Garden Local - Flowers, Veggies, and More!

Be it flowers or vegetables, gardening has always been a passion of mine. Planting a seed and watching it grow is a mystery.

Flowers – simple, complex, colorful, fragrant

Vegetables – bountiful, colorful

Herbs – flavorful, zesty, spicy

My gardening experience began with learning everything I know from my father. Some years we would have 50 to 60 tomato plants and the same for peppers along with celery, peas, beans, eggplant and so much more. Made a lot of tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes back in the day!

There are some excellent catalogs that you can send for:

• Burpee www.burpee.com,
• Bluestone Perennials www.bluestoneperennials.com,
• Spring Hill www.springhillnursery.com,
• Four Seasons Nursery in Illinois www.4seasonsnurseries.com, and
• Gurney’s www.gurneys.com

are just a few where you can get all kind of ideas, whether your garden be large or small or just a pretty pot on your patio.

Annuals are plants that flower and die in one season, although some drop seeds that grow new plants in the spring. Perennials, on the other hand, come back for many seasons. While the top portion of a perennial dies back in the winter, new growth appears the following spring from the same root system.

Tomatoes are one of my favorite vegetables. Or is it a fruit? Some can grow up to 3 lbs. while others can be small and bite size like cherry tomatoes.

Let’s think about peppers: Classified by shape, sweet peppers come in a myriad of sizes, forms, colors and flavors, and all rich in vitamin c, carotene and excellent fiber. Watch out for those hot ones! Choose from round-like, long and slim, curved or (literally) flame-like short peppers with seductively savory to blazing heat.

An easy to grow vegetable is summer squash. They form on either vines or bushes and range in size and shape from long and slender to hooked and gooseneck to flat patty pan types.

A vegetable is considered to be edible roots, stems, leaves, fruits, seeds and other softer plant parts. An example is the tomato, which is a fruit, but is eaten as a vegetable, as are cucumbers, peppers, melons, peas, string beans, pumpkins and squash. There are actually 14 vegetables that are fruits.

What is your favorite vegetable or fruit?

There are so many different colors and textures of flowers and bushes to choose from. For example, hydrangeas. Many of us know them as snowballs. Flower colors and forms are so diverse from cone like to lace caps and mop heads that change with the soil’s PH.

One of my favorite flowers is the Impatient. They grow in full or partial shade and bloom from early summer to frost. They come in a variety of colors which blend in with all other flowers and are carefree and requiring no pinching.

Petunias are fast growing and come in a dazzling range of colors and patterns from Black Cat to Carmel Yellow. These annuals provide a great groundcover for trimming walks and beds or mix with other flowers in containers or hanging pots.

Marigolds flower in the colors of the sun - brilliant yellow, bold orange, bright white, to the richest gold and red tones. Their blooms can range from 2–3 inches in diameter and can grow in height up to 30 inches.

Here are some excellent books to choose from whether you are just a beginner or a pro:

1. Attracting Birds and Butterflies: How to plant a backyard habitat to attract winged wildlife by Barbara Ellis (639.978 ELL 2020)
2. How to create your garden by Adam Frost (712.6 Fro 2020)
3. Grow your own herbs: the best 40 culinary varieties for home gardeners by Susan Belsinger (635.7 BEL 2019)
4. Cauliflower power: 75 feel good gluten-free recipes made from the World’s most versatile vegetable by Lindsay Grimes Freedman (641.65 FRE 2020)
5. Grow great vegetables in New Jersey by Marie Iannotti (635 IAN 2019)
6. Organic gardening for everyone: homegrown vegetables made easy (635 CAL 2020)

- Mary Ann, Lawrence Branch

Some excellent places to buy flowers and vegetables in the area are:

	TIMOTHY'S CENTER FOR GARDENING 1185 ROUTE 130 - ROBBINSVILLE, NJ 08691 (609) 448-6222
	1203 US Highway 130, Robbinsville, NJ 08691 (609) 448-0663
	Tony's Farm & Garden Center tonysfarmandgarden.com 1369 Route 130 N, Windsor, NJ 08561 (609) 448-0667 All located in Robbinsville NJ on Route 130 and of course there is always Home Depot and Lowes.
	Gasko’s Family Farm and Greenhouses 112 Federal Rd. Monroe Twp., NJ 08831 gaskosfamilyfarm.com Tel. 732-446-9205 I love to take my grandson Jeff and just walk around the nurseries for different ideas. He always asks me “Can we buy this plant? Or “Look at this one Nana!” Can’t wait to get my granddaughters Brooke and Paige interested also! Whatever you plan to plant, vegetables or flowers, you will never be disappointed.
	Bountiful Gardens 1536 Lower Ferry Road Ewing, NJ 08618 (609) 583-5167 https://www.bountifulgardens.com/
	Kale’s (609) 921-9248 Kale's Nursery & Landscape Service 133 Carter Road Princeton, New Jersey 08540 http://kalesnursery.com/
	Peterson’s (609) 924-5770 3730 Lawrenceville Rd. Princeton, NJ 08540 https://petersonsnursery.com/index.html