Vermont Garden Journal

Friday, June 7 at 5:57 pm & Sunday, June 9 at 9:35 am   This native American fruit has been grown here for 13,000 years. It has some of the highest levels of anti-oxidants of any fruit we eat and has been known to help prevent urinary tract infections, heart disease and improve night vision.  I just like eating them in pies, muffins and shakes. It's the blueberry!

Friday, May 31 at 5:57 pm & Sunday, June 2 at 9:35 am  The dogwood tree is a classic native of the Eastern American forests. The most widely known version is the flowering dogwood or Cornus florida. It grows up to 30 feet tall producing white or pink colored flower brachts in spring. The flowering dogwood is said to have gotten its name from its hard wood. Native peoples would make skewers or "dags" from the wood. Hence the tree was known as dag or dogwood.

Fri 5/24/13 5:55 pm & Sun 5/26/13 9:35 am  This South African native flower is also known as the sword lily. It's in the iris family and gardeners have been breeding and growing it for hundreds of years. It's the birth flower of August and said to symbolize infatuation. Have you guessed it yet? It's the gladiolus.

Fri 5/17/13 5:55 pm & Sun 5/19/13 9:35 am

Kale is a killer vegetable. Before you turn up your nose, just consider the facts. Ounce for ounce kale has more iron than beef and calcium than milk. It a super food, loaded with antioxidants that put other leafy greens like spinach and lettuce to shame. And it's beautiful. There are burgundy red varieties, dark blue varieties and a new yellow and green variegated type.

Fri 5/10/13 5:55 pm & Sun 5/12/13 9:35 am  The blue wild indigo sounds like a great name for a movie or book, but really it's just the name for a fabulous spring blooming perennial.

Baptisia is native to the Midwest and East Coast. Another common name for it is false wild indigo because is was used as a dye substitute for the tropical indigo plant.

Fri 5/3/13 5:55 pm & Sun 5/5/13 9:35 am  It's known as the brummel, brambleberry and bly. It's hard to know where exactly this fruit originated because it grows literally around the world. It's also as well known as a medicinal plant as a food crop. It's the blackberry.

People are growing plants in the wildest places these days. There are rooftop gardens sprouting up on top of 30 story buildings, container gardens on balconies and fire escapes, and now living green walls in cities, schools and homes.

I'm Charlie Nardozzi and this is the Vermont Garden Journal. This flower is native to Zanzibar in Africa, but was made famous by a plant breeder living and working in Costa Rica. It's also called busy Lizzy or touch me not because the seed pods explode when you touch them sending their seed flying. In America, it's one of the most popular bedding annuals we grow. It's the impatiens.