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Springing our gardening questions on two Westerville green thumbs

Andi Gregorek Yates has lived in Westerville for about six months and Carol Dilligas has been a Westerville resident since 2019. Both are green thumbs and know all the dirt on the flowers popping up in your spring garden beds.

Westerville Magazine: What do your spring gardens usually look like? Carol Dilligas: My old house had a spring ephemeral garden and I had lots of bulbs. I was pleased when I moved here to find tulips in my front yard. I have added creeping phlox (my husband’s favorite) and lily of the valley, which I hope will come up this spring. Andi Gregorek Yates: My spring gardens actually include a lot of vegetables. I’ll start carrots and broccoli from seeds indoors and move them out when I can start working the ground. We have raised vegetable beds, one of which is seasonally rotated. I love bulbs, so we have about 100 tulips and daffodils scattered around. I love having a rotating selection, so I’ll have hyacinths and irises in late spring. We’ve also got some established shrubs and rose bushes that will get a good pruning in early spring. In addition, we start moving our bog plants outside around spring; all of the carnivorous plants help manage garden pests. We try to keep them away from our pollinator garden though!

WM: What’s your favorite flower or plant? CD: I am having fun exploring sun-loving plants. I love anything with a good fragrance – roses, honeysuckle, magnolia. I will be trying to start a cutting garden this year with zinnias, nasturtiums, bachelor buttons and maybe some daisies. AGY: My favorite house plants are definitely either ferns or orchids. When it comes to outdoor flowers and plants, I really love my herb gardens and buckets. So many of them have beautiful foliage, smells and flowers. I’m growing chamomile this year for the first time and I’m probably the most excited about that.

WM: Do you have any advice your fellow Westerville gardeners? CD: Ask your neighbors for advice! They know what grows well here. I am fortunate to have my friend Nancy Evans living across the street, a long time volunteer at Inniswood Gardens who has a wealth of information to share. AGY: Plant what you love. I accidentally ended up with a lot of purple flowers a while ago and thought that there wasn’t enough variety in my garden. I stopped to think about it though, and realized that all those flowers and plants brought me so much joy that it didn’t matter if they were all similar colors. By the same token, figure out what solutions work for you. I love a trellis for my tomatoes, but cages can work well, too!

WM: What’s the biggest mistake you think beginner gardeners make when planting? AGY:The biggest mistake I’ve personally made with gardening is not doing the research or following instructions. The first time I planted bulbs, I planted them about two inches deep, didn’t read the recommended directions on the packaging and put the plants where I wanted them instead. Nothing did well; some were in too much light, others not enough. Some were washed out in the rain and some were dug up by squirrels. Now, I consider the space, identify the plants and flowers that grow best in those conditions and follow directions. Don’t give up! It took me at least a few years to learn how to grow bumper crops of peppers, but now it’s easy.

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