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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tips on Spring Gardening from Dean Riddle

Aired March 20, 2002 - 06:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well we spring into Spring today, so get ready folks, it's gardening time. Boy that was a change of subject, wasn't it?

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN RIDDLE, AUTHOR, "OUT OF THE GARDEN": I'll say.

COSTELLO: Joining me with some tips for those of you who like to play in the dirt is Dean Riddle, author of "Out in the Garden."

Looks like a very cool book.

RIDDLE: Thank you. I hope it's cool.

COSTELLO: Well, I have many questions for you. I am not a gardener at all.

RIDDLE: Yes.

COSTELLO: I warn you right at the top. But you said that -- but you say in your book and in other places that we should learn the value of good design. Does that mean we should all sit down and plot out our gardens before we plant?

RIDDLE: Well it's a good idea however small the garden is. In fact, if it's a small garden, it's an even better idea to start that way because you make the most of a small space. It just gives you a sort of framework to go on and a good place to arrange plants in and situate furnishings and that sort of thing.

COSTELLO: How do you know -- how do you know where to put stuff?

RIDDLE: Read my book, no. Well, the idea of starting with a good structure is so that the space itself makes sense and its scale and proportion works with the house and sort of responds to the architecture of your house and...

COSTELLO: Well let's say we're planting a vegetable garden.

RIDDLE: Yes.

COSTELLO: I mean should you plant tomato plants on the outside and then other plants on the inside? RIDDLE: Well I just -- I like to integrate flowers and vegetables, ornamental and edible plants, in the garden. But you know, yes, you want to put tomato plants so that they get the sun. You know you have them...

COSTELLO: Oh got you.

RIDDLE: ... so that things don't get shaded and that sort of thing. But the idea is to get some sort of layout of beds, a framework that works for you and makes sense, like I said, with your house that sort of extends the intimacy and design of even the rooms of your house.

COSTELLO: Yes, and that's something else you brought up, you should think about the relation of the garden as it sits to your house.

RIDDLE: Oh absolutely. Because then -- because I think what happens, and even people that garden for quite a long time, they just sort of go marching into the yard and start digging holes and planting. And that's all very well, but when you create a space that makes sense first, it really lifts this plant collection up to something else and into a sort of an art form and not just digging holes and growing things.

COSTELLO: OK, so in a few hours it will be Spring,...

RIDDLE: It will.

COSTELLO: ... what should we be planting?

RIDDLE: Well, in most parts of the country as soon as the ground is workable you can start planting vegetables like beets and chard, all kinds of greens that can be seeded directly in the ground, lettuce, all those things can go in the ground even while it's still quite cold at night and we get frost. Those things are very tough.

COSTELLO: Oh yes?

RIDDLE: You want to wait on tender things later, but...

COSTELLO: What about flowers?

RIDDLE: Flowers, well sweet peas can be planted very early. Perennials, you know transplant that you buy in say a gallon pot or a quart pot, those can go in quite early. People are very sort of iffy about what they put in the ground. But these hardy perennials can go in very early and you don't have to worry about their roots or the tops of the plants even if they look a little shrunken and shriveled and cold on freezing mornings.

COSTELLO: OK, so for those of us with a black thumb, which I have, what are the hardiest outdoor plants -- a surefire plant that will look beautiful no matter if you forget to water it?

RIDDLE: Oh Siberian irises, ornamental grasses, daylilies I suppose. But there's just such a great range of perennial plants now and of course hardy woody plants, so much more so than when I first got into horticulture.

COSTELLO: Yes. Oh you know I wanted to ask you this too because when you go to the garden store and you're not a good gardener,...

RIDDLE: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... you can spend hundreds of dollars.

RIDDLE: Oh yes.

COSTELLO: Is that necessary to grow a great garden?

RIDDLE: No, it's not. And in fact, I think it's almost a mistake to get too carried away with a plant collection early on. This is why, once again, I go back to design. Get the space right first and then sort of let that dictate your plant collection. And it's a good idea, too, especially in your early years of gardening, to sort of -- I mean I like simplicity anyway. I think it really helps a garden to not have a giant plant collection, keep things sort of streamlined and -- but I mean it's very tempting to go off and buy lots of things. We all want to collect.

COSTELLO: Oh yes.

RIDDLE: But you know limit yourself. Sort of stop and think and decide what's really right for your garden and then get three or five instead of one of each because then you make an impact in the garden with a -- with a sort of bold mass of things instead of this dotty approach.

COSTELLO: OK, Dean Riddle, thank you very much. The book is "Out in the Garden."

RIDDLE: Right.

COSTELLO: And it's really cool.

RIDDLE: Check it out. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thank you very much.

RIDDLE: Nice to be here.

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