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Text Box: Mary Jo’s Garden Tips

Text Box: On a recent spring morning, In the Garden sat down with Mary Jo Bridge Palmer, Retail Sales Manager and Owner at Sam Bridge Nurseries and Greenhouses, to talk about gardening. How did you get started in the green industry? My Dad would say it all began when I was three years old and I started up a tractor in the garage all by myself! It’s always been a part of my life – my brothers and I all helped out while we were at school. After I graduated from the Ratcliffe Hicks School of Agriculture at U Conn, I started working here full time and have never looked back. We’re a family-run business, with both of my brothers and I as equal partners, and our eldest children also in the family business. What trends are you seeing in home gardening? People are trying more things themselves. They’re finding the information they need and then giving it a try. People are also more price conscious so we’re trying to give them a couple of different alternatives so they can choose the option that fits their budget. We’ve been selling a lot

Text Box: more seeds lately. In fact, I’ve already had to put in a second reorder for more seeds. People are buying seed trays and growing mostly annuals, particularly those that attract birds and butterflies. They’re also planting early edibles. And the trade guys are educating themselves more about organic alternatives to the way they’ve always done things, like with lawn fertilization. What are some of the newer plants that are popular? We’re seeing all kinds of heucheras in a wide range of colors and leaf shapes. People are asking for new colors on old favorites, like blue Scaevola ‘New Wonder’ and white Nemesia ‘Innocence’. Snapdragons are still popular, especially the trailing varieties for full sun hanging baskets. With a little deadheading, these can bloom all summer. We always sell out of our standard geraniums, probably because they’re somewhat unusual and hard to find. And we have a new double campanula from Canada that’s flying off the shelves for spring containers. What do you plant in your

Text Box: own garden? I have a couple of big gardens. In the vegetable garden I plant a lot of different things, such as lettuce, tomatoes, basil, onions, peppers, pole beans, and zucchini. I freeze the beans but I just don’t have time to can anything. I’ve given up on eggplant (too much trouble to prepare) and while I like peas, they’re difficult to grow because my garden tends to be rather wet (it’s at the base of a hill) so I can’t plant them early enough. My perennial garden is largely experimental and I use it for teaching. I love to experiment, so I have things like hakonechloa growing in full sun – with extra water in the first year, it’s done very well. Are there any plants that you don’t like? I dislike anything that needs to be sprayed or is high maintenance. I just don’t have the time to deal with that. I’d also rather not grow things that spread rampantly – like goutweed and oat grass. And while I like allium, I don’t like the way their foliage looks, particularly as the blooms fade, so I tend to hide them between other plants.

Text Box: stronger, and have bigger blooms. Coping with Zucchini Borer – Any product with neem oil works well as a repellent for zucchini borers. Spray leaves as soon as they’re visible and

Text Box: Avoiding Powdery Mildew on Phlox – Thin about half of the stems at the base before the plant reaches 1’ tall. Cut the remaining stems down to 1’ in June. The resulting plant will be healthier (no powdery mildew),

Text Box: reapply a few times. Planting zucchinis a little later than usual also seems to help as the zucchini borer ‘season’ is over by then.