This Week's Podcast: The Essential Herbalist Shares Wisdom

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Sal Gilbertie is a world famous grower of herbs and the third generation owner of Gilbertie’s Herb Garden in Westport, Connecticut, established in 1922.
Sal says that anyone with access to a few square yards of soil (or even a sunny patio) can enjoy fresh herbs, hand-picked from the garden. Sal’s new book, written with co-author Larry Sheehan, Herb Gardening from the Ground Up demonstrates how to design, seed, and nurture 38 culinary herb gardens that are delightful to the eye as well the palate.  The book presents plans for all of these different styles from a Tex-Mex garden, to a French Chef planting, to medicinal herbs, a shady garden, container plantings, silver gardens and for the mixologists among us, even herbs for the home cocktail bar. 
There is also a pest-repelling garden, which reminds me that Sal is an organic gardener, and with herbs, not using chemical repellants might be easier than in other types of plantings because many herbs are not palatable to insects. (Sal was voted 2011 Connecticut Organic Farmer of the Year.)
Herb Gardening from the Ground Up offers historical information and lore, provides starting-from-scratch, season-to-season basics for planting, and also many insights into propagating hundreds of herbs.

This Week's Podcast: Plants on the Cutting Edge

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Kathy and Chris Tracey founded Avant Gardens in 1985 as a small garden installation business quite by accident.  The owner of a small local bistro asked these plant lovers to grow herbs and greens to cook with and flowers for the table. But soon, their love for rare and unusual plants led to one greenhouse and another. They started a nursery but they weren’t completely naive. Kathy and Chris signed up for horticulture courses at the Arnold Arboretum, including one that still makes them smile: How to start your own Nursery. Words their instructor, Jack Alexander, shared are still emblazoned on their memories: “I hope no one here expects to get rich. If you can meet your expenses and take a week off in the winter, you’ll be considered successful.”
     Kathy says those were the truest words she ever heard. But the Traceys’ love for plants won out. In 1997 they started a mail order nursery – mostly selling tender perennials, and that was a success. All these years later, they remain among the few specialty New England retail and mail order nurseries specializing in unusual plants: tender perennials, hardy woody and herbaceous plants and succulents (both hardy and tender) for containers.
     For years they put out a paper catalog, but now it is only online.  They keep their website and online catalog “up to the minute” with lots of good images, and launched an e-magazine/blog , Garden Foreplay in 2010.
     Kathy now runs the nursery with the help of their son Peter and part time employees Trish Perry and Joanne Doherty. Chris, who works with a small crew, is busy with landscape installations and dry wall stone construction for which has become well known.
      Avant Gardens is open to visitors from mid April through September. The mail order season extends into November. (Clockwise from top left: Kathy Tracey; Rodgersia ‘Chocolate Wings’; Chamaeacyparis obtusa var. nana ‘Lutea’; Magnolia ‘Sunsation’.)

This Week's Podcast: Tasty Tomatoes

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Steve Bogash, Regional Horticulture Educator for Penn State Extension, Franklin County, Chambersburg, PA joins us to share the results of the 2011 tomato tasting, and make some suggestions for the tomatoes to order now to grow this year in your garden. The trials focusing mostly on tomatoes (also peppers and other plants) have been running since 2000. Every year, up to 70 tomato varieties are grown and judged for taste, production, disease resistance, ease of training and appearance.
     Steve found that although the heirloom varieties are often delicious, the yields may be low. Some of the winning old-timers have drawbacks, for example incredibly delicious and beautiful yellow, orange and red ‘Pineapple’ is susceptible to cracking. Do we home gardeners care? Some of us do, some are happy to put up with blemishes for wonderful flavor. Steve again recommended Burpee’s ‘Brandy Boy’, which combines the flavor of the favorite heirloom ‘Brandywine’ with the high yield and disease resistance of a modern hybrid for those who want the best of both worlds. Other well-known heirloom winners included ‘Mortgage Lifter’, ‘Arkansas Traveler’ and ‘Marianna’s Peace’.

     If sweetness is what you are after, many of the cherry and grape types will be the varieties you’ll hope to grow. ‘Sakusa Honey’ is just about the best, but Steve pointed out that the price of the seeds (from Johnny’s Seeds) was steep – a whopping $9.95 per pack. Other cherry types noted were ‘Red Pearl’, ‘Five Star’, ‘Maglia Rosa’, and ‘Sun Gold’ -- a small orange, moderately disease-resistant variety with a flavor that was described as “candy.”
     Slicing tomatoes that were judged best for taste included ‘Scarlet Red’, ‘Big Beef’, ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Stupice’.
A few patio types to try in containers that did well in the judging were ‘Bush Early Girl’, Bush Steak’, and ‘Sweet ‘N Neat’. (Photos courtesy Steve Bogash and PA Extension.)
     Steve reminds listeners that they are invited to the free tastings the third week of August at the Chambersburg, PA Extension office.

Ken revisits a show from last year with Ohio’s Birdman

Jim McCormac visits again to answer some questions.

- The sight of a robin used be the first sign of spring, but now I see them all year round. What’s up with that?

(Hint: exotic fruit -- and it’s dangerous.)

- Are the robins we see in winter the same ones that were here in the summer?

- Is it bad to feed birds in winter? Will that cause some birds to stop migrating?

- Do all birds migrate?

- What are some of the birds I might see passing though during winter migration? (Hint: Golden-crowned Kinglet, right, photo by Tim Daniel, Ohio Division of Wildlife.)

- I saw a crow with a white feather. Is that possible?

- What about those raptors – eagles, hawks, what do they find to eat in winter?

- North America’s counterpart to the biodiversity of Costa Rica is..?

Listen to this week’s show to discover the answers to those questions and learn a lot more about our feathered friends in winter.

Check out Jim’s fantastic blog: Ohio Birds and Biodiversity

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