Connecticut Garden Journal – Details, episodes & analysis

With the changing season, it’s time to close the garden down. Before the cold weather hits, drain and bring in outdoors hoses, clean and sharpen garden tools and start protecting plants for winter.

Wrap young trees with plastic or wire fencing to about 2 feet up the trunk and a few inches below the ground, to protect the young bark from rodents and rabbits.

Erect A-frame, snow barriers for shrubs planted near the house to avoid damage from falling snow and ice. And cover tender perennials, such as lavender, with wood chips in late November.

Unfortunately, it's also time for me to say goodbye. After a 10-year-run, this is my last Connecticut Garden Journal post. I've enjoyed being part of Connecticut Public and appreciate all the people that made this show happen. Thanks to John Dankosky and Catie Talarski for believing in me 10 years ago to start the show. And to Tim Rasmussen for having me host a series of gardening TV shows during Covid where we won a Regional Emmy. And, of course to all the people behind the scenes, such as Cat Pastor and Robyn Doyon-Aiken, who made the show happen each week.

And special thanks to you listeners. For all the emails, questions and comments and greetings I received in person at garden club meetings, flower shows and garden conferences. It's been great connecting with such avid gardeners over the years.

So for now, I'll hang up my garden tools, clean off my boots and close the garden shed. You may not be hearing me live anymore on the radio, but the past shows live on at Connecticut Public. Until we meet again, I'll be seeing you in the garden.

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It's hard to think about winter with such warm, fall weather, but spring flowering bulbs need to be planted soon. If you want to enjoy your spring flowering tulips, daffodils, crocus and other bulbs a little earlier in spring or if you don’t have a garden, consider forcing them in containers. 

You can plant two different ways. Either plant all one type of bulb in a pot for a big splash, or layer different bulbs in the container for a more extended flower show. First, select a container at least 10 inches in diameter. The bigger the pot, the more bulbs you can plant and the bigger the show. Fill it with potting soil. Then plant your bulbs 2 times their diameter deep.

For layering bulbs select bulb types or varieties that mature at different times. For example, plant large, late flowering varieties of daffodils on the bottom, mid season tulips in the middle and early season crocus on top. Plant the bulbs at the correct depth and fill in potting soil on top of them before adding the next layer.

Water your pots well and place in a dark, cool room, basement or garage that doesn't freeze for 14 weeks. This will allow your bulbs to grow roots and get the winter chill they need. Come late February you can start moving them into a sunny, warm room to grow. Take all the pots out at once or stagger them to extend the flower show. When finished flowering, grow them as houseplants until the leaves yellow, then plant them in the ground for next year.

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One of the trends I've noticed in our region is longer and warmer falls. This is an opportunity to garden more and now is the time to start planting quick maturing, cool weather loving veggies.

The easiest veggie to grow for a fall harvest is greens. Spinach, lettuce, arugula, escarole, kale and Swiss chard can all be sown now from seed or purchased as seedlings from local nurseries. These veggies have a few advantages. You can start eating them while they're small so you don't have to wait for them to mature. They love the cooler temperatures in September and October. And they can hold well in the garden when the shorter days slow the grow of all plants.

Look for fall or winter adapted varieties to grow, such as 'Winter Giant' spinach, 'Winter Density' lettuce, and 'Winter Bor' kale. They all can take a frost and keep on growing.

Prepare a raised bed in full sun by removing old plants that have finished producing such as squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. Amend the soil with fresh compost and sow seeds or transplants into the soil. You can also start seedlings in pots on a porch and transplant the seedlings in 2 to 3 weeks. Seedlings are more likely to survive than seeds. Cover the whole bed with micro-mesh or a floating row cover to keep pests away and keep the bed warm. Check under the cover regularly to make sure slugs and other critters haven't snuck inside. Harvest when leaves are large enough to eat. Pick the outer leaves so more new leaves will grow from the center.

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This Thanksgiving season is a good time to mend fences. I'm not talking just about relations with family and friends, but literally, fixing your garden fences. The weather is cool, the ground hasn't frozen yet and it's a good time to assess not only fences, but other garden tools and features to see if they need fixing, removing or replacing.

Let's start with the fence. We have a 7-foot-tall wire fence around the main part of our garden for deer control. It's worked well except for the occasional errant deer that tries to jump the fence every few years. That means it's been bent and broken in places. We've been cutting and mending that fence so the deer stay on “their side” of the garden. This is true for wooden and plastic mesh fences as well.

Hoses and nozzles always seem to leak for us after a few years. First of all, drain them of water well and store the hoses in a dry, protected spot in winter. This will reduce cracking and breaking of the hose and couplings. Check the nozzles and, if they leak at the point of contact with the hose, get a new O-ring rubber washer to fit in the nozzle. Clean the nozzle as well.

Take a good look at your cutting tools such as hand pruners, hedge trimmers and loopers. Clean and sharpen the blades now and oil the movable parts. Finally, do an assessment of what needs replacing such as grow lights, plant markers and plant stakes and do a little shopping now since you're already in the holiday spirit.

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When I was a boy growing up in Waterbury, each November my mom would send me “into the woods” of my grandfather's farm to gather branches of mountain laurel. Mom had a brick planter box as part of our front porch and she liked to decorate it for the holidays. Mountain laurel was perfect because this broadleaf evergreen shrub grows in abundance in Connecticut and lasts into winter. It got me thinking about decorating outdoor containers for winter.

Broadleaf evergreens are a good place to start. Kalmia, or mountain laurel, Pieris, evergreen holly and rhododendrons all make nice evergreens to fill an outdoor container. Try not to cut the flower buds of the rhodis, though, so you'll still get flowers in spring. Evergreen boughs, such as spruce, pine and cedar, are nice green backdrops as well.

To add splashes of color include some berry plants. Some shrubs and trees with nice berries are winterberry holly, red or yellow crabapples, beauty berry or callicarpa and cotoneaster. You can add color with branches, too. Red and yellow twigged dogwoods, paperbark maple and red barked Japanese maples all add brightness and texture to compliment the evergreens.

Once you gather the branches, take a large plastic container filled with potting soil and decorate the container. Recut and place tall branches in the center with smaller and cascading branches along the edge. Don't be surprised if the birds find your creation and help themselves to some berries over winter. Place the container out of the wind and within view of your windows so you can see the beauty you've created from inside the house.

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Fall is a great time to harvest root crops. But if you have lots of carrots, beets, parsnips, potatoes and other roots, consider storing them indoors so you can enjoy them into winter.

The first step is to know the storage needs of your roots. Root crops generally like a cold, damp place in winter. Ideally it would be a room that stays between freezing and 40 degrees and has moderate humidity. Root crops are prone to shriveling in dry homes. You can store most roots (except beets) for a few months in the refrigerator if you wrap them in a damp paper towel and store in a crisper. But for long term storage, a basement or unheated garage that stays above freezing, is best.

Once you find the best location, prep your roots. For carrots, beets and parsnips, clean and cut off the greens to one half inch of the top. Only store undamaged roots. Use a cardboard or wooden box and add a 4-inch thick layer of sawdust or slightly moistened peat moist to the bottom. Lay out the roots not touching and cover with 2- to 3-inches of material. Keep layering until you fill the box. If freezing is a concern add some insulating materials around the box to keep it warm. Your roots should last 3 to 5 months.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes are easier. Let them cure after harvest in a warm, well-ventilated room, for a week or so. Store them away from onions in a cool basement or garage and, depending on the variety, they will last for 5 plus months.

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With all the warm, fall weather we've been having, getting out in the garden is a pleasure. One of the fall tasks we can do is a soil test.

A soil test is an inexpensive way to get a snapshot of soil nutrients in your garden, the pH and organic matter content. While you can purchase simple home test kits, I like to use the pros to sample my soil. The University of Connecticut Soil Lab in Storrs will test home garden soils for $15/per sample. Their analysis will test levels of phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium and other nutrients as well as pH. Based on the results they will give you recommendations for ways to remedy anything that's out of whack.

While doing a soil test can happen anytime the ground isn't frozen, fall is best because you'll get a more accurate reading and you'll have plenty of time to add sulfur, limestone or nutrients. These will slowly breakdown over winter and be ready for your plants next spring.

Download the forms and instructions online. Take a different soil sample for different types of landscape areas. For example, take separate samples for a blueberry patch, vegetable garden, lawn area or tree section. In the vegetable or flower garden wait one month after spreading compost or manure to take a sample so not to skew the results. Follow instructions as to how deep to dig for each sample and randomly take 10 samples in the same garden. Mix the samples together and take 1 cup to send it to the lab. You can mail or drop off the samples.

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So, you bought more pumpkins and winter squash for carving and decorating than you have willing hands to help. Now you're wondering what to do with those extra pumpkins and gourds Why not make planters out of them?

This is a simple way to add to your Halloween decorations and have a planter for the holidays! You can make planters out of large or small pumpkins and gourds. Simply cut off the top, hollow out the center (saving the pumpkin seeds for roasting) and fill the squash with potting soil.

Now the fun begins. Check out local garden centers and farm stores for left over annual flowers, herbs or veggie transplants to plant or dig some from your own garden. You can also use succulents and small houseplants, too. Decide on your hair style. We use scallion transplants I found at a local garden center to create mohawk look. We also found some calibrochoa trailing plants for a floppy hair style. Finally, we bought some small flowering cabbages for a crew cut, flat top look. You can combine these plants with some scary face painting as well. Once the fall freeze causes the pumpkins to soften, move the whole creation into the compost pile.

For a more elegant look, use smaller gourds and mini pumpkins and place one small succulent or houseplant, such as sedum, echeveria and aloe, in each. Keep them in a cool, sunny room indoors in November and use them to decorate the Thanksgiving table. Once the gourds and mini-pumpkins start to soften, transfer the houseplants into plastic pots for your indoor winter garden.

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With the leaves dropping and the weather still warm, it's a perfect time to start fall garden cleanup. This time honored process has undergone some recommended changes over the last few years. Let me explain.

First, if the flowers are still blooming and veggies and herbs producing, leave them. Enjoy every last moment of this year's garden before frost takes it all away. In annual flower and vegetable gardens, cut to the ground and remove any diseased or insect damaged plants. If the plants were mostly healthy this summer, consider trying the No-Dig Gardening method of chopping the foliage and dropping it right on the soil. This will protect the garden soil from erosion, keep the soil microbes healthy and be less work.

In the perennial flower garden, the current recommendation is to leave the plants until spring. Cleaning up the dead plants now removes beneficial insects and pollinators that overwinter in the leaf and stem material. In spring, after a week of 50 degree days, you can clean it all up.

Add arborist's wood chips to the perennial flower beds that have open areas and around shrubs and trees. A 3- to 4-inch thick layer of arborists' wood chips keeps weeds away, breaks down to feed the soil and is better than shredded mulch because it doesn't block air and water transfer. Check with your local arborists to get a load of chips.

Top dress lawns with a 1/4-inch thick layer of compost and reseed bare spots to create a thicker, lusher lawn with fewer weeds and help the lawns stay green during a drought.

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Now is the time to plant tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinths and all types of bulbs for a spring flower display. While many gardeners like planting similar bulbs together in groups, if you only have a small yard or area for planting, there's another technique you can use.

Layering is planting different bulbs together in a large hole. If done properly, you can have many types of bulbs blooming in succession in spring. The key is bulb selection.

Bulb packaging in garden centers often lists the bloom times of the various bulbs. Select a number of different bulbs and mix and match early, mid and late spring flowering times so something new is blooming every week or so. Start with the large sized bulbs such as hyacinths and daffodils. Those will be planted deepest in your hole. Then look for medium-sized bulbs such as tulips and alliums. Those will be on top of the large bulbs. Finally, select small bulbs such as crocus, scilla and chionodoxa. These are planted on top.

To plant, dig a good sized hole about 8 inches deep and wide enough to fit your bulbs. Plant so the bulbs are almost touching in well-drained soil. Lay the largest bulbs 6 inches deep and cover with soil. Layer the medium-sized bulbs 4 inches deep and again cover those with soil. Finally, layer the small bulbs on top of the medium bulbs only 1- to 2-inches deep. Cover it all with soil and water well.

In spring, depending on your selections you'll have waves of crocus, daffodils, alliums and tulips blooming giving you weeks of bulb joy.

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