and caring for astilbe perennial flowers.   podcast transcript Astilbe spp and hybrids   Other Name false spirea   Sun Requirements Part sun, part shade   Bloom Period and Seasonal Color Late spring into summer in colors such as cream, white, pink, lilac, and red   Mature Height x Spread 1 to 5 feet x 2 to 3 feet   Added Benefits attracts beneficials, deer resistant   Astilbe is a part shade-loving perennial with airy white, pink, red, or lilac flowers. I grow it to provide color...

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AnnualsPerennials

How to Grow: Attracting Bees to Your Garden

Learn about attracting bees to your garden, including the best plants to grow. Listen to podcast: You can design flower gardens to attract, butterflies, hummingbirds, and even bats, but what about the bees? Honey bees, bumblebees and native bees are essential to our food supply. It's estimated 1/3rd of every bite of food we take can be attributed to bees. But bees have been having a rough time of late with mites and diseases destroying their hives. So let's help bees out by growing some plants just for them. In a flower, bees are looking...

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AnnualsPerennials Shrubs

How to Grow: Attracting Pollinators To Your Garden

Watch this video on how to create and care for a pollinator garden in your yard with information on plant varieties, habitat, water and shelter. Learn about the best ways to attract butterflies, bees, birds and other pollinators to your garden. Listen to podcast: Pollinator gardens are hot! Maybe it's the press the two poster children of pollinators, Monarch butterflies and honey bees, are getting. Or it could be just a higher awareness of the role pollinators play in our food system and ecosystem. But it seems everyone is talking about...

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PerennialsPodcast

How to Grow: Balloon Flowers

Listen to this podcast on how to grow balloon flowers or platycodons. This common perennial flower is called the Chinese bell flower. It originally hails from Asia but is now grown around the world. It's a fun flower to grow with kids because of the shape of the flower buds. You probably know it as balloon flowers. Balloon flowers are hardy perennial in the campanula family. Their namesake is the white, pink or blue flower bud that slowly puff sup like a hot air balloon. Eventually the flowers open into a star-shaped blossoms. Kids love to...

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PerennialsPodcast Videos

How to Grow: Baptisia

Learn all about growing this spring blooming, nitrogen fixing perennial in your garden. Listen to Podcast: podcast transcript How To Grow: Baptisia Baptisia australis   Other Name blue wild indigo   Sun Requirements Full sun, part sun   Bloom Period and Seasonal Color Late spring to summer in colors of blue, white, red and yellow   Mature Height x Spread 3 to 4 feet x 3 to 4 feet   Added Benefits Native, attracts beneficials, drought tolerant, deer resistant   This native perennial has a shrub-like appearance even though it...

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Herb

How to Grow: Basil

Learn about basil, including how to plant and grow them. Listen to Podcast: podcast transcript How to Grow: Basil A good Italian boy like me has to grow basil (Ocimum). I grew up eating tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese sandwiches. I freeze pesto cubes in summer so we can enjoy the flavor right through winter. If you can grow lettuce, you can grow basil. While I favor the Italian Genovese-type basil, there is a wide variety of other flavored basils to grow. Cinnamon, lemon, and anise-flavored basil all make for great additions to soups,...

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Vegetable

How to Grow: Beans

If you're looking for an easy vegetable to grow, try beans. Whether it be bush or pole beans, they make the perfect beginner gardener or kids garden vegetable. They're one of the first vegetables I taught my daughter to grow. The large seeds make this vegetable easy to plant. They need little extra fertilizer and, with only a small amount of attention, you're almost guaranteed to get a harvest. There's a wide variety of beans available to grow. Snap beans (Phaseolus) are those harvested while the pods are young and before the seeds form...

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PerennialsPodcast

How to Grow: Bee Balm

Learn how to plant and grow bee balm in your garden. Listen to Podcast: podcast transcript How to Grow: Bee Balm Monarda didyma  Other Name Bergamont   Sun Requirements Full sun, part sun Bloom Period and Seasonal Color Mid summer to late summer in colors such as red, pink, and white   Mature Height x Spread 2 to 4 feet x 2 to 4 feet   Added Benefits attracts beneficials, attracts hummingbirds, edible, native, deer resistant   Bee balm is a native, spreading perennial that is a delight not only for us, but also for butterflies, beneficial...

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Lawns

How To Grow: Bee Friendly Lawn

At what's known as the "bee lab" at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Marla Spivak has been carefully experimenting and collecting data. Spivak has been formulating a recipe of sorts of the types of lawn grasses that still look and feel like a traditional green-grass lawn, but with added flowers to attract pollinators. And since the climate in Minnesota is similar enough to the temperatures here in Vermont, this formulation of seeds should grow well here, too. If you're game to change up your lawn to be pollinator-forward, first know that...

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