Barn Talk: The Tasteful Garden: Kitchen Garden Favorites with White Flower Farm

White Flower Farm Nursery Manager Barbara Pierson shares her favorite plant selections for today’s kitchen gardens. Drawing from the farm’s extensive trial gardens, Barb will spotlight outstanding edible varieties—including proven All-America Selections (AAS) winners—that deliver great flavor, high performance, and reliability. She’ll share practical, low-maintenance growing techniques, along with smart choices for small spaces and patio containers. Essential cultural basics will also be covered, including soil preparation, fertilizing, spacing, managing insects and disease, and knowing when and how to harvest for the best flavor.  Along the way, you’ll discover creative ways to pair edibles with ornamentals to create beautiful, productive combinations that not only look great, but also attract pollinators and support a healthy garden ecosystem.

Barb Pierson is celebrating 26 years as Nursery Manager at White Flower Farm in Litchfield, CT. Her responsibilities include greenhouse production of hundreds of species of plants including vegetables. As Kitchen Garden trial manager, she grows dozens of new and heirloom vegetables assessing their performance for vigor, harvest and taste. In 2025, WFF became an All-American Selections trial garden further expanding the selection of seed varieties for both ornamentals and edibles. Barb heads up the biological control program at WFF, and all edibles are grown using natural methods. She is a graduate of Cornell University and grew up in a family greenhouse business. Her passions include the fascinating world of plants and mentoring future gardeners.