Penny Carnathan

Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.

Kim Franke-Folstad

Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.

Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.

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Dateline: Central Avenue, Burlington, Vt. — freezing cold and gardens everywhere

Posted Oct 2, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Oct 2, 2009 at 10:05 PM

I’m in northern Vermont, the home of my early childhood, to attend a summer camp reunion. It was 46 degrees when I got here yesterday afternoon and raining. People had their fireplaces fired up! I most definitely feel far from Tampa. And under-dressed.

Vermont is a thoroughly magical place and I’m staying with a friend, Iris McDonald, in a magical neighborhood. Queen City Park is a re-gentrified urban area in South Burlington. Since it overlooks Lake Champlain, the real estate here is very popular, and since there isn’t much of it, the lots are small and cleverly carved to squeeze in houses every which way.

And still … everyone has a garden! There is almost no space without flowers or vegetables. There’s even a community compost pile at the end of the street.

That’s Swiss chard in the foreground. There’s also Early Girl tomatoes, Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes (delicious!), scallions and peppers. Bruce, the gardener here, and his daughter Rebekah said they also had sweet peas and broccoli and a squash that grew so big, they brought it to a food bank. But alas, the growing season is mostly over up here.

All the gardens shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me. Vermonters are huge environmentalists — there are no billboards allowed here; you pay a nickel deposit on aluminum cans. But I’ve never seen so many gardens on a city street.

Central Avenue could be an anomaly, though. Bruce and Rebekah pointed out the home of neighbor Ron Krupp, author of “The Woodchuck’s Guide to Gardening” and garden commentator on Vermont Public Radio. And up the street, they said, lives Lisa Yankowski, “the bug lady” at Gardener’s Supply Co.

If Vermonters love their gardens, they really love their garden art. From the looks of it, they spend their long winters coming up with creative new ideas. Here’s what I saw just on Central Avenue. 

A holder was built for the plant on the bicycle seat; the basket on the front handlebars is lined with coco-fiber. I love the tableau.

Simple spires, but very eye-catching.

A trellis!!

Funky weathervane—and yes, that’s bona fide fall foliage behind it.

These are painted hunks of metal—they look like automotive scrap metal. Iris says a sculptor lives here.

See a familiar face? Yup, this guy is in Iris’ yard. Up here, flamingoes are definitely creative!