Easy Espalier Trellis

Are you keen on the idea of growing your own vegetables, but not really sure where to start? This list of ten easy to grow vegetables is a great first step on your grow your own journey.

While I’ve spent a fair amount of time tending to outdoor plants, my experience with indoor plants was relatively non-existent. The curiosity of the feline members of my household was such that having plants or even cut flowers was not prudent. After one incident with a broken glass vase, I decided cats and indoor plants did not make a good combination.

I used to grow Joe Pye weed, Eupatorium purpureum (above), in the back row of mixed borders with much smaller perennials. Eventually I relegated all these super-tall types to a bed of their own, where they could shine together instead of be the only bright light in beds with foreground companions who had seen better days, the sometimes-unavoidably tattered heroes of spring and early summer.One other resident of the big bed is Rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’ (I also see it listed various places as ‘Herbstonne,’ see comment from Yvonne after the post) or autumn sun coneflower (photo above). It gets to about 8 feet, with a wonderful linear quality and a graceful sway in every breeze.Both of

NEXT TO CANNAS, which are about the easiest non-hardy bulbs or bulb-like plants to carry over year to year carefree in the cellar, I’d have to say that Eucomis bicolor, the pineapple lily (Zones 7 or 8 to 10), is winning me over for its similarly cooperative nature and long season of showing off. I enjoyed the potful that a friend gave me so much that this spring I ordered a dozen bulbs, and put three or four in each of several 12-inch containers.

I AM ON THE ASPARAGUS DIET, because that’s what the garden has to offer at the moment: beautiful spears of tender asparagus. I like them tossed in olive oil and sea salt and roasted till nearly crispy, but sometimes I want not a side, but a meal, and here’s my favorite one: Easy Asparagus-Parmesan Bake, a fast concoction that’s not quite a quiche nor a frittata, but does involve a nice fresh egg or two.

I paid a visit this summer to historic Beekman 1802, the rural residence of my ex-Martha Stewart colleague Brent Ridge and his partner Josh Kilmer-Purcell, also known as “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” from the Planet Green reality show and from the popular memoir “The Bucolic Plague” that Josh published last year about their city-to-country transition.For the Beekman Boys’ latest project (do theyever stop?), the cookbook team included another old friend, Sandy Gluck, former food editor of Martha’s “Everyday Food” magazine and one of the smartest cooks I know. The result: a happy combination of fresh-from-the-garden ingredients, including many heirlooms, that Brent and Josh grow at their Sharon Springs, New York, farm or purchase nearby, combined into well-written, practical recipes that invite me to try them. No crazy-long lists of ingredients; no daunting step-by-steps, thank you.

THE MOST POPULAR POSTS on the website are all browsable here at this link–kind of fun, isn’t it, to dig into the archive this way?JUST GETTING STARTED IN GARDENING? I’ve put all the “beginner’s” posts here, in this spot where your can click through at will.THERE ARE BROWSABLE, PHOTO-DRIVEN PAGES like those for everything from Conifers to Bird Sh-t (um, as in Bird Gardening). You can always find all the navigational links in the small green type in the far-left col

Today, I’m operating on the idea that growing a few poppies for their fleeting ornamental use in the garden, or to enjoy the dried seedpods in an arrangement—or to sprinkle their delicious poppyseeds into a baked good, for that matter—isn’t in any way violating anything. It’s simply gardening.Seed catalogs sell them, and gardeners grow them.A Washington State University factsheet on “Culinary Poppy” offers commercial growers some smart-sounding guidelines (and I quote):Exactly.Papaver somniferum (which is an annual species) simply plant themselves in my garden, and in fact if you aren’t careful you’ll have a trail of seedlings come spring marking the path you took to the compost heap during fall cleanup. I find them easy to grow once they get started; simply thin the little blue-gray seedlings as they emerge to give the plants some elbow room.As for that first packet from the seed catalog to get things going, there’s the question whether to sow it in later

AS PART OF Garden Conservancy Open Day at Margaret Roach’s Copake Falls, NY, garden–including a plant sale by Broken Arrow Nursery–guest expert and garden writer Lee Reich will be doing a morning lecture on fruit espaliers.

There are many ways to make a raised garden bed. The cheapest raised garden beds are created using soil mounds to form the border, but there are several other cost effective methods that work well.

DIY stamped concrete pavers are an easy way to improve your outdoor space, and for cheap!

I've seen several DIY projects for privacy fences, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money or put a ton of effort into this project. Unfortunately, I have a champagne vision with a beer budget, but we were able to complete this project for less than $30 in under two hours. Paul (the hubs), was going to be doing most of the work, and I would be the job foreman. I'm happy to report that we're still married, even after our...«lively» debate about why its unrealistic for me to expect full growth ivy winding it's way through the lattice panels, while we sit in cushy new patio chairs sipping Mojitos listening to the gentle gurgle of a three-tier water feature that he could also build that weekend? Geesh, he's such a killjoy.