Putting the Garden to Bed This is mostly a matter of cleaning and covering up. As the temperatures drop, those plants that aren’t killed outright by frost prepare for dormancy. Clear out the spent stems and foliage of annual flowers and vegetables to prevent the possibility of their harboring disease pathogens and insect eggs over […]

May for me is a magical month in the garden. The weather is warming up, and the garden is awake and ready for transplants. May is one of the busiest times in the garden, so here’s a checklist to help you out: Add mulch around trees, shrubs and landscape beds to reduce weeds and conserve […]

Thank you to everyone who voted for their favorite new flowers for 2024 at this year’s Dutchess County Fair. We had a record number of votes – 4,657! Along with your likes and dislikes, we gathered lots of great questions about these varieties and I wanted to take a moment to answer some of them. […]

Containers Watering: When watering containers, don’t “tease the leaves.” Water thoroughly. When it’s cool and cloudy, your containers may go a few days without watering. But on hot, windy days, they’ll dry out quickly. If a container has a saucer, empty out the water. Let soil dry out in between watering. but not to the […]

What is a planting zone? A planting zone, or hardiness zone, is a categorization that the USDA uses to divide sections of the country based on weather pattern date. Plant types have their own hardiness zones, often listed on the products sold. Planting zones are a guideline to help gardeners choose plants. The USDA’s website […]

Early Spring Planting Ah, it’s a beautiful day, and you can’t wait to start planting! New trees and shrubs, most herbaceous perennials, pansy, snapdragon, lettuce, spinach, peas, chard, collards, beets, carrots and radishes can tolerate a frost. Semi-tender plants that will tolerate a light frost include broccoli, cauliflower, petunia, lobelia, geranium, dusty miller, osteospermum (cape […]