Current Newsletter

Hardy Hibiscus, Preserving Those Tomatoes, Fall Spinach and Watering

Many areas of the country, including our Vermont garden, are experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions. This amazes me because a month or two ago we were complaining about all the rain. Then Mother Nature turned off the spigot and we have very dry conditions. So, it’s important to water your trees, shrubs, perennials and late summer planted veggies and flowers well. I talk about some watering strategies in this newsletter.

Late summer can be a colorful time in our garden, especially because we grow hardy hibiscus. This tough, perennial flower blooms in late summer into fall producing 8-inch diameter flowers in bold and pastel colors. The plants can reach 3- to 4-feet tall and wide, so it’s a show piece in your landscape. i talk about growing hardy hibiscus here.

This has been a bumper year for our tomatoes. I grew extra plants this year because we ran out of canned tomatoes last winter. Of course, now I have an abundance of healthy fruits. So, lets talk about ways to preserve the harvest through canning, drying and freezing tomatoes.

August is a good time to sow some seeds. I particularly like growing spinach in the fall. The seeds germinate fast in the warm soil, but once the plants mature they slow down their growth so we can eat them into November. Learn about growing fall spinach in this newsletter.

Remember to check out my monthly garden blog I write for Proven Winners called What’s Up North. The August blog features a great, mid summer blooming, native perennial that’s easy to grow if you select the disease resistant varieties. Check out my blog on Tall, Garden Phlox and learn about the best disease resistant varieties and how to grow it to reduce powdery mildew disease.

Until next time I’ll be seeing you, in the garden.

Charlie

Where to Find Charlie: (podcasts, TV and in-person)

• In the Garden (WCAX-TV CBS) – This week: All Things Basil
• All Things Gardening on Vt Public Radio– This week: Q/A: Sproutless Brussels sprouts, Asian jumping Worms, diseased daylilies, asparagus beetles and more
• WJOY In The Garden Podcast– This week: Dividing perennials, picking cucumbers, overwintering hibiscus, resetting tulips, dying lilacs, and more
• Where’s Charlie Speaking? 8/28/2025- Ecological Gardening, Burlington, VT 

How to Grow: Hardy Hibiscus

If you’re looking for a bang for your buck in a late summer blooming perennial, grow hardy hibiscus. Hardy hibiscus is related to the tropical hibiscus you see growing in warm climates such as Florida, Texas bad Southern California. But, unlike the topical hibiscus, it’s hardy to zones 4 or 5, so a great perennial for the rest for the country. There are a number of varieties of hardy hibiscus that grow in gardens. Many of them feature brightly colored flowers.

‘Luna™ Rose’ hibiscus grows 2- to 3- feet tall and wide with rose colored flowers that can stretch up to 8-inches in diameter. It’s a show stopper! ‘Luna™ Red’ hibiscus is even more colorful than ‘Luna™ Rose’, with bright red flowers. The deep green foliage is a nice contrast to the large, red flowers. ‘Halberdleaf’ hibiscus is a native species that grows up to 6-feet tall with pale pink flowers that have a deep red center. This species grows well in wet areas and near ponds because it’s flood tolerant. Deer seem to leave it alone as well. Pollinators and hummingbirds also love this selection.

Grow hardy hibiscus in a sunny location in well-drained, moist soils. Adding wood chip mulch is a good way to keep the soil evenly moist. The rains this early summer have created giant, hardy hibiscus plants in our yard. Hardy hibiscus flowers only open for a day, but the plant has many buds that keep it looking good into the fall. Some varieties even have burgundy colored leaves for a nice color contrast with light colored flowers. Be patient with hibiscus plants in spring, They are slow to emerge from the soil so you might think they’re dead. But once is turns warm, they will pop out of the ground and grow quickly into 3 to 4-foot tall bushes.

In fall, they die back to the ground. Leave the stems and leaves as places for overwintering pollinators and insects to live in winter. In spring, clean up the planting area after it turns warm and wait for the new show to start.

Read more and Watch this Video about Hardy Hibiscus here

How to Grow: Preserving Tomatoes 

Growing up in an Italian-American family in Connecticut, I have fond memories of my mom canning her tomatoes in late summer. It always seemed like she’d choose the hottest day of summer to can, using a hot water bath. I still remember the sweat coming down her brow when canning.

I carry on that tradition, but I wait until the weather cools a bit before canning. I love the flavor of home canned tomatoes and still use the hot water bed method. Of course, there are many other ways to can tomatoes as well. Check out your state extension service or Ball® Blue Book Guide to Preserving for the best methods to safely can tomatoes. I can pints and quarts, adding salt to help preserve them and a basil leaf in each jar for flavor. I don’t bother peeling the skins. I chop the tomatoes into large pieces and can them for use in winter. Before I use the tomatoes for sauces and soups in winter, I pulse the canned tomatoes in a blender for a second or two to break up the skins. It’s easy! I’ve never had a bad batch of canned tomatoes and they last for a year or so.

If canning is not your thing, you can try freezing tomatoes. We’ve done this method as well, chopping up the fruits into large chunks and placing them in freezer bags. We have a large freezer to store them. However, frozen tomatoes can’t be blended to chop up the skins until you thaw them out. In sunny, warm climates, some gardeners will dry their tomatoes. Select thick, sauce varieties such as ‘San Marzano’, slice them in half and dry them on racks in a hot, dry climate. If you live elsewhere, you can use a food dehydrator instead or the oven put on low heat.

This year we’re trying another tomato preservation method. I’m growing an Italian heirloom ‘pomodoro l’inverno’ tomato. These “winter tomatoes” are small and thick. In Southern Italy they harvest mature fruits in fall, make ristras out of the stems and fruits and hang them to dry in their kitchens. Supposedly, they will dry and stay fresh for cooking for months into winter. I’ll let you know how they do in our Vermont kitchen this winter.

Learn more about Canning Tomatoes here

Fall Spinach

August is a great time to sow some fall greens. The soils are warm so the seeds germinate fast, the days are starting to get shorter and cooler at night so the plants don’t overheat and bolt and fall days are perfect for holding your greens in the garden to eat them when you like. One of our favorite fall greens is spinach. Spinach grows well in fall if you can get it through the hot days of late summer. By September, in most places, the weather has cooled enough that the plants will start putting on lots of leafy growth. You can harvest outer leaves when they are big enough to eat and let the inner leaves keep growing. The other nice thing about fall is the days are short. This means spinach won’t grow and bolt quickly, giving you more time to harvest. You can even overwinter spinach in many climates using row covers in November. The plants will start growing again in late winter and you can harvest leaves until it bolts in early summer.

Select varieties that grow well in fall such as ‘Winter Bloomsdale’ and ‘Tragopan’. These also overwinter well. Sow seeds now in moist, well-drained soil. I even add a little potting soil to the bed to help with drainage. Keep the soil evenly moist and cool. To keep the soil cool, use a lightweight row cover or shade cloth over the bed. You’ll see the seeds germinate faster and better. Once you get into the cooler days of September you can remove the cover to allow the most sun in for best growth. Keep the plants well watered and harvest as the leaves get big enough to eat. If overwintering for a late winter harvest, add heavier weight row covers over the bed supported by plastic or metal hoops in late fall. I’ve even buried the spinach plants in hay mulch to overwinter and that can work depending on the weather in winter.

Learn More about Spinach Growing here

In Our Garden: Watering in a Drought

This year’s drought sneaked up on us. We were enjoying all the rain we got in June and July and seeing the growth of our trees, shrubs, perennial and annual flowers and veggies. Then the August heat came and the rain stopped… for weeks. We get the occasional thunderstorm, but not enough to satisfy most of our plantings. So, we are watering. But we have a well, and lots of gardens, so we don’t have the time or inclination to risk running the well dry to water everything. If we were on a municipal water system, we’d be worrying about the price of all the water we’re using as well.

So, we’re focused on the newly planted trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. For the small trees and shrubs and newly planted perennials, we use a soaker hose or gator bags to slowly release water to the plant roots. For small trees and perennial flowers adding a few gallons at each watering is probably enough to soak the soil down 8- to 10- inches deep. We time how long it takes to run the soaker hose to water to that depth then set a timer to run 2- to 3-times a week. For larger trees that need up 25 gallons of water a week, we used gator bags. These flat or vertical shaped bags can hold 15 to 20 gallons of water. They have emitters in the bottom of the bag that slowly drip the water. We fill them once a week and the trees and large shrubs have plenty of water to stay happy. We also add wood chip mulch around the trees and shrubs to conserve moisture, yet let air and water penetrate to the plant’s roots.

For annual vegetables and herbs that we’re sowing now for a fall harvest we water with a watering wand, sometimes daily. We check the soil moisture before adding more water. If it’s dry a few inches deep, we water. This is important because the seeds need water to germinate and can dry out and die quickly if we skip a few days. We also cover the bed with a lightweight, floating row cover or shade cloth to keep the soil moist. This helps the seeds germinate better and the young plants survive. Come fall, we’ll remove the cover.

Go here for more on Watering