Category: The Gardening Guy

Veggies for the lackadaisical gardener

My father, may he rest in peace, always told me that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Wrong, Dad. I grow at least three tasty vegetables that require no work to speak of: I just plant, mulch and harvest. If you are a lackadaisical gardener and like garlic, rhubarb and horseradish, you are in luck.

Let’s start with horseradish: It’s in the broccoli family, and once planted, it will never ask anything of you. Yes, it does slowly expand the patch of ground it claims as its own, so you may want to dig some up each year and make horseradish sauce. But if you plant it bordering a lawn on one side and a barn, house or path on the other, it won’t travel far.

The roots of a mature horseradish plant will grow deep, probably all the way to China. So when you dig it, some will always be left in the ground to come back. I have extracted roots longer than 18 inches. The plant is tall, easily 3 or 4 feet, and the leaves are wide and a bit coarse-looking. Not a particularly pretty plant. And although it produces little white flowers, it doesn’t produce viable seed. You can start it from a scrap of root you get from a friend at harvest time.

The sauce can be very powerful or more mild, depending on how you make it. Wash the roots with a scrub brush, then peel with a potato peeler. Chop into chunks under an inch in size, and put in a food processor or blender. A cup of chunks will make all I need for a year. I blend the chunks with half a cup of water or so. It takes a few minutes of blending to get it to the right consistency as this stuff is fibrous and tough to break down. Don’t overheat your blender, so stop and start.

If you want mild horseradish add a third of a cup of vinegar pretty much right away. If you want it hot (which I do), wait a few minutes after blending, then add it. The mix should be spreadable with a butter knife and juicy. Store it in a glass jar, preferably with a plastic lid. Metal lids rust and dissolve from the fumes in less than a year.

The fumes when blending are powerful, so don’t get your eyes and nose by looking into the blender. You may even want to do the job outside on the deck.

Rhubarb is a wonderful vegetable, even if old-fashioned. Like horseradish, it is a forever plant that once planted should provide you with treats for the rest of your life. You can buy a plant or get a friend to divide and share some roots. Some rhubarb has red stems, others green stems. They taste the same, but I like the red color. The leaves contain oxalic acid and are not edible.

Since rhubarb is going to live forever, I recommend adding lots of compost and some slow-release organic fertilizer at planting time. If dividing rhubarb, early spring is the best time to do it, but anytime is all right. It grows best in full sun, but as a leafy green it will thrive in part sun, too.

I like making rhubarb punch as an early-summer refreshing drink. Pick a few stems, and cut into one-inch chunks. Add an equal amount of water, and boil until the rhubarb is falling apart. Sieve through a colander or sieve. The add water — a cup of fruit will easily make a quart of punch, or even two, depending how you like it. Add sugar to taste and serve cold.

Garlic should be planted in October, and it is ready to harvest in July. This year mine started to blossom in late June, sending up curly stalks called scapes that are edible and decorative. I will resist picking any bulbs of garlic until mid-July or later so it can reach maximum size. But don’t wait too long; if you do, the outer layers of leafy material that cover each bulb will start to break down, and it will not store as well.

OK, I looked at mine today and did see a few weeds I should pull. But it really is essentially a work-free crop. I plant cloves 3 inches apart and 3 inches deep in rich, compost-containing soil. Full sun is best. Once planted, I mulch it heavily — up to a foot of fluffy mulch hay or straw. Over the winter it will pack down to just 3 or 4 inches. In the spring the leaves will grow right through the straw, but weeds do not.

Garlic stores well in a cool, dry place. By now, some of last year’s garlic is starting to sprout in the kitchen. I have made garlic powder by drying it in a food dehydrator, then grinding in a coffee or spice grinder, but normally I just store it. I have read that one can freeze it, too, but haven’t done so yet. Don’t store it at room temperature in oil — as a root crop there is always the possibility of getting botulism.

Whatever you plant in the garden will reward you well beyond the work it involves to grow. To get good results do these things: prepare the soil well, and add compost. Provide plenty of sunshine, even if it means planting in the front lawn. Water regularly in hot times, especially early in the season. Pick your veggies when they are small and tender — that’s when they will taste best. And lastly, don’t let the weeds get ahead of you. Never let weeds blossom and distribute their seeds. Mulch is an easy way to keep weeds at bay, particularly if you put down a few sheets of newspaper under the straw or hay.

Featured photo: Garlic scapes can be sauteed and eaten, or put in a vase like flowers. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Weeding the garden is only the beginning

With the advent of summer, it is time to buckle down and get a few jobs done in the garden. In the vegetable garden it’s time to thin out extra plants that are crowding each other. In addition to carrots and beets, others like rutabagas, kohlrabi and parsnips that are started by seed in the ground may need thinning.

Carrot seeds are tiny, so we don’t often plant them one by one. Instead we tend to sprinkle them and, by gum, most of them grow. I maintain that thinning carrots needs to happen by the Fourth of July, so get to work. If they are really close together, you may want to use scissors to cut off the extras at the soil line to avoid pulling up carrots you are trying to save.

I like to be efficient at whatever I do, and that includes keeping a relatively weed-free garden. Many weeds quickly mature, flower, and produce seeds. Your job is to keep them from producing seeds or crowding out your plants.

One way to control weeds is to keep them from getting the sunlight they need to grow. You can do this by mulching. I spread out newspapers over the soil and cover them with straw, hay or leaves. Four to six pages of newspaper keeps out light, inhibiting weeds. Three or four inches of straw will keep the papers in place. Earthworms eat the paper over the summer, and newsprint is done with soy-based inks, so you are not adding heavy metals to your soil (which was the case years ago).

This method works well on walkways and around big plants in the vegetable garden but is more problematic for onions and carrots, which are small and closer together. I use grass clippings or chopped leaves, without the newspaper, around small plants.

Mulching in the flower garden is good, too. It keeps down weeds and holds in moisture. But beware: Too much mulch can keep rain from reaching the roots of your perennials. An inch or two of ground bark helps a lot, but 3 or 4 inches will keep quick showers from getting water to your plants.

Some gardeners use landscape fabric under bark mulch, but I generally do not. I find pernicious weeds eventually send roots through the woven fabric and this makes weeding very difficult. Landscape fabric can also constrict perennials as they expand over time, choking them.

What about plain old black plastic? I don’t use it. Sunshine breaks it down over time and makes a mess. It also keeps air and water from getting to the soil, which must affect soil microorganisms. Additionally, the plastic ends up in the waste stream, which I want to avoid.

This is the time to prune lilacs, forsythia and other spring- and early summer-blooming trees and shrubs. They set their buds for next spring in the summer, so if you wait until fall to prune, you will reduce the number of blossoms. But don’t take a hedge trimmer and just buzz off a foot or two. Make each cut thoughtfully.

I start by deciding the perfect height and shape for the shrub. I recently reduced the height of some lilacs from 12 feet or more to a more manageable 8 feet or so. I cut back each stem to a place where two branches meet. If you cut any branch to a random spot, the branch may not heal well. It heals best where two branches meet. Try to hide your cuts by cutting bigger branches in places where foliage from other branches will obscure your surgery.

You can also cut back tall fall-blooming perennial flowers by a third to delay blooming and create shorter plants. This is best done in mid-May, but it’s not too late. Sometimes I will cut back the outer stems of a big clump and leave the center stems at full length. That gives me a longer bloom time, and the lower stems help support the taller stems.

Be forewarned: Not all perennials will bloom if you cut them back. I wouldn’t do it for peonies or iris, for example, but anything like an aster will respond well. Experiment with just a few plants at first. Better yet, read Tracy DiSabato Aust’s book, The Well Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques. It has detailed advice for most common garden plants.

If we have a dry summer, you may need to water. Established perennials should not need added water, but your vegetable garden might. I don’t favor overhead sprinklers because they water everything: plants, walkways and weeds. I prefer a watering wand, which is a device I attach to my hose. It is a 30-inch aluminum wand with a sprinkler head and a valve. I can direct the water exactly where I want it. I like a brand called Dramm because the sprinkler head allows fast, gentle watering.

Watering cans are good, too. They allow you to see just how much water you are applying. This is important for new trees, which need 5 gallons a week or so. A sprinkler might seem like it is delivering a lot of water, but may not be.

A watering timer will deliver water while you are away on vacation. They attach to your spigot and allow you to use an overhead sprinkler or a soaker hose. So don’t let your garden dictate your vacation schedule. With mulch and a watering system you can come back from vacation with nothing worse than a lawn that needs cutting!

Featured photo: The first step of mulching as I do it is to put down newspaper. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Consider native shrubs for your yard

Many of the “cast iron” shrubs that no one can kill are now deemed invasive: barberry, burning bush, multiflora rose and bush honeysuckle. And many others, while not invasive, have been overused: lilacs, rhododendrons and spirea, for example, are nice but not too exciting. Today I’d like to share some nice native shrubs that support wildlife and add beauty to your landscape. These are arranged here roughly in order of season of interest (for flowers, bark, berries)

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin): I grew up chewing on the twigs and leaves of this small native with a distinctive flavor that I like. It grows in dry shade and has yellow flowers early in the spring, and red berries in the fall. But to get berries you have both males and female plants (and they are not sexed the way winterberries are). The leaves can be used to make a spicy tea. It tolerates some drought, but prefers moist rich soil.

Common sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus): This can be a fussy plant — I have moved mine twice to find just the right amount of sun. I have it growing under a tall, sparse pear tree and right now it is loaded with wine-red blossoms, each a bit like a miniature peony. Allegedly fragrant, but mine is not, so buy in bloom and sniff first if fragrance is important to you. Reference books generally say it does best in full sun with moist soil, but mine burned in the sun, even with wet soil. Native to the south, but hardy to Zone 4.

Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia): This is a native that often plants itself — with the help of birds — in semi-shaded places. Its structure is fabulous — it often has 2 feet of stem between horizontal branches arranged in tiers. It prefers part shade, but I do have it in full sun growing out of a high rock wall. It grows 15 to 25 feet tall. Birds love the berries (drupes, actually) in August. White, subtle flowers in June. Not often sold in nurseries, but try it if you can find it. Avoid the variegated-leafed variety; it is not nearly as tough a plant and often fails to thrive

Blueberries: So many gardeners avoid blueberries because “the birds will just eat them.” Well, why not plant some for them? They have lovely white blossoms in June, nice fruit for feeding the birds and lovely red foliage in the fall. The trick to success? Test your soil, and then add sulfur or a fertilizer-containing sulfur designed for hollies and such. You need the soil pH to be between 4.5 and 5.5 to get good fruit production. And who knows? You might get a few berries yourself — even without netting. (I avoid netting as birds get tangled in it and die).

Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica): New to me. I just bought one at Spring Ledge Farm in New London, New Hampshire, when I saw one in bloom. It was gorgeous, and although it’s rated as a Zone 5 plant and I’m a little colder than that some years, I had to try it. It has bottlebrush white flowers in June and red fall foliage. Best of all, for me, it does well alongside water or in wet places in full sun to part shade — and I have plenty of that. It stays 3 to 4 feet tall, but can spread by root. Full sun to full shade.

Smooth hydrangea (H. arborescens): Along with oak-leafed hydrangea, this is a native that grows wild in the forest as an understory shrub. It is stoloniferous (it spreads by roots) and only gets to be about 3 feet tall, but can form large clumps. I recently read an article about these on research done that cites a named variety called ‘Haas Halo’ that is said to be the best of all hydrangeas for pollinators. Fortunately, I had already purchased some last fall. It is, however, attractive to deer. They got eaten last fall, but came back from the roots vigorously this spring.

Rosebay rhododendron (R. maximum): This is another understory shrub, but can get quite large. I like it because it grows in shade or sun, and blooms (for me) in July. It is native to Appalachia, and large specimens dug in the wild are often sold in the nursery business. It can have either white or pink blossoms. Rhododendron State Park in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, is worth a visit in July — there are 16 acres of rhododendrons and mountain laurel.

Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia): This is an August bloomer, fragrant and handsome. It blooms well in light to moderate shade, and thrives in moist soils (where full sun is tolerated). The bottlebrush flowers are upright and range from white to pink to red. Many selections are sold as named varieties.

Red-twigged dogwood (Cornus sericea): Common in the wet places in the wild and in roadside ditches. Its best attribute is the bright red bark in winter of first- or second-year stems. To keep it looking bright, cut back older stems each year. It can grow new stems up to 5 feet tall in one year!

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata): Common in nurseries, these bear bright red berries in winter that are great in wreaths — and for hungry birds. In the wild they grow in standing water, but once established they will do fine in most gardens. Buy a male cultivar for every five or so females.

So visit your local nursery, talk to someone knowledgeable, and buy some new shrubs. Ask for native shrubs that are good for our birds and pollinators. There are plenty of others not mentioned here that are nice, too!

Featured photo: Sweetspire grows alongside my stream and has nice fall color. Photo courtesy of Henry Homeyer.

Artichokes, tomatillos and other plants that still have time to thrive

It’s not too late to plant some more things in the vegetable garden. It’s only June, and there is still time. Here are some tips for some less commonly planted veggies — for growing and/or using. It’s way too late to start most things from seed, but you can sometimes buy started plants at a good local greenhouse or garden center.

Artichokes: These are big plants, so you need a 2-foot-wide square in good, rich, moist soil in full sun. You will get one good-sized “choke” on the top of the plant, and a few more as side shoots. Grow them because the foliage and chokes are beautiful, even if not much food. They are nice in the flower garden, too.

Brussels sprouts: I get many emails complaining that the little green globes that we eat never get big. But that’s easy to fix: On Labor Day weekend, go to the garden with a sharp knife. Then, as the Red Queen of Alice and Wonderland said, “Off with their heads!” That’s right; slice off the top 4 inches or so of the plant and it will plump up the sprouts and stop putting all its energy into getting taller. They are incredibly frost-hardy, so you can harvest as late as Christmas if you wish.

Cauliflower: These guys are fussy. If they get too cold, too hot, too wet or too dry they will only produce a ”button” of a head. But if you’re lucky, you’ll get a mouth-watering delight. And they come in purple, too! But cooked, the purple turns gray — so use them in a salad where the purple will amaze your guests.

Celeriac: These are root crops related to celery but easier to grow. My home-grown celery was always stringy and attracted slugs, so I stopped growing it. But celeriac is easy — if you have soil that stays moist. I usually start seeds indoors in March but forgot this year, so I just bought some plants in a four-pack at my local nursery. Harvest late in fall to let them get as big as possible.

Kale: A favorite of the Birkenstock crew it should be grown by everyone. Why? It’s a green vegetable that is easy to grow and, unlike lettuce or spinach, it freezes well. I blanch it, and freeze it in zipper bags to use in soups, stews and smoothies all winter. Your garden center may still have seedlings, but you could start some by direct seeding in the ground for a fall crop. Each plant needs about 16 inches of space, so if starting from seed, plant several seeds in a group at that spacing, and then thin out all but one after they germinate.

Kohlrabi: These are in the cabbage/broccoli family but are an above-ground root (actually an enlarged stem). The leaves pop out of the purple or light green above-ground sphere. Some should be harvested at the size of baseballs; others are still perfect when the size of a duckpin bowling ball. The seed packet will tell you which you have. They taste a bit like broccoli and can be used raw in salads or cooked in a stir-fry or soup. Some, like “Gigante,” will store for six months in a cool cellar or fridge. These grow fast, so you can plant seeds now.

Parsnips: I usually plant by seed around June 15 because they won’t germinate in cold soil. Seeds are good for only one year, so share the seed packet with your neighbor. We “older folks” love parsnips. Parsnips grow like carrots but get bigger. I leave them in the ground all winter and harvest them first thing in the spring. I steam them and serve them with butter and (real) maple syrup (of course).

Pole beans: Unlike bush beans, they keep on producing all summer if you keep on picking them. “Kentucky Wonder” is the classic, but the tastiest I’ve eaten in “Kwintus,” which is still good when picked big. Kwintus seeds are hard to find, but they are available from Fedco Seeds.

Rutabagas: Why do people never raise their hand when I ask a group, “Other than me, who has grown these gems?”? I admit, it’s an old-fashioned vegetable, one our grandparents grew. But it’s easy to start from seed, it’s tasty and it produces a lot of food. Use it just like potatoes in a stew. Its advantage is that it won’t crumble and fall apart after reheating the stew a few times. And potato beetles aren’t a problem. Just thin them to 4 inches apart and you will get roots bigger than any of your potatoes. Start by seed now.

Swiss chard: Swiss chard is actually the same species as beets, but has been selected for big leaves, not big roots. Plant by seed (or plants if you can find them) now. Bedrock Gardens in Lee, N.H. (one of New England’s quiet gems) used purple-leafed ones in their garden last year (or was that a purple-leafed beet?). “Bright Lights” Swiss chard offers stems in red, purple, yellow, orange and green. Plant them in the flower garden, eat them raw or steamed.

Tomatillos: These are used in Mexican dishes and can be grown here. But you need two plants to get proper pollination. I didn’t know that and only planted one the first time I tried it. It made fruit capsules, but with nothing inside! Look for plants at your local greenhouse.

Thank you, John Lenat (1888 to 1967), my maternal grandfather. You not only taught me how to make a good compost pile, you taught me the joy of eating fresh vegetables only minutes after picking them. I am eternally grateful.

Featured photo: Kohlrabi. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Buy less plastic, stay away from chemical fertilizers and compost

Do you want to be a better steward of the environment? If so, the first step is to be a gardener: Grow some of your own vegetables and plant some native trees, shrubs and flowers while using no chemicals. But there is even more to think about than what kind of tomatoes to plant, and how many.

First, what should you do with all those black plastic pots that come with the plants? Most recycling facilities do not accept black plastic pots, but some pots are numbered #2 or #5 and can be recycled. A few have no numbers. Plastic pots are made from oil in factories around the world. I imagine that these factories spew and spill a certain amount of chemicals, and create waste and byproducts that are bad for the environment.

My mantra for plastic is this: Refuse, Re-use, Recycle. So how do you refuse to buy plants in plastic pots? Start your own plants. If you save plastic pots and rinse them out, you can reuse them. Some for years. You can also buy peat pots and coir (palm fiber) pots. Some companies, like Gardener’s Supply, sell sturdy flats to use instead of those flimsy six-packs, strong enough to be used many times.

Trees and shrubs are most often sold in big black plastic pots. But they are also sold “balled and burlapped.” Those are usually bigger trees that are dug up and wrapped in burlap after years growing in the ground. Some local nurseries still dig their own plants, and I recommend supporting them. When you plant, be sure to take off any burlap and wires that may be holding the root ball together. And beware of any “fake” burlap made of plastic. Don’t buy it.

For years we have been offering sturdy plastic pots to our local, family-owned garden centers. Most just want them cleaned before you drop them off. I find it easiest to do that right after planting, before the soil bakes on. Reusing pots saves the garden centers money, assuming they have the time to sort and store them. Tell those that do how happy you are with them.

Recycling is really not the answer: Many loads of plastic at the recycling center are contaminated and end up in the landfill or incinerator. Too much dirt, food or items of the wrong number can condemn a whole Dumpster of plastic.

I was pleased to learn that most Home Depot stores now accept all kinds of plastic pots. I went to the one near me in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, and there was a rack outside with the plants just for returned pots. The pots don’t even need to have come from them.

We recently took a big step forward toward being “green.” We bought an electric lawn mower. I’ve read that the EPA estimates that using a lawn mower is 11 times more polluting than driving a new car. One hour of mowing, apparently, is equal to driving 93 miles. Of course, these statistics are not perfect, as they do not indicate what kind of mower or car is being compared. Older, bigger mowers are worse.

We bought a 21-inch, self-propelled battery-powered lawn mower on sale for $500 at our local True Value Hardware store. It has a quick-charge battery charger that takes an hour or less to recharge the 54-volt battery, which is good for an hour of mowing. The mower has plenty of power and is so much quieter than our old gas mower. Our lawn takes more than an hour to mow, but so what? I have plenty of other garden chores to do while the battery recharges. The technology in batteries in electric mowers really has improved just in the last few years.

Being green also means using no chemicals in the garden. That’s an easy one. I don’t use herbicides, insecticides or chemical fertilizers. I don’t want something to kill dandelions or moss, neither of which I consider a problem.

There are perfectly wonderful organic fertilizers that offer so much more than the chemical ones. Instead of just offering three plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), they offer calcium, magnesium and many more nutrients plants use. They do this because they are manufactured using natural ingredients like seaweed, cottonseed meal, ground oyster shells and ground peanut hulls.

Organic fertilizers are also slow-release fertilizers. Pro-Gro, made in Vermont, has about 25 percent soluble nitrogen that is ready right away. The rest is released slowly as microorganisms break it down and make it usable by plants. And it will not damage root hairs the way some of the chemical fertilizers can if too much is applied.

Compost is one of the best things you can add to your soil. It helps sandy soils hold moisture and loosens up heavy clay-based soils. You can buy it by the bag or, better yet, by the truck load. Even though my soil is terrific, I add compost every year. It is not a fertilizer, but it feeds the microorganisms that work with our plants. And if you get a good grade of compost, it will improve the texture of your soil, no matter what it is.

Lastly, speak up. If your suppliers are trying to reduce use of plastic, or are taking it back to reuse it, tell them that is why you are buying from them. If they’re not? Ask them to! Every voice counts. We gardeners should be on the cutting edge of reducing plastic and chemical use.

Featured photo: Electric mowers have improved greatly in the past few years. They are quiet and non-polluting. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Plants that thrive in wet or moist places

I like to say that plants can be as fussy as a 2-year-old facing a plate of overcooked broccoli. Plants know what they want, and will not behave the way you want them to unless you accommodate their wishes. Today let’s look at a few that love wet feet.

First, please understand that plants need oxygen but do not get it from their leaves. No; they get oxygen from their roots. Some plants have evolved ways to get their oxygen despite sitting in water-logged soil while others quickly drown or develop root rot. If you have heavy clay soil that holds water, be sure to pick plants that can tolerate wetness.

I have a small stream running through my property, so much of my land stays quite moist, even in dry summers. In spring I often have standing water between raised beds in the vegetable garden. Yet I have plenty of wonderful flowers that thrive here. Here are a dozen I like, arranged roughly according to bloom time, from early spring to late fall.

1. The drumstick primrose (Primula denticulata) blooms in early spring in hues of blue to red or white. Then comes P. kisoana, which spreads by root in either wet or dry places. Last, starting now, there is the candelabra primrose (P. japonica) which sets out a series of blossoms on an increasingly tall stem over a month of bloom time. All love growing under old apple trees in dappled shade.

2. Forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica). I have these blooming now by the hundred everywhere I look, sun or shade. These lovely low-growing blue (or sometimes pink or white) flowers self-sow bountifully. They prefer rich moist soil and will do well in sun or shade. Because they come back from seeds so easily we let them bloom, then often pull them out like weeds to plant something else.

3. ‘Thalia’ daffodil. Most bulbs require good drainage, but ‘Thalia’ does fine in soggy soil. She is nearly white, and each bulb can produce three flowers at once. She blooms with the forget-me-nots. Order now for fall planting.

4. Globeflower (Trollius spp.). An early summer bloomer, it does best in part sun and moist soil, but will also grow in ordinary garden soil and in full shade. The blossoms are an inch or so across and bright yellow. Blooms in late May to June, but may sometimes re-bloom in the fall.

5. Japanese iris (Iris ensata). These beauties will bloom in standing water or in damp soil. They are like the Siberian iris, but their falls (petals) lay back almost flat. Blues and purples. Early summer.

6. Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis). These flowers are native plants that bloom on 3-foot stalks in fire engine red! I’ve seen them growing on the banks of the Connecticut River, but they do well in moist soil and full sun in my garden. Will tolerate some dryness, but prefer wet. I avoid modern hybrids that are other colors but not as hardy.

7. Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). Related to ordinary milkweed, this likes moist soil and full sun. Unlike the wild one, this does not send runners out and spread by root. Mine get 3 to 5 feet tall and come in pink or white. Readily available at garden centers.

8. Astilbe (Astilbe spp.) These flowers come in red, pink and white and various heights. They can survive in drier soil in shade, but really love moist, rich soil and full sun. Good cut flower with an almost woody stem.

9. Goldenrod (Solidago spp.). There are many species, some of which spread by root while others do not. It is the very best perennial for supporting pollinators. Mid-summer to fall. ‘Fireworks’ is my favorite.

10. Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum). This is a native plant that thrives on stream beds and swampy areas that has been domesticated. A cultivar known as ‘Gateway’ is the best but gets to be over 6 feet tall. ‘Baby Joe’ is supposed to be a smaller version, but I haven’t tried it yet. Pollinators love this plant, which blooms in fall with pinky-purple blossoms.

11. Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii). Gorgeous tall stems loaded with pink flowers shaped like helmets – or turtle heads. Will do sun or shade, loves moisture but will grow in ordinary gardens, too. Bumblebees force themselves inside, and seem to growl in there at times. Great cut flower. Fall.

12. ‘Henry Eiler’ rudbeckia. One of the latest flowers I grow. Petals are distinctive: They have space between each one, like missing teeth. Tall, often 6 feet or more. Needs to be staked early, or perhaps cut back in early June to reduce height. Blooms past frost. Full sun, rich moist soil.

If you have a clay-based soil that is sticky when you rub it, wet, between your fingers, you would do well to add compost to the soil before planting any of these lovely flowers. Yes, they like the moisture clay holds, but compost — a shovel or more mixed into the planting hole — will improve their performance.

I’m pleased to report that our new young dog, Rowan, is learning to stay out of garden beds. He’s an 18-month-old golden/Irish setter mix with lots of energy. But so far, he hasn’t dug up any plants.

Featured photo: Pollinators are attracted to Swamp milkweed by color and scent. Photo by Henry Homeyer.