( gentle music) - It's spring in New England.

The flowers are blooming, the trees are growing, the birds are singing and it's time to garden.

I'm Charlie Nardozzi and welcome to New England Gardening Spring Edition, 2021.

We're gonna be talking all about different types of gardens that you can grow in your yard.

We'll be talking about vegetable gardens for example, some easy raised beds that you can grow without having to dig the soil.

I'll also talk about pruning hydrangeas and propagating rhododendrons, and I'll be joined by some friends too.

They're gonna help us understand more about pollinator gardens and how to attract bees and butterflies to our yard, how to grow railing planters and hanging baskets in small spaces, and how to garden with kids.

So come join me at this exciting time of year when we learn about gardening and how to make our yards more beautiful and productive.

(gentle music) Container gardening is hot, more and more people are growing containers on decks, patios, and balconies to grow beautiful flowers, herbs and vegetables.

But what happens if you have a deck, or patio, or a small balcony, and you don't have a lot of space?

Maybe you wanna have some lawn furniture out there, a fire pit, or maybe even a grill.

How are you going to have your plants and all of those things too?

I've got a solution for you.

Hanging baskets, railing planters, and window boxes are a way to grow vertical.

It gets everything off the ground so you can have all kinds of things going on on the deck and patio, but still be able to grow beautiful flowers, herbs, and vegetables.

I'm here at Winterberry Gardens in Southington Connecticut and we're gonna show you how to put together some beautiful containers.

(gentle music) First, you have to have the right container for vertical gardening and there's so many different options now.

For example you can get something like a hanging basket.

Everyone is familiar with those.

Those will hang down and you can grow all kinds of flowers, fruits, and veggies in them.

These hanging baskets also are great because a lot of them now have a material called coir in them, C-O-I-R.

This is a coconut husk fiber that's a by-product of the coconut industry.

And what they found is it makes a great liner for hanging baskets, and a great additive for seed starting mixes too.

So having the coir in there will help the plants breathe a little bit, the roots will breathe, and yet it holds enough moisture so they grow really well.

Now, if you're looking to get things off the ground and onto your railings, there's lots of different options.

If you have a metal railing, you can have one of these planters and you can see it has this little saddle on it that just goes right over the metal railing, and it just sits there and then you can just fill it with your favorite flowers.

Another option would be one, if you have a two by four, or two by six, you could see that this one has two different diameter openings here, and you can just lay it on top of your deck or railing.

And what happens is that it's so heavy with all the soil and flowers in it it won't blow over, the raccoons won't knock it over, the squirrels won't knock it over.

Both of these common, what we call self-watering containers and this is really an important feature.

That's where you fill up a reservoir in the bottom and it's filled up with all kinds of moisture that's gonna seep into the soil, and then keep your container nice and moist for days.

So you can go away to the beach and not have to worry about them drying out.

Now, if you do have a little space on the ground but not a lot of storage space, these are really good these are called grow bags, and they're made out of this fleece material that is perfect for any kind of flower or vegetable in it because it breaths a little bit, it holds a lot of moisture.

The best part about this is that when you're done in the fall, you just compost the potting soil, you can just fold it back up again and then just stick it in the bottom of a closet and that's your container garden right there.

So you see that there's lots of different container options that you can have that'll work really well in your garden.

And of course, potting soil would be the next thing you wanna put in there.

And I mentioned coir.

And if you take a look at this coir material here this is moistened coir and you can see it's pretty light and fluffy.

That's even when it's moist.

That's the nice thing about this.

It doesn't get really soggy like a peat moss will.

So when you're looking for potting soils look for one that has some coir in it that could be a nice thing.

As well as one that has some organic materials like a little bit of compost that's good too.

So, once you've got your containers and your potting soil then you gotta plant, and that's what I'm gonna bring in a local expert.

(gentle music) Here at Winterberry Gardens there's a head grower named Sebby Milano, and I'm gonna ask him to help me out, Sebby, how are you?

- I'm doing great, how about you?

- I'm doing really well.

- Good.

- So Sebby you've been here a little while, right?

- 18 years.

- 18 years.

- Into my second career.

- Oh, nice, so what was the big change?

Why did you decide to do gardening?

- Well, I'm Italian.

(laughs) - So need I say more.

And I can't ever remember not having a vegetable garden in my backyard and what's better than this?

In January when you're shoveling snow I'm in my T-shirt in my greenhouse and enjoying the day.

- Right and you're growing figs too I saw those.

- And they better be there when you leave.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- So Sebby I'm sure a lot of people come in and ask you questions about putting together a container, whether it be a window box or a railing planter.

And so a lot of times people just don't know where to start.

So what kind of tips would you give them?

- Well, when they pick out plants for their containers they should be plants that are appealing to them.

You're gonna be looking at it for a longer period of time than anyone else.

So pick something that you like.

Number two, be conscious of the size of the plants that are going in, because if you have a container like this and the plants are gonna get like that that's not gonna work out too well.

The other thing, some plants like sun, some plants like shade, tried it put all shade plants in one, all sun plants in the other, if they're getting that type of exposure.

And pay attention to the tags.

The tags will tell you if they need to have a lot of water, a little bit of water.

So all those little things play into having a successful container.

- Great, so those are all good tips.

And I think probably the best way to learn is to show people and I've got a challenge for you .

- For me?

- Yeah for you.

Are you ready for this?

- Sure.

- Okay, I'm gonna give you 10 minutes and we're both gonna go into the greenhouses, you pick out some plants for a sun loving container I'm gonna pick out some plans for a shade loving container, we're gonna see who does a better job.

- Yeah, let's go.

- Okay.

(gentle music) - Gotta go with latte.

I'm Italian, latte!

- Going over the edge, Yup, Charlie's going down.

- No way is he gonna beat me, no way.

- Gorgeous, this is a winning basket.

- So you got some kind of okay plants there Sebby, better than what's on that side but this is much better for shade.

But let's put it all together and see what it looks like right?

- You got it.

- All right.

I love this new fuchsia you got here this one's a really pretty one 'cause it has some nice variegation on the leaves.

- I knew if you liked that one I would have probably hid it on you.

(laughs) - And of course in the shade you can't go wrong with a good coleus right?

- No, that's a good pick.

- One of the things people do a lot you know they over pack their containers.

They put too many plants in so you gotta leave a little room for things to grow.

So tell me what you did here Sebby?

- Well, we've got a nice little magenta dracaena in here, little Swedish ivy to give us a little tumble effect off the rail, some blue velvet petunias, latte, and everything's looking pretty nice.

- Yeah nice primary colors, got your purples and your yellows, you got a little red to take the highlight from this nice draceana.

- So obviously the winner.

- Well, this is good for sun but look what we can do for shade without a flower.

Did you notice there's no flowers here?

Well, there's going to be some little flowers.

- (indistinct) - But the beautiful coleus there.

You can see this nice fuchsia has a little kind of pink in it which picks up the color from the coleus.

And we got the Lysimachia in the front with a sweet potato vine to pick up some of the dark color.

This is a stunning container.

- Good choices all around, beautiful container.

Second place, without a doubt.

- I think I've definitely got you beaten.

How are we gonna do this?

- Wait a minute.

- How do you settle this?

- Ashley you got a minute?

- [Ashley] Yeah, I'll be right there.

- We're having a discussion here.

Charlie obviously did this one I did this one and maybe you could like- - The judge.

- [Sebby] Can you judge this for us please?

- The judge okay, you both have your thriller, your spiller, and your filler.

So let's see.

Based off of the two, they're both really nice.

One sun, one shade.

In all fairness, I'd say both of you, both of you are the winners.

They are a very close, very close tie.

- How nice is she.

Good job Sebby.

- Very close.

- You did a great job.

- But really, if you guys want competition next time, just call me.

(laughs) - Beat it.

(laughs) - See you later Ashley.

- Thanks Ashley.

- Bye.

- Thank you.

- Well, thank you Sebby for coming this has been a lot of fun.

You did a good job too.

- Hey thanks.

- And good luck.

- Thanks.

- Thank you.

(gentle music) - Everyone seems to be talking about bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds and pollinators.

Pollinator gardens are showing up everywhere; in schools, in home gardens.

There's even a pollinator pathway system in Connecticut in New York where people are growing pollinator gardens in public spaces.

So what's all this hubbub about pollinators?

Well, pollinators are essential.

A third of the food that we eat is due to pollinators.

Plus, pollinators of course spread pollen between flowers and that helps with biodiversity creating new plants all the time.

Now pollinators need more than just flowers, there are other things that they need such as water.

It could be a bird bath, it could be a little pond, it can even be a little mud puddle that you put together these are really cute.

All you need is a drainage pan, put some gravel in it, a little clay soil and compost, put a little water in it and you'll see the butterflies and bees will flock to it during a really hot day.

The other thing pollinators need is a nesting spot.

Now we all know about beehives, honeybees, which are very social insects but not all pollinators are social.

There are many solitary bees, flies, wasps that are pollinators.

One of the best ones is the mason bee.

Let me show you a house.

This is the mason bee house.

Now this is a great thing because mason bees are excellent pollinators.

They're a hundred times more efficient than honeybees and bumblebees at pollinating flowers.

And you only need two or three of them to pollinate a whole apple tree.

They don't sting and they overwinter really easily.

You can hang one of these in your garden you get mason bees moving in and taking care of all your pollination needs.

So let's take a look at all the flowers you can now grow to attract all these different types of pollinators.

We're here with Pat Sabosik master gardener at the Hill-Stead Museum and Gardens in Farmington, Connecticut.

Pat is the head of this new pollinator garden that they just installed here.

Pat, can you tell us a little bit about this garden and the history of it?

- Sure, so the garden is on the former greenhouse that serves the state in the 1800s and the early 1900s.

And the master gardeners reclaimed the area, and designed a garden to be used as a teaching garden for master gardeners, and also to educate the public on what a pollinator garden is.

- Nice, so many people watching this may wanna install a pollinator garden or at least have some pollinator plants in their gardens.

So what kind of tips would you give them?

- So plant in the sun that's always important.

Although there are some lovely shade-blooming flowers early in the spring.

Have a diversity of shapes and a diversity of colors.

It's also important not to use pesticides.

We don't use anything here in either of the gardens on the Hill-Stead estate just to keep things safe for all the different types of pollinators and birds that are in our gardens.

- You don't have to have a whole garden too you can just put in a couple plants and try to use native plants whenever you can.

- Native plants are important.

If you wanted to start small 10 different plants will do it.

Things that are not too far off of center.

So some of the weird colors that we see in Echinacea 'cause they're easy to breed is not good.

I mean, they're beautiful and they're different, but the further you get away from your native plant the less nutritious the nectar and the pollen is.

And so that's the important part.

- And plant them in clumps so that the butterflies and bees can find them easily.

- Exactly.

- And of course, have a water source nearby.

Keep it away from kids and things or animals that might be running around.

- [Pat] And noise that's right.

- [Charlie] And noise too.

- [Pat] That's right.

- Nice, well we got some basic ideas on doing a pollinator garden, let's take a look at some specific plants.

- I think that's a great idea.

(gentle music) - Pat we have a beautiful array of annual and perennial flowers here that'd be great for a pollinator garden.

And when you're putting these flowers in and you're selecting them at a nursery, you have to really look at not just the colors but the flower shapes themselves.

- That's right, that's important.

So for example, we have this daisy type flower here and this is a beautiful shape, radial symmetry, it's easy for insects to identify, and a nice little landing pad for them to drop on, take some pollen, maybe take some nectar.

This woodland phlox also has a bit of a landing pad on it but it has a tubular shape.

And so all the nectar in the pond is sort of down in the throat of the flower, so we'll take a different insect to pollinate that this comes in the spring.

And then later on in terms of tubular shapes we have the salvia, it's a different type of a pollinator who has a little bit more of a longer nose to go inside the flower to get the pollen in that.

- And some other nice landing pad type flowers is this beautiful yarrow we have here.

And there's a number of other plants that are like that in our gardens.

Dill when it goes to seed for example, and Queen Anne's lace as a wild flower.

- That's right.

- And of course fragrance is something that's really fun.

This is alyssum, of course and it has (inhales) I love the fragrance of this, a beautiful fragrance to it and then of course it's an annual flowers all season long.

But pollinators like that as well as herbs like this lavender, and borage, and mints, anything that has a fragrance pollinators are attracted to it.

- That's right, and we have a version of a mountain mint here in the garden.

That's a late season flower.

The leaves, if you crush them you can smell the mint on them.

Spreads fast, but it also is very, very attractive to late season pollinators for both the pollen and the nectar.

- Nice, so we have some great examples of plants here that we could use in the garden.

And once we have everything planted and growing well then we've gotta take care of it.

- We do, we do.

So we do have to fertilize during the summer but not into the fall.

But in the fall we have two methods of what we call, "putting the gardens to bed."

So the sunken garden, the formal garden, we take everything down to the ground and then we also plant some bulbs there.

And then in the pollinator garden we take off some of the flower heads but we leave all the seed heads and we leave the grasses.

It's a little bit of a winter interest if you're here in the winter, but it's beneficial more so than we thought in the past.

And so we leave that all up and in the spring is when we actually clean up the garden but not right away, usually when it's 50 degrees or more or at least a week and then moving into 60 degrees.

So we just cleaned up the pollinator garden in the first week of May.

- So this is a very different aesthetic.

We're so used to this, cleaning everything up in the fall having it look pristine and then starting fresh in the spring.

But the reason we do this is for the ecosystem that we're creating.

- That's correct for both the insects and the birds.

Very important for them.

- Well thank you very much, Pat.

It's been great to have you here and great to have you show us this beautiful pollinator garden.

And hopefully Pat has given you some great ideas on how to grow pollinator plants in your yard.

- Spring flowering shrub in New England are amazing.

I love the smell of lilacs.

But one of the questions I always get is when do I prune my shrubs?

I'm gonna make it easy for you.

If you have a spring flowering shrub that blooms in May or June, such as lilacs, or forsythia, or mock orange, or rhododendron, you prune those after they're done flowering you have about a six week window to do that.

If you have flowering shrubs that bloom a little bit later like butterfly bush, plethora and rose of Sharon, those you prune now.

And then there's hydrangeas.

A lot of people get confused about hydrangeas because some you prune now, and some you prune after flowering.

I'm gonna talk about the different types of hydrangeas and when to prune them.

(gentle music) There are two types of hydrangeas.

The type you have will dictate when you wanna prune them.

So if you have the smooth leaf like the Annabelle hydrangea or Incrediball hydrangea, those have those big white flowers or pink flowers that grow up from the ground and then they flop over.

Those you prune in late winter.

You just prune them right down to the ground or to a one foot tall stem.

Then they're the ones that bloom a little bit later.

Those are the panicle hydrangeas.

Those grow up to about eight to 10 feet tall beautiful shrubs or small trees.

They'll have those flowers that start from white and go to pink and then burgundy color just gorgeous.

Those you prune now you wanna prune those in the spring because both the smooth leaf and the panicle they actually flower on new growth.

So when you're pruning them of course, you're always looking for dead, diseased, and broken branches; that's one of the things you're gonna kind of keep an eye out for, and some crossing branches.

You wanna open it up a little bit so you can get in there and take those out so it opens up the shrub.

The more you prune this, the more you're gonna get new growth, and the more new growth you get the more flowers you're going to get in the fall.

So for this type of hydrangea you want to prove them in late winter or early spring.

(gentle music) Another group of hydrangeas are the ones that bloom on the old wood.

That's the wood that made it through the winter and it's sending up shoots and they start blooming.

Usually on the earlier side, sometime in June and July these would be the moped or the blue hydrangeas which actually come in other colors now too which are very famous of course, the oak leaf hydrangeas another one and the climbing hydrangea which is a beautiful climbing plant that vines up the sides of buildings or over rock walls is a gorgeous plant with nice white flowers to it.

Now, the time to prune any of these types of hydrangeas is after they're done flowering in summer, you don't wanna prune them now because you can prune off those flowers, and you would just dead head them, and open them up a little bit, take any disease or crowding branches off, you don't have to do a lot of pruning on these.

But what you can do this time of year especially on these blue hydrangeas is prune off any of the old growth that's dead.

So you could see these stems here, you can just prune them down to where you see some live growth where a little growth is coming off the side of that stem.

And that's not only gonna clean it up it's gonna help this live growth grow up and eventually follower for you.

Now, there is a type of blue hydrangea called the Endless Summer type.

These bloom on that new wood that I was talking about earlier, so any of these shoots that are coming off the ground here, they're eventually gonna flower but in the fall, and they bloom off of this old wood that I was just pruning.

So those you prune, like any blue hydrangea, you prune them after that mid-summer flowering.

Take them off there, clean it up a little bit.

Don't prune the ones coming right out of the ground though let those go all the way up.

Now, if you've had trouble getting your blue hydrangeas to bloom early, it might be because all of this growth here died right back to the ground.

So to prevent that from happening get some bark mulch in early December or so, just pile it over the top of the shrub and just leave it there till about April, that's gonna insulate those branches so that they can survive so that by this time of year you'll have all this beautiful growth.

And for a fun little trick to propagate new plants from your old shrubs you can do a little tip layering.

This works really well on rhododendrons, and weigelas and forsythias too.

It's a very simple technique let me show you.

You're looking for rhododendron growth this may be a year or so old, and what you're gonna do is take a pruner, or a knife and just scrape the bark.

You just wanna scrape it a little bit here not all the way through, you're not cutting it, you're just scraping the top bark off and what that does is expose the cambium layer.

Then you're gonna take some rooting hormone powder.

And rooting hormone powder is a natural material and you just gonna dust it right on top of there, and that's gonna stimulate new roots starting to grow.

Once you have that done, you put it down on the ground, grab a little soil just from underneath the rhododendron, and bury it nicely there.

Now to ensure that it stays there one of the things you might wanna do is get a rock, or a brick, something heavy that will just put it right on top of it, so that way it'll keep it nice and secure, it'll form roots probably in about six months but that will be in the fall so you're probably gonna wanna wait 'till next spring to actually remove this, cut this off from back here, and you'll have a new plant that can just dig up with all these roots.

With a shrub this size, you can get five or 10 new plants out of it.

So it's a great way to propagate a favorite shrub, and have it growing in other places in your landscapes.

So whether you're pruning your hydrangeas properly, doing the right pruning at the right time, or propagating your shrubs like rhododendrons, all these things will add a beauty to your landscape and to your yard.

(gentle music) Many gardeners are interested in gardening with nature.

Trying to garden in a way that's gonna be good for all kinds of creatures under the soil and up in the sky.

I've got a great technique for you that's gonna help with that especially in a vegetable garden it's called No-Dig Gardening.

(gentle music) Now this is not a new technique it's one that's been used worldwide for centuries but it's really having a new revolution coming about.

As people are discovering it as a great way to mimic what happens in nature and doing it in your vegetable garden.

Instead of digging, and tilling, and turning the soil, we're gonna create layers on top of the soil that are gonna break down creating very compost rich soil that'll be perfect for your plants.

So there's lots of great advantages for no-dig.

And I highlight a lot of these in my books with "Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening."

One of the best ones is that it's good for the soil.

Now the soil is an amazing place.

In one teaspoon of soil there over 4 billion with a B microbes.

That means that all these microbes are there working the soil, working with the plants, working with the nutrients, water, and creating a nice environment so as the plants will be healthier, stronger, and have less disease and pest problem.

Another benefit of No-Dig Gardening is that it's good for the planet.

Every time you till and turn the soil you're releasing carbon into the atmosphere which is not good for global warming.

By creating layers you're sequestering the carbon in the soil, in the humus, so it stays there for decades.

Also it's less work and I really like that part.

You're not stripping sod and removing soil, you're just layering on top so it's less work on your body and easier to do.

So there's lots of advantages to no-dig gardening and I wanna show you how to put one together.

Inherent in no-dig gardening is raised beds.

It could be freestanding raised beds or a box like this.

If you're gonna use a box like this with wood you wanna get rot-resistant wood like cedar, or even hemlock and spruce is pretty good too.

Also, I love these raised bed corners.

These are made out of metal so that even if the wood does eventually rot out, you can just pull it out and put a new board in.

So let's layer things.

This is also called lasagna gardening and the name like Nardozzi, I know about lasagna.

So what we're gonna do is create layers of different materials.

Now, if you have just soil or grass, what you'd wanna do is just mow that grass down really low and as long as it doesn't have a lot of really tenacious weeds in there, you can just put down three to four layers of newsprint and just lay it down right on the bottom here, overlapping, and it's okay if there's color ink on the newsprint because a lot of this is soy-based, it's not heavy metals.

You do want to avoid glossy paper that's not good for this.

So by putting these layers down, you're gonna block any weeds that are growing in there, you're gonna kill that grass without disturbing the soil at the same time and earthworms love newspaper.

(newspaper rustling) You also wanna put a little water on that newspaper especially on a windy day, because there's nothing worse than putting down the newspaper and then having it blow away when you turn around.

Now if you have an area that has a lot of tenacious weeds, quack grass, and brambles of things like that, you might wanna use cardboard instead of newspaper.

Cardboard is really good because it's more durable, it'll last about a year before it totally breaks down.

But you do wanna use corrugated cardboard, you don't wanna use the paper box cardboard like pizza boxes or cereal boxes that's not really good material to use.

This is nice 'cause it breaks down of course, take all the tape off of it.

and the staples that it might be on there too.

So your next layers, just like in a lasagna you just put different ingredients on top.

So on top of this, I'm gonna put some hay or some straw and the layers don't really matter as far as how thick they are it's not really that important with this this is not like a compost bin where you have to make it a certain thickness and a certain schedule of materials.

We're just trying to create areas where you're gonna have lots of organic matter there that'll feed those microbes, feed those earthworms, and make it a good spot to break down for your plants.

So after we do that maybe I'll take some fresh grass clippings this is great to use because it's high in nitrogen and of course, this is always from an untreated lawn you don't wanna use herbicide treated grass clippings.

We'll just sprinkle some of that on top here, another nice organic material to use is chopped leaves.

And you wanna make sure you run them over them a little bit slowly break down, 'cause if they're really big, they might mat down and it'll stop the breakdown process, it'll actually inhibit some of it from breaking down.

So we're just going to throw some leaves on top of that.

Here we go.

And these you notice they're all materials you'll have just around your yard area, you don't have to really bring in new materials.

And then once you have the layers up kind of at the height you want them to, then we're gonna add the soil on top of this and it could be compost, it can be a compost top soil mix, if you do this bed in the spring you wanna make it a thickness about six inches thick.

You do it in the fall, two or three inches is fine because it'll have all winter to break down.

So once you have all the soil in your bed now the fun part starts.

This is when you can plant.

And if you're doing this in the spring and you have six inches of soil on top of all that organic matter, you can plant pretty much anything.

You might want to avoid root crops because it be hard for them to go down really deep but pretty much anything else will do well in here.

So in this case, I could put tomatoes in sure, why not, just dig down.

And what I love about this technique is that you don't even need hand tools you just using the soil there that's nice, and light, and fluffy, and easier to plant.

You can put lettuces of course around, they will mature earlier.

And then the space of that tomato will kind of fill in as the plant gets bigger, you can put flowers in, you can put herbs in, all these things will grow really well and what's also nice is because the soil is so healthy you're not gonna have to add a lot of fertilizer.

Now, as far as maintaining this bed goes during the growing season you won't have many weeds because it's all buried underneath with the organic matter.

And because there's a lot of organic matter in here you're not gonna have a lot of problems with the plants drying out and the soil drying out.

And then come fall as the plants start dying back and if they're healthy plants you don't necessarily have to dig them out.

Remember, we're not digging, or tilling, or turning the soil, we're trying to avoid that at all costs.

So in the fall what you'd end up doing, is if the plants were healthy you can just chop them down, and mulch them up, chop them into little pieces and leave them as a mulch on top of the soil, 'cause one of the other tenants about no-dig gardening is that you always wanna have the soil covered with something, whether it be plants growing or organic material.

So you can just leave them there like that.

If you have plants that have a lot of disease maybe like your tomato, you can cut the plant off at the ground, just take it away get rid of it, and then bring in some hay or straw so that's gonna be the covering that's gonna protect that plant all through the winter.

So with this no-dig gardening technique you can plant all your favorite vegetables, flowers, and herbs, and then every year just add another layer of organic matter on top, and then compost on top of that, and there's plant right through it.

And over time, what ends up happening is all those microbes and earthworms they break down that organic matter turning in to rich soil that's gonna create healthy plants so you can have a beautiful garden with less work.

(gentle music) Kids gardening has become very popular especially during the pandemic, with lots of families were at home together they want to do activities with their kids.

But kids gardening is more than just having them tag along in the garden, or making them weed, and water, and pull things out.

Kids gardening really should be something that's gonna really encourage them to love the garden, and love being outdoors, and being with plants and with nature.

And there's some ways that you can do that with your kids.

First of all, think of the activities you wanna do with your kids in the garden and make them age appropriate.

Meaning if you have a preschooler you shouldn't expect them to do a lot of gardening for hours out there, weeding or designing the garden.

Look for moments, look for those teachable moments in the garden where they discover an earthworm, or maybe picking a cherry tomato together Doing things like that will encourage the kids to wanna come back to the garden time and time again.

Also make the garden their own.

Allow them to decorate the garden, allow things to fail, you might be doing a lot more gardening than you normally would in their garden, but the whole idea is to create a place where they're gonna have fun.

So there's lots of different techniques to use at a kid's garden but probably the best way to learn is to talk to someone who's been doing it with their kids and that's what we're gonna do.

I wanna introduce to you Lucy Nalpathanchil She is from Connecticut Public Radio, and she's the host of Where We Live, she's an avid gardener and she's a mom.

And Lucy's gonna come in and we're gonna talk a little bit about how she's been gardening with her kids and how it's been going.

Hi Lucy!

- Hi Charlie, good to see you.

Usually I'm just talking to you on the radio.

- That's right, and usually you're interviewing me and now I've got to do it (laughs).

- I'm a little nervous.

- Oh, you're doing really well (laughs).

So you've been gardening with your kids for a number of years, but it actually started long before that.

Now you used to garden yourself when you were a little kid.

- Yeah my mom was an avid gardener.

She was a nurse.

And so she worked lots of different shifts but she always made time to work on her garden and she was really into roses.

So I remember growing up, watching her in the garden and I didn't really do a lot of gardening with her but once I had my first home and when I moved here in Connecticut, it was in Middletown.

You know what it feels like when you have your own space, your own yard, and that's when I really started to explore gardening and do more gardening, and a lot of trial and error as you know.

- Yeah of course.

- But then it just kind of stuck and I love just gardening.

It's a good respite for me especially working all day, looking at computer screens, doing lots of Zoom meetings, it's a nice break to be outside.

- Great, and you've transferred that love of garden to your kids I hope (laughs).

At least you've been trying to.

So how has that been going?

Are there certain things that you've done that really have been successful and other things it's like, that didn't really work out well.

- Well, something we do every spring when St Patty's Day comes by we plant peas, and that's something that we do each year.

And for us it's a real sign that spring is coming and my children love to come in the garden and eat peas.

We've also planted lots of fruits.

So raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes, even some apple trees and something that's really fun is we have chives that come back year after year and the kids are always munching on those.

So it's something that I think that they've gravitated towards because they're helping me plant them and then they see the outcome of their hard work.

- Right exactly, so I thought it would be fun to plant a little kid's garden with you and your children.

Would you wanna do that?

- Sure, I'd love to.

- Okay, well, let's go do that.

(gentle music) Well, who have we here?

- So this is our vegetable garden and these are two of my children.

Willow who's five and Cormac who is 10.

This is Charlie Nardozzi.

- Hi.

- High guys, how are you doing?

- Good.

- Good, nice and you got some beautiful plants there.

So did you pick these plants out with your mom?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Nice, well I think we have a nice garden over here would you wanna help us plant it?

- Yeah.

- Okay, let's do that.

So when we're planting the garden with kids, of course it's nice to let them kind of take the lead but you also wanna do a little editing.

(laughs) As far as spacing goes and all of that.

So what plants are we gonna put in first?

Let's see.

- [Cormac] This one?

- Okay.

(gentle music) - Do you remember how to take the plant out of the pot Willow?

- Yeah I'll put my hand here and catch it how about that?

You know you can pat the bottom, that's it, there you go, hey.

There nice, and so when you plant it of course you wanna plant it at the same depth that it was in it's pot, not too deep, not too shallow.

- [Willow] My mom taught me.

- Oh yeah your mom, well she did a good job.

Nice job Cormac.

(gentle music) - When I think of planting beds I think of planting similar things.

But with kids, it's nice to have that variety so they stay interested.

- Yes, exactly and it's their plants, they really take ownership of it.

(gentle music) What's your favorite vegetable that you like to plant?

- Tomatoes.

- Tomatoes yeah, do you like big tomatoes or little tomatoes?

- [Willow] Big and small.

- [Cormac] And I like sun golds.

Whenever I plant them, there's like hundreds of tomatoes that grow so that I can just keep eating them and I don't have to worry about them running out.

- [Lucy] They love eating chives, the blueberries, the raspberries.

I think because we started at a young age.

It's just something that they do.

We just make it a tradition where we're always outside working either in our garden beds or just enjoying the plants that we grow throughout the year.

(gentle music) - All right I think it's time to do our last little bit.

Know what that is?

- The peas?

- The peas, right and you guys were so great to take a little time out of your busy day to help us create a pea trellis made out of twigs and decorate it.

So let's bring it over here, stick it in the garden.

We're gonna put it right on this side where Cormac was.

There we go and then stick it in gently.

What do you think?

- It's perfect.

- It's perfect look at that that's cool.

Now we got to plant our peas and oh look what I happen to have in my pocket, packets of peas (laughs).

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

(gentle music) Thank you very much for taking time out to create a garden.

So I'm hoping that this grows really well this year for you guys and that you can send me pictures and we can see how beautiful it is and especially pictures of you eating peas when you think?

- We also have cherry tomatoes that we- - Oh and cherry tomatoes, well yes that would be a good thing.

So take time out during your day and create a little garden with your kids.

It doesn't have to be anything special and amazing but it can be very special for them just having a variety of plants, having things that are decorated in that garden and something that you can do together all summer long.

(gentle music) (gentle music)