Current Newsletter

Lovely Lavender, Growing Better Basil, Succession Planting Greens and Heathercomb Gardens

The long days of summer are here. It’s delightful having the sun up so early and setting so late. It gives me an opportunity to catch up on those gardening chores I missed while I was in England on our garden tour. One of our perennial herbs that made it through the winter well is lavender. We grow a few different, hardy varieties and you can expand the pallet of lavenders you grow if you live in warmer climate. I talk about lavender varieties and care in this newsletter.

Speaking of herbs, we just planted out basil transplants in our zone 5 garden. Every year new varieties emerge that tout better growth and disease resistance. We’re trying a few new ones ourselves, even though we haven’t had disease issues with our last plantings. Learn more about growing basil for pesto or fresh eating and some unusual varieties to try as well.

We’ve been eating our self sown greens for over a month now and more just keeps coming. It got me thinking about succession planting and having greens all summer. It can be done if you plan for it. Learn more about succession planting greens in this newsletter.

Let’s have one last taste of English gardens! I profile a beautiful rhododendron garden tucked in a small valley in the Engllsh Moors called Heathercomb. Watch the reel and and enjoy a taste of England here.

Deer got you down? Take a look at my monthly garden blog I write for Proven Winners called What’s Up North. This month I talk about How to Stop Deer Browsing in the Northeast. Deer are a problem in many gardens across the country. In this blog I talk about controls such as fencing, repellents and types of shrubs that deer generally don’t eat. Check out my blog on How to Stop Deer Browsing in the Northeast, here.

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: Transitional Perennials
• All Things Gardening on Vt Public Radio– This week: A Flow Of Irises
• WJOY In The Garden Podcast– This week: How to create critter baffles, growing healthy maple trees, echinacea, and how to test your soil.
• Where’s Charlie Speaking? 6/11/26: Gardening as we Age, Randolph Garden Club, VT

How to Grow: Lavenders 

I love plants that offer multiple uses in the garden. Lavender is a pretty perennial on its own, especially when flowering. But lavender can also be used for cooking, making potpourris and as a decorative dried flower. There are many types of lavenders to grow. If you live in the North, look for that hardiest varieties. We grow ‘Munstead’ and ‘Hidcote’ English lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia). ‘Munstead’ features lilac blue flowers, while ‘Hidcote’ has deep purple colored blooms. Both flowers are fragrant and beautiful in fresh or dried flower arrangements. These tough plants come back every year, especially if we plant them in a protected spot and mulch them in late fall. The tall, blue flowers emerge in mid summer. If you need even tougher and more productive lavenders, try ‘Phenominal’® (Lavandula x intermedia Phenomenal™ ‘Niko’) and ‘Exceptional™‘ (Lavandula x intermedia Exceptional™ ‘Hillav’). ‘Phenominal’ features purple/blue flowers on 32-inch tall plants while ‘Exceptional’ features bright white flowers. These newer varieties have good hot and cold temperature resistance, do well in high humidity, have high oil content and fragrance and are hardy to zone 5. For something more exotic for a warmer climate (zone 6+), try Spanish lavender. ‘Silver Anouk’ Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas ‘Silver Anouk’) only grows 14 inches tall with unusual, two toned, purple flowers that look like butterfly wings and are very fragrant and the plant has bright silver foliage. It’s a great container plant. ‘French’ lavender (Lavandula dentata) reminds me of my trip to Provence many years ago. It has 2- to 3-foot tall plants with fragrant purple flowers. These tall plants are great in a perennial border or in a low, meadow planting. The plants are drought tolerant and like all lavenders bees, butterflies and pollinators love them.

Plant lavender in full sun on well-drained soil. Like many Mediterranean herbs, good water drainage is essential for growth and overwintering. In the North, plant in a protected spot away from drying, cold, winter winds. Plant with other perennials that like dry soils such as sage, salvia, perovskia and gayfeather. In early spring, cut back the plants by 1/3rd to stimulate new growth. In warmer climates you can let them grow and form into low hedges. Harvest flowers when they are open in the morning for best fragrance. Dry them in a well-ventilated warm room. Harvest stems with leaves as needed for cooking and crafts. In late fall in the North, protect plants with a mound of wood chips placed over the plants. Remove the chips in spring as the plant starts to grow.

Learn More about Growing Lavender here

How to Grow: Basil

Basil likes it hot and that’s just what’s predicted for this summer in our New England garden. There’s no need to rush basil transplants into the garden. We just planted ours the other day. Once established, they will grow into two foot tall and wide plants loaded with fragrant and tasty leaves. We make lots of pesto from our basils each year. Usually we grow the ‘Genovese’ basil, but this year we’re also trying the ‘Lettuce Leaf’ variety. It really does look like a loose leaf lettuce! There are other, more unusual, basils to try as well. ‘Purple Ruffles’ has purple colored leaves. ‘Sweet Dani’ is a lemon flavored variety. There’s also a ‘Lime’ flavored basil. ‘Thai’ and ‘Cinnamon’ basil have purple flowers and stems making them striking as ornamentals. ‘Spicy Bush’ is a small, container variety with an attractive rounded shape. ‘Holy’ basil has a mint and clove scent and is used for cooking and medicinally. We’re trialing a new one as well called ‘Monteverde’ with good downy mildew resistance. It should be available next year.

Basil loves sun, heat and good, soil water drainage. Get those three things right and you’re well on your way to great Caprese salads this summer. We plant our basil in a bed on its own, interplant it with tomatoes to help ward off the tomato hornworm, and plant it with other herbs and low growing annual flowers. We pinch the tops of plants when they’re 10 inches tall to promote branching and more leaf production. We also grow extra basil and let some flower. Normally this cuts down on leaf production, but the flowering is great to attract pollinators and beneficial insects to our garden. When harvesting for pesto making, instead of your taking individual leaves, we strip whole stems from the plant. This encourages more branching and larger leaf size into the fall. To save space in the freezer, freeze your pesto in ice cube trays and store the cubes in plastic bags. We also freeze individual leaves on a flat cookie sheet, then into a plastic bag, to use in tomato sauce making in winter.

Learn more about growing Basil here

Succession Planting Greens

It In my latest book, The Continuous Vegetable Garden, I have a whole chapter devoted to self sowing vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. Lettuce is the king of self sowing in our garden. Each spring, long before I think of planting lettuce, the fall dropped seeds are growing. We move them around the beds to mix and match the leaf colors and shapes.

But this bounty of greens that will last into summer, will eventually come to an end. So, to have lettuce greens all summer and fall, we succession plant them. This means every few weeks, we plant more greens in the garden. In early summer we plant collards, Swiss chard, summer lettuce, kale and mizuna. While many of these also self sow, it’s good to plant more if you aren’t doing the self sowing trick. Most of these greens can take the heat. For lettuce, try varieties that are heat tolerant. Grow Summer Crisp types such as ‘Nevada’ and ‘Sierra’. Romaine varieties, such as ‘Jericho’, and loose leaf varieties, such as ‘Salad Bowl’ and ‘Red Sails’, are also good choices. These can take the heat and not bolt.

Come late summer, keep planting. Let some of your favorite varieties bolt and drop seed for a late fall or next spring harvest. Sow seedlings of cool loving, fall lettuce varieties, such as the Romaine ‘Winter Density’ and the Butterhead ‘North Pole’. Include cool loving greens such as arugula, spinach, kale and mustard.

By planting in succession and using the self sowing technique, you will have more than enough greens for salads and cooking from spring unto late fall and, maybe, through the winter in warmer climates.

Learn more about Succession Planting Greens here

In Our Garden: Heathercomb Gardens

On our Chelsea Flower Show and Gardens of Southern England Tour in May, 2026, we visited a vast array of public and private gardens. Some were easy to find and approachable. Others took some work. Just ask our coach driver, Graham!

One of the more remote gardens was a private garden called Heathercomb. Named for this small valley in the Moors, it features water. This makes it possible to grow a wide variety of flowering trees and shrubs. Go out of the valley and into the drier, wind swept Moors and all you’ll find is low growing, shrubby plants such as gorse. The owner, John Pike, has been caring for the collection of rhododendrons his father planted for years and he continues to plant in this valley. Following a narrow, winding road into the valley we came onto a blooming paradise. We hit the rhododendrons bloom time perfectly and wandered along the streams and small ponds looking at 150 different varieties of rhodis along with the golden chain tree and gunneras, We felt like we entered another world.

Enjoy this short reel (Thanks Mary Clare Bissell) and check out Heathercomb Gardens if you ever make it to Devon, England in the spring.

Watch more short videos about growing our English Gardens Tour here