by Jude Hsiang

Mid-summer cookouts will feature a wealth of garden produce: green salads with tomatoes, watermelon, and, of course, corn on the cob. Even the most confirmed meat eater looks forward to this special summer treat.

We New Englanders are waiting for this season’s local sweet corn as we see corn in local groceries that was grown in Georgia, then Virginia, then New Jersey. It may remind us that the corn we know began as a grass in South America. The first people practicing agriculture, some 9,000 years ago, selected the largest seeds to grind for food and to plant. Eventually what we know as corn or maize developed and were traded from groups of peoples eventually reaching well into North America.

Over time the size of the ears grew and with more modern selection, different varieties were developed. We still have what was commonly known as “Indian Corn” which retained the ability to produce multicolored kernels. Corn as animal feed is now the most important crop economically and, by weight, is the largest of all grain crops worldwide. But for most folks, corn means sweet corn for eating off the cob, canned or frozen, or ground into meal for baking. And don’t forget popcorn!

This year’s wet spring delayed planting in the Central and Northeastern states. From large farms growing corn for animal feed to backyard gardeners looking forward to a small plot of sweet corn, the weather continues to cause concern. What is a summer barbeque without buttery sweet corn?

Because corn is a grass, pollination occurs by wind, not with the aid of insect pollinators. Home gardeners plant corn in square or rectangular plots rather than one lone row so that the pollen grains can easily be blown among the plants, moving from the seed-bearing tassels to the young ears where each stand of silk will catch and carry the pollen down into the ear to fertilize a kernel. When plucking the annoying silk from an ear of corn, remember that one single strand of silk was responsible for each one of the hundreds of tasty kernels.

While we Mainers wait for the arrival of sweet corn – from our garden or from the local farmers’ market – let’s recall the thousands of years and miles this summer treat traveled to reach our plates.

© Judith Chute Hsiang
Jude Hsiang Is a retired Extension Master Gardener instructor and member of the China Community Garden.

by Jude Hsiang

Beans are so easy to grow. The littlest gardeners can plant them and see them come up quickly. There are so many varieties and ways to serve them that it’s no wonder that lots of gardeners grow several types: for eating freshly picked through the season; freezing or canning for winter; or storing as dry beans for soups and other favorite meals.

Beans can be planted as soon as danger of frost is over, or you can also start them inside to get a little jump on the season. It’s not too late to plant some now as beans only take two months or a bit more to mature. Planting a row every two to three weeks will ensure plenty for summer meals without overwhelming the gardener. When the production of the earliest plants begins to slow down, you can pull them out and replace them with other crops that will mature quickly, like radishes, lettuces, and greens.

Both bush or pole types have their merits. If you are short on space, pole beans will grow vertically on a trellis – you can rig one with sticks and string – and produce for a longer time. Bush beans take more space but tend to produce over a shorter time span.

Whether yellow or green, beans grown to be harvested fresh are sometimes called string beans or sometimes snap beans because when ripe they snap when bent. If they get away from you and begin to show bulging beans in the pods, you may not find them tasty, but you can let them dry on the plant and save them for soup in the future.

Reliable information on safely freezing or canning beans – and other garden produce – can be found through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Recipes, too.

There are so many varieties of beans that it can be hard to decide which to choose. The Extension makes suggestions for Maine gardens, and family members and friends may have favorites. In addition to your favorite ways of preparing beans, you may want to learn which varieties are particularly good for saving as seeds for the following year. Seed swaps and seed libraries are great ways to share extras and try new types at no cost.

You may want to add beans that are decorative as well as good tasting. Scarlet Runner beans with their bold red flowers are fun to grow on a trellis at the back of the garden or planted among flowering vines. Cherokee Trail of Tears beans – descended from beans saved by the Cherokee people who were forced off their land in 1838 – have lavender flowers and purplish pods. Like many purple vegetables, the pods will turn green when cooked, but they are still pretty plants. I grow them every year because I love the shiny black dried beans and save some seeds for next year.

Not as widely grown here as string beans are fava or broad beans. They can be planted much earlier than snap beans – as soon as the soil can be worked, like peas – and their sturdy stems produce side shoots that can be harvested for dinner while you wait for their pretty white flowers with black spots to produce big, thick pods. All parts of the plant make good eating, even the flowers.

The nutritional value of beans is well established. Our ancestors didn’t know that eating a meal that combines beans with rice, pasta, potatoes or other carbohydrates in combination gives us the proteins found in meats, but they knew the results were satisfying. Saturday night baked beans or festival bean hole beans are part of New England cultural tradition. Let’s grow beans!

© Judith Chute Hsiang
Jude Hsiang is a retired Extension Master Gardener instructor and member of the China Community Garden Committee.

Winterberry

by Jude Hsiang

Are you thinking about starting a garden? Here are a few things to think about before planting.

Start small. Maybe a few pots of favorite flowers, herbs, or one cherry tomato. You can start with a few little plants at a garden center, get a few free seeds at a seed library, or extras from a friend. Gardening should be enjoyable, even if you are doing it to save some money, get a little exercise, or brighten up your yard. Don’t let yourself be tempted to till up the yard, invest in lots of tools, or keep up with Farmer Jones. You may find that you are too busy with work or family responsibilities to care for more living things. And don’t be ashamed to admit that you really don’t like gardening. You tried and it’s just not for you, but there are Farmers Markets, farm stands, and locally grown produce at more and more grocery stores and supermarkets. And there are other ways for you to help neighbors in need and support a healthy environment.

On the other hand, maybe you really do want to garden. Many people got the gardening urge during the pandemic, just as others took up painting or baking sourdough bread. And lots of those folks are still involved in those activities. Are you a bit envious of a friend’s flower bed, or uncle’s Bob’s homegrown tomato sauce? It’s time to make some plans.

If you have a yard, is there enough sun for a garden? At least 6 hours a day during the summer months will do. Is there easy access to water? Again, start small. Next year you can expand on what’s worked well and try a few more things. Your University of Maine Extension’s website has a wealth of information on getting started from knowing your soil, specific varieties for our area, preserving food, to caring for trees. Take advantage of the free, science-based experience available from these professionals who love to share their knowledge.

In addition to these experts, you probably already know some folks who love to share tips, extra baby plants they’ve started from seed—something you might want to do someday—or their prize-winning pickle recipe. There may be a community garden in your area. For a small fee you can use a manageable sized garden bed, share tools, and make friends with people you’ve only seen in passing at the post office. If you have a week’s vacation scheduled, another garden member will water your little plot in return for your help later on.

Grow things you like. Allergic to tomatoes? Don’t like kale? Marigolds don’t come in your favorite color? Don’t plant them. There are so many choices that picking what to start with can be overwhelming, but beans are easy to grow, so are zinnias. Just grow something! You’ll (probably) be glad you did. Whatever the summer brings, something good will be found in a garden, why not yours?

© Judith Chute Hsiang
Jude Hsiang Is a retired Extension Master Gardener instructor and member of the China Community Garden.

Panicle hydrangeas

by Jude Hsiang

After considering some spring flowering shrubs we’ll be enjoying soon, let’s think about shrubs that will provide us with floral displays during the coming months. Previously I wrote about the big-leaf hydrangeas because the correct time for pruning – if needed at all – depends on when the leaves appear on the stems that can look like dead sticks. Many people have learned the hard way to wait for the leaves to appear before assuming the stems are dead. The result is few or no flowers because the flower buds had been formed in the previous fall.

There are other species of Hydrangeas that are less confusing. The large panicle hydrangeas are very cold-tolerant shrubs we see thriving well north of us. They are named for their cone-shaped flower clusters – panicles – which open white (or even pale lime green, then change to rosy shades as the weather cools. The flowers can then be clipped off in fall, allowed to dry for long-lasting arrangements, or just left on the plant all winter. If punning is necessary – and it may never be needed – it’s best done in late winter-early spring because the new flower buds will be formed in spring.

Climbing hydrangeas can be grown on a trellis or against a tree. They will grow to be quite large – up to 50 feet – so they will need some planning before planting. Another easy-care plant, this vine doesn’t need pruning unless it begins to grow to large, when winter or early spring is best.

Oakleaf hydrangeas are another larger shrub maturing to be wide and rounded, unlike the taller panicle species. They are named for the large, toothed leaves reminiscent of oak leaves. Unlike the species mentioned previously which originated in East Asia, they are native to the southeast of us. Generally white flowered, some varieties have pink to red-pink flowers in their large clusters. In recent years smaller oakleaf varieties have come on the market making them more easily used in smaller spaces. Like the hydrangeas mentioned in this article, they can be pruned in late winter, should they ever need it.

One more type of hydrangea that is easily grown in our area is the smooth hydrangea which is native to the East Coast from southern New York and further south. Their care is similar to the other hydrangeas in this article. There is such a wide range of hydrangea species, with new varieties being introduced to the nursery trade, that almost any garden can host one or more.

Hydrangeas take center stage in summer, but several other native shrubs whose flowers are easily ignored can have a place in the garden. The famous Maine lowbush blueberries that carpet the barrens have taller cousins that make good additions to the garden. Different named varieties produce the fruit at different times over the summer so by planting several of them, we can have a long blueberry season. Of course, we have competition from the birds who love them so much that they don’t even wait until the berries are ripe. If fruit is the most important reason for having these native shrubs, you may need to use bird proof netting, available at garden centers. If the netting is simply draped over the plants, birds will sit on the net and reach right through to grab the berries. But if you are willing to share, high bush blueberries will reward you with some of the fruit and beautiful red fall foliage.

Another native shrub to consider is winterberry. The red berries appeal to us for their beauty, and they aren’t high on the list of favorites of most birds either. We usually see them in wet areas like the edge of a pond or swamp, but they will do fine in average garden soil, too. Winterberries are part of the holly genus and most members of the group have separate female and male plants. Horticulturalists routinely give them names according to their gender, like the male known Jim Dandy. Another characteristic of winterberries is that there are some varieties found in our northern area, while others are common further south. For best results, a knowledgeable nursery or garden center will guide you in purchasing a pair, for more, of plants that will guarantee lots of berries on your female winterberries.

There is another native shrub that is a fun addition if you have a wet area in your yard. You may have seen button bushes with their spikey, round white flowers that look like sputniks. They can grow right at the water’s edge and surprise visitors to your garden.

© Judith Chute Hsiang
Jude Hsiang Is a retired Extension Master Gardener instructor and member of the China Community Garden.

by Jude Hsiang

While the daffodils and crocuses are just poking their green noses out of the soil, forsythia begin to bloom. This shrub is a favorite just because the little neon yellow flowers cover the long stems as we are becoming even more tired of snow and mud. Some people prune forsythia into balls and hedges, which it will tolerate, but it wants to grow into a fountain shape. Those long stems will root if they touch the ground and, in a few years, can become a jungle of crisscrossing square branches with small leaves. It’s not the most beautiful shrub for most of the year, but it shouts, “Welcome Spring!”

For many New Englanders spring means lilacs. They’ve been grown here for centuries and with their preference for a more alkaline soil than our native plants, are often found around long abandoned cellar holes nourished by a bit of limestone. In a range of lavenders—some reddish, some more blue—and crisp white, lilacs with their lovely fragrance are one of our “must haves.”

In addition to the common lilacs, which is a direct translation of their scientific name Syringa vulgaris, we can also plant Korean lilacs which are a little smaller in every respect. These re especially useful for smaller spaces. They don’t usually have the same rich perfume, but some varieties will re-bloom a little later during the season which is a plus for some gardeners. Lilacs should be pruned within a couple of weeks after the flowers fade, to assure a bounty in the following year. Just clip off all the flower clusters, or if the plants are getting to tall to reach easily, or covering the windows, cut them further back. Lilacs will sprout all around the base of the main shrub, and those sprouts can be dug and transplanted.

Another group of shrubs for our area are the Viburnums. There are several species and a wide range of cultivars available. Some have a strong sweet fragrance: others almost none. Some bear their flowers in “snowballs” and others have tiny clusters of flowers of more interest to insects but produce berries that attract birds. Most viburnums have white flowers but there are some pink varieties, and many have good red fall foliage. You can choose from rounded shrubs that might only reach six feet, or small trees whose branches are covered with flat blossoms and stretch out in layers. Viburnums rarely need pruning, but if they are becoming too large, it’s best to prune right after flowering, like lilacs.

These three groups of flowering shrubs are hardy and need little care after proper planting and appropriate watering in their first two years. They are mostly pest-free, except for four species of viburnum that can defoliated by an invasive beetle. A good nursery or garden center will help you avoid purchasing one of these species: V. dentatum (arrowwood viburnum, V. nudum, (smooth withered), V. opulus, (European cranberry), V. opulus ssp. trilobum, (.American cranberry). There are lots of other fine viburnums to choose from.

These fine shrubs will provide decades of beauty with very little attention so why not add one or more this spring?

In my next article I’ll cover flowering shrubs for summer and beyond, including some favorite natives.

© Judith Chute Hsiang
Jude Hsiang is a retired Extension Master Gardener instructor and member of the China Community Garden Project.