Connecticut Garden Journal Connecticut Public Radio

The plant known as the “king of the herbs” hales from India and has been cultivated for more than 5000 years. It's in the mint family and now is grown around the globe. Yes, it's basil.

While many of us of Italian descent think of basil as the Genovese, large leafed type, there are many more varieties and tastes of this herb. ‘Sweet Dani’ is a lemon flavored variety. There’s also a ‘Lime’ flavored basil. ‘Siam Queen’ is a good anise-flavored Thai basil variety. To prevent disease problems, 'Prospero' is a new Genovese variety that is fusarium wilt and downy mildew resistant.

Growing basil is easy, if you remember a few qualities of this plant. Basil doesn't like it cold. Now that the soil and air has warmed consistently, it's a good time to buy some transplants of basil or sow some seeds. Also, basil produces best if you keep harvesting it. When picking basil leaves, remove whole stems, versus just individual leaves. This will encourage the plant to keep making large leaves that are easiest for picking and using in the kitchen.

Grow basil in full sun, on well-drained, fertile soil. Basil likes some compost when planted to keep it growing strong. Keep the plants well watered and mulched to keep weeds away.

While it's best to pinch off the flowers as they form to encourage more leaf growth, plant extra basil plants and let those go to flower. Basil is an excellent plant to attract bees, pollinators, and butterflies to your garden. Plus, some varieties, such as Thai basil, have colorful, purple flower stems and blossoms.
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If you're looking for a mid- to- end of summer splash in your flower garden, grow dahlias. This tuber starts out slowly in our cool spring soils, but picks up speed in summer. By August, whether you grow the small, low growing types or the large dinner plate dahlias, they all put on quite a flower show.

Dahlias are not hardy in our cool Connecticut soils, so they need to be replanted each year. Wait until the soil warms to plant. Dahlias thrive in full sun on fertile, well-drained soils.

The key to where you plant dahlias lies in which types you grow. Dahlia varieties come in a range of colors and can be low growing, or up to 5 feet tall. There are more than 20 different dahlia flower shapes with the most common being the pom-pom, water lily, cactus, and decorative ones. The larger types benefit from staking or caging to keep them upright. They have tender stalks that are susceptible to flopping and even breaking during summer storms.

Dahlias make great cut flowers. Pick them in the morning, place the stem in 2 inches of very hot water and allow it to cool for an hour. They’ll last for up to one week.

In fall, after frost has blackened the stems, cut them back and dig up the tubers to over- winter indoors. Clean off the soil, and store them in a dark, cool basement in slightly moistened sand or peat moss. Check periodically in winter to see if the tubers are drying out or rotting. Mist with water or dry them out depending on the situation.
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Often gardeners are in a dilemma about what ground cover to grow around perennials and under trees and shrubs in a shady area. I've got two solutions.

Sweet woodruff (Galium oderatum) is a perfect ground cover for full to part shade. It has fragrant, lance-shaped, bright green leaves all summer and dainty white flowers in spring. It's easy to grow and adapts to a wide range of soil types and moisture conditions. Not only that, it's deer and rabbit proof.

Sweet woodruff spreads quickly, especially in average to wet soil. The underground rhizomes allow this perennial to creep fast, so it can become too aggressive in some yards. Weeding and withholding water will slow its spread, but with some rains it will come right back.

Another shade ground cover is lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis). It's not a true lily, but in the asparagus family. It has large, dark green leaves and fragrant white or pink flowers in spring. It's a perennial that will slowly spread by underground rhizomes to fill an area. It thrives in shady spots and forms a dense carpet of greenery choking out weeds and other plants.

The key with keeping these aggressive ground covers in bounds is planting them in the right places. We plant lily of the valley between a porch and our house foundation so it can only spread in one direction. It's much easier to weed out of unwanted areas this way. Another option is to plant near a deep edging, walkway or other solid border. This will prevent the spread, or at least make it easier to control.
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I'm all about making gardening easier and more rewarding. One the best ways to accomplish both goals is to grow plants in raised beds. Many gardeners are familiar with raised vegetable beds, but you can also plant annual and perennial flowers, herbs, berry bushes and even small trees in raised beds.

Raised beds are perfect for poor quality soil, and sandy and clay soils. By raising the beds up, you'll build healthier soil, plant closer together, plant earlier in spring, reduce waterlogged beds and not compact the soil. Beds should be at least 8 inches tall, not more than 3- to 4-feet wide and as long as you like. I like 8 foot long beds because the wood doesn't warp. Two inch diameter wooden beds are best for longevity. The most rot resistant wood is cedar, but for less expensive wood, try hemlock or spruce, They can last more than 10 years before rotting. Avoid pressure treated woods. You can also use stone, brick or metal to build your beds.

Find a location that's perfect for the plants you'll grow. For vegetables and sun loving flowers, build a bed where it will get 6- to 8-hours of direct sun a day. For shade loving veggies and flowers, 3 to 4 hours of sun is fine. Build the bed close to a water source and somewhere where you'll walk by it every day to remember to water, weed, harvest and care for the bed.

You'll produce more flowers and food in a smaller space that is less likely to get run over by kids or dogs because it's raised up.
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When I was growing up near my Italian grandfather's farm in Waterbury, me and my cousins would often wander the field edges looking for wild blackberries. We would come home with scratches on our arms, purple juice stains on our clothes and smiles on our faces. They were that good.

Now, we don't have to work so hard to get delicious blackberries. With modern varieties, blackberries are disease free, produce fruit in summer and fall and some have thornless canes. To make life easier, start with purchasing thornless varieties. 'Chester' is a zone 5 variety with good flavor. 'Triple Crown' is a semi-erect variety, hardy to zone 6. 'Prime Ark Freedom' combines summer and fall fruiting with thornless canes. For colder areas, try the summer fruiting, thorny variety 'Illini Hardy'.

Plant blackberries in full to part sun, 3 to 4 feet apart in rows spaced 2 feet apart. Soak the roots and plant in compost amended soil. If you have clay soil, raise the beds by bringing in additional compost and topsoil. Mulch with wood chips to keep weeds away and preserve the soil moisture. Most blackberries will need support so the canes don't flop. Run a 5 foot high wire between two metal or wooden stakes at the ends of the row.

Prune blackberries after they've fruited in summer to remove old canes. In early summer, prune the shoots back by 1 foot to force side branching and more fruiting. For fall bearing varieties, you can also mow down the whole row in fall after fruiting. You'll lose the next summer's crop, but you'll have a bigger fall crop.
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Everyone knows the orange tawny daylilies growing on the roadsides or in meadows. They seem to be everywhere in early summer, but their show is brief. Also, many gardeners have some hand me down and some older varieties, such as 'Stella D' Oro' and 'Lemon Lily', in their gardens. But if you're just growing these older varieties you're missing out on some newer daylily types with better flowering habits.

Hemerocallis or daylilies are tough perennials that can grow in a variety of different soils and in part to full sun. New varieties have higher bud counts on sturdier scapes, rebloom more consistently, and have a wider range of colors with thicker petals that hold up better during summer rains. Many of these new varieties have at least two colors on the petals and picotee, ruffled edges. Some new varieties that are good replacements for existing varieties include 'Buttered Popcorn' instead of 'Hyperion'. Both have large yellow flowers, but 'Buttered Popcorn' produces more flowers, longer into the summer and reblooms. 'Going Bananas' is a good replacement for 'Happy Returns'. It reblooms more consistently throughout the hot summer from July until frost with larger flowers. 'Bright Sunset' is a good replacement for 'Frans Hals' because it has bigger flowers with a fragrance. Plus, there are new varieties, such as 'Siloam Peony Display', that have apricot colored, double flowers that really look like small peony blooms.

Give these new varieties a try but don't necessarily throw out the old types. They still have beauty and if all else fails, remember daylily flowers are edible and delicious in salads or stuffed like squash blossoms.
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