space-saving tip: vines up a shrub

Growing Hyacinths

This is one of the many books in my collection but the only one to focus on growing big, bigger and biggest vegetables. If you want to grow giant vegetable for exhibition or to get large crops then there are many pointers in ‘How to Grow Giant Vegetables’ by Bernard Lavery and below.

The original post on 5th April 2008′ was entitled welcome to the Compost Heap.’

With all that in mind, I made my annual frantic call with some urgent tomato questions to today’s guest, Craig LeHoullier in North Carolina, the NC Tomato Man as he’s known on social media, author of the classic book, “Epic Tomatoes” (affiliate link). Craig knows more about these cherished fruits than almost anyone I’ve ever met. He even shares that in live sessions each week on his Instagram account where you can ask your questions and get solid answers. I asked Craig how he’s doing and what we should all be doing to bolster a bountiful harvest and also about which fruits to save next year’s seed from anyhow and other tomato questions. Read along a

While native grasses and forbs are my favorite lazy gardener plants, native shrubs rank as must-haves for an easy and attractive landscape. All native or introduced shrubs are generally carefree when they are well-chosen, thoughtfully placed, and planted correctly. Unhealthy plants have problems. Well, duh!, you might say! Any silly person could tell me that. But often, the solutions are obvious.

Did you know dahlias can be grown from seed? Many gardeners are only familiar with growing dahlias from tubers. Still, growing dahlias from seed is how new varieties are first created. Then they are sold commercially as tubers to produce true-to-type varieties for consumers. Home gardeners can do this too! This year in my flower garden, I grew several dahlia forms (different flower shapes or sizes). I grew varieties ranging from open-centered to pompon and anemone flowered blooms and relied on open pollination from the bees to do the breeding work for me. Once the blooms dry up, and the seed heads are mature, I will collect the seeds and wait until spring to plant them and see what new and exciting varieties come up.

First, of course, you want to make sure the crop you’re considering saving seed from is open-pollinated, not a hybrid. Hybrids won’t “come true” from saved seed one generation to the next.“Start with the super-easy things,” said Ken, “like anything with a perfect flower and a pod—beans, and peas, for instance.” Perfect flowers contain both male and female parts, or stamens and pistils, such as lettuce, tomatoes, brassicas, beans; in imperfect ones, such as on squash and cucumbers, there are separate male and female flowers.“Before you even transplant your first seedling, you can start thinking about seed saving,” Ken said, and also wrote in a new article on the Seed Library blog.For beginning seed-

Brushwood Nursery, aka gardenvines [dot] com, was founded in 1998 in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, out of a Lord and Burnham greenhouse Dan rented for $5 a year plus upkeep. (Such a deal!) Dan, a University of Delaware horticulture graduate, used to teach at nearby Longwood Gardens and worked with Conard-Pyle, where he got fluent in the propagation of Clematis, which most nurseries call “a nuisance crop,” he says, with their particular trimming schedules and rambunctious intertwining tendencies.Enter a business opportunity: a high dollar-per-square-foot greenhouse crop, and one that not everyone is good at–enter Brushwood. He started selling vines over eBay, eventually launching his own website, and recently outgrew the climate and space in Pennsylvania and moved to Athens, Georgia.The Brushwood collection now numbers more than 500 climbers, with Clematis as the main event—including ‘Omoshiro,’ top photo, which may be the first large-flowered one I ever buy (it’s more than 7 inches across, and fragrant). There are climbing roses, jasmines, passionflowers and more–but let Dan tell

THANK YOU DEB PERELMAN OF SMITTEN KITCHEN, who cooks up a giant food blog from her tiny, 42-square-foot New York City kitchen. Just in time for peak pickling season, Deb unlocked the riddle that had been puzzling her (and me) for years: why recipes come out too salty sometimes and not others. Turns out that not all brands of Kosher salt (shown above, in my Grandma’s glass salt cellar) are created equal. The scoop from Deb (thank you, thank you).WANT TO USE LESS CHEMICALS in and around the home and garden? Who doesn’t? Beyond Pesticides dot org is an essential resource to help in the plight. Just look at this list of factsheets (each a PDF). I love the one on “Reading Your Lawn Weeds,” for instance, a tactic that will really help you think before dumping on some needless toxin; you can find it partway down this page of theirs, at the link

YES, IN THE BEST-CASE SCENARIO, preparing to save seeds starts with decisions about what variety to plant in the first place, and rouging out weak and then “off types” that don’t measure up, or conform to the desired traits of that particular tomato or squash or zinnia. Inferior or atypical? Out you go!It’s a process that is repeated throughout the life cycle. For instance, you might pull the lettuce seedlings that are slowest to germinate from your row or cellpack; later pull and eat any with off-type foliage, and perhaps even rogue a third time if some individuals prove more inclined toward disease than others. Only let the best and brightest go to seed and provide the genetics for next year.Want to guard against inadvertent cross-pollination? A chart in the OSA’s guide clarifies what crops are vulnerable (and what close cousins they can cross with—such as carrots with wild Queen Anne’s lace, or that many brassicas, such as Brussels sprouts and kale

This year, I’m late, late, late—and I’m conveniently blaming circumstances beyond my control. After frozen ground in April, no rain for three-plus weeks in May, and a June of incredible deluges, some of my best-laid plans aren’t looking so swell. Maybe you’re in the same situation. With all the upside-down spring weather that made headlines around the nation, I suspect it’s not just me who fell “behind.” There’s still time for a positive outcome.Ken (below, saving tomato seed), founder of Hudson Valley Seed Library catalog and an organic seed farmer, joined me on the public-radio show and podcast to talk about planting for late summer into late fall harvest (think: pea-shoot salad, a succulent fresh batch of basil and more), and about seed saving.Read along as you listen to the July 13, 201

One of the vigorous young Clematis I bought last year from Brushwood Nursery at the nearby Trade Secrets annual plant sale shot up about a foot this week and headed straight for a Rosa rugosa, thorns and all, above. Hey, baby, how about a hand?It’s a great time of year to add more vines alongside more shrubs…or so I’m thinking over here. Read about training vines up shrubs for an extra season of impact from one garden space.Or browse all my vine stories posted so far.Tagsvines