Archive for the ‘Elevated garden beds’ Category
Comment on Lunaria Annua ‘Money Plant’ by penny clay
August 4th, 2008
I got this plant courtesy of my grandfather, it is one of his favorites and always grew at his house in a large mass planting.
This is one interesting plant with many phases for you to enjoy.
It is a biennial, which means it lives for two years and then dies. The first year it grows around 6 inches or so high, it takes the snow without losing it’s green, and then the second year it rapidly shoots up to spring to as high as 3 or 4 feet high and has bright purple flowers. It flowers in early Spring when there is not very much else of height flowering like it does, more or less between tulips and irises. It then slowly forms seed pods which then flake away revealing shiny silver disks, which give it it’s many names.
My grandfather called them “silver dollars” the more common names though seem to be “Money Plant” or “Honesty.” Apparently the plant can make you money as well. My grandfather always insisted that you could take the dried stalks with the shiny seed pod remnants and sell them to florists for big bucks. I don’t know about that, I’ve never tried it, but I do like this plant.
It reseeds very very well, you can literally just toss the seeds on the soil and they’ll grow. I cut down mature plants and just shake the seeds off and where they land they will germinate, but it isn’t really invasive, if it sprouts somewhere you do not want it to it is very easy to control.
Since it is a biennial I recommend planting your seeds one year, holding some back, and sowing those the next, so you get staggered plantings so that eventually you’ll have some plants blooming every year.
I’ve grown this plant in both full sun and part shade, even full shade, it doesn’t seem to care. I have noticed where it has grown in less than idea conditions (a seed germinates somewhere I didn’t mean for it to, but I let it grow anyways) it doesn’t grow as high or get as many blossoms, so it seems to really react well to good fertile soil, but that is about it.
I want to make an offer to blog readers, my seed pods are mostly ready about now, so if anyone mails me a self-addressed stamped envelope I will mail you back free seeds so you can get your own started. This offer is only good until the end of August though, and if like 100 people send me letters I may run out, but I’ll do my best to send everyone free seeds.
You can send your envelopes to
1836 N Harrison Rd
East Lansing, MI 48823
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Comment on How to Grow Sweet Potatoes by Asha
Days to germination: Not grown from seed
Days to harvest: 90 to 120 days
Light requirements: Full sun, or partial shade
Water requirements: Consistent watering
Soil: Fertile and well-drained, low nitrogen
Container: Definitely not
Introduction
First of all, sweet potatoes are not the same as yams. In North America, the terms are used interchangeably but they are two very different vegetables from different plants. Most sweet potatoes have orange flesh though there is some varieties that produce yellow or purple potatoes for something unique on the table.
Cooler climates are not well-suited for growing sweet potatoes but they are otherwise easy to grow if you have 4 months of very warm weather. This is one of the reasons that sweet potatoes are a common crop in the southern United State. Some varieties will mature in only 3 months, such as Georgia Jet or Centennial which would do better farther north.
Sweet potatoes are usually cooked, but the raw flesh can be added for an interesting addition to a salad or made into crunchy “chips”. The sweet root vegetable very high in vitamin A, and are also a good source for vitamin C, manganese and copper. You will also get some iron in there too.
Starting from Seed
Gardeners don’t usually start sweet potatoes from seed, but rather from “slips” which are really just pieces of potatoes that have started to sprout. It’s basically the same principle as with using seed potatoes when you grow regular potatoes.
You can start your own slips with store-bought potatoes but they can take up to 6 weeks to develop so most home gardeners buy them ready-to-plant. If you want to give it a try, take a supermarket sweet potato and put it in a jar or glass of water so that the rounded end is under water. You can hold it in place with a few toothpicks stuck into the sides to keep the potato from falling into the glass. Picture an old grade-school science experiment.
It may seem silly, but many gardeners swear by this method. Start about 6 weeks before you are going to put them out. The potato should sprout some slips. You can either separate the sprouts or just plant the whole potato.
Slips should go out in the garden after the soil has started to warm up, about 2 weeks after the last frost. Laying out black plastic can help speed up the warming process. Even though their vines take up a lot of space (see below), you can plant your slips about 2 feet apart.
You plant your slips just like you would a seedling, leaving the leaves above ground level. They may or may not still be attached to a piece of sweet potato. Purchased slips are usually just the sprouted part (no potato attached).
Growing Instructions
Sweet potatoes will vine up to 20 feet and will produce tubers underground all along the length of the vines. As they grow, they root down when they touch the soil and produce a tuber. Then the vines just keep growing. So you can’t grow sweet potatoes on a trellis and you shouldn’t locate your plants where the vines will sprawl outside the garden area (like the lawn).
It also means that you shouldn’t try to move the vines once they’ve grown or you might uproot a potential potato.
You shouldn’t need to fertilize your plants but if you do, use a low-nitrogen mixture or you will end up with leafy vines and no potatoes. Sweet potatoes don’t like to compete so keep the patch well weeded until the vines grow out. The leaves will soon shade out most weed plants.
Too much water can make your larger potatoes split, so watch the calendar and reduce the watering when you get to about 3 weeks before harvest time.
Containers
Considering how the plants will produce underground tubers along the vines, there really is no way to adapt sweet potatoes to container gardening.
Pests and Diseases
Wireworms are one insect pest that can damage your sweet potato crop by eating into the growing potatoes. They are pale yellow to light rusty brown. Unfortunately, you can’t do that much about them. Leaving a large chunk of “bait” potato in your garden can attract them, making for easier capture and disposal. There are some natural predators that can be applied to the garden, such as some species of nematodes.
A more serious pest is the sweet potato weevil. It’s a small insect with a black body, red head and long black nose. If you see them on your plant, you likely have a problem even though it’s their larvae that are causing the most damage and not the weevils themselves. They are unlikely in your soil unless you have been growing sweet potatoes in other seasons.
Keep your garden safe by only buying slips that are certified to be weevil-free. Using your own store-bought potatoes to grow slips may introduce eggs into your garden. They can also live in morning glories (closely related plant) so never plant these flowers near your vegetable garden if you are growing sweet potatoes.
Because the tubers are growing so close to the surface, you can also have a problem with mice or other rodents. Mice can be difficult to get rid of in the garden but commercial poisons, baits or traps can help.
Harvest and Storage
Average sweet potatoes are 4 to 6 inches long, and each plant will produce anywhere between 4 to 12 of them.
The leaves of the plant will start to die back when its time to start digging up the potatoes. They grow right under the surface so don’t be too rough when you dig. You can bruise them quite easily. Any potatoes that are cut by the shovel should be used first and not stored. If a frost hits before you’ve harvested, they will be fine. But once that happens, don’t put it off much longer.
You don’t necessarily have to wait until full maturity to dig up potatoes either. With a little care, you can dig small new potatoes without killing the rest of the plant.
For immediate use, keep your fresh sweet potatoes out on the counter and not in the refrigerator. They’ll last about a week this way. Unlike traditional potatoes, sweet potatoes are not good for really long-term storage. Keep extra potatoes in a cool but dry place and they will be usable for about a month. If you’re doing that, don’t wash them first. They need to be very dry and washing will add more moisture, leading to quicker spoiling.
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Comment on How to Grow Sweet Potatoes by Asha
Days to germination: Not grown from seed
Days to harvest: 90 to 120 days
Light requirements: Full sun, or partial shade
Water requirements: Consistent watering
Soil: Fertile and well-drained, low nitrogen
Container: Definitely not
Introduction
First of all, sweet potatoes are not the same as yams. In North America, the terms are used interchangeably but they are two very different vegetables from different plants. Most sweet potatoes have orange flesh though there is some varieties that produce yellow or purple potatoes for something unique on the table.
Cooler climates are not well-suited for growing sweet potatoes but they are otherwise easy to grow if you have 4 months of very warm weather. This is one of the reasons that sweet potatoes are a common crop in the southern United State. Some varieties will mature in only 3 months, such as Georgia Jet or Centennial which would do better farther north.
Sweet potatoes are usually cooked, but the raw flesh can be added for an interesting addition to a salad or made into crunchy “chips”. The sweet root vegetable very high in vitamin A, and are also a good source for vitamin C, manganese and copper. You will also get some iron in there too.
Starting from Seed
Gardeners don’t usually start sweet potatoes from seed, but rather from “slips” which are really just pieces of potatoes that have started to sprout. It’s basically the same principle as with using seed potatoes when you grow regular potatoes.
You can start your own slips with store-bought potatoes but they can take up to 6 weeks to develop so most home gardeners buy them ready-to-plant. If you want to give it a try, take a supermarket sweet potato and put it in a jar or glass of water so that the rounded end is under water. You can hold it in place with a few toothpicks stuck into the sides to keep the potato from falling into the glass. Picture an old grade-school science experiment.
It may seem silly, but many gardeners swear by this method. Start about 6 weeks before you are going to put them out. The potato should sprout some slips. You can either separate the sprouts or just plant the whole potato.
Slips should go out in the garden after the soil has started to warm up, about 2 weeks after the last frost. Laying out black plastic can help speed up the warming process. Even though their vines take up a lot of space (see below), you can plant your slips about 2 feet apart.
You plant your slips just like you would a seedling, leaving the leaves above ground level. They may or may not still be attached to a piece of sweet potato. Purchased slips are usually just the sprouted part (no potato attached).
Growing Instructions
Sweet potatoes will vine up to 20 feet and will produce tubers underground all along the length of the vines. As they grow, they root down when they touch the soil and produce a tuber. Then the vines just keep growing. So you can’t grow sweet potatoes on a trellis and you shouldn’t locate your plants where the vines will sprawl outside the garden area (like the lawn).
It also means that you shouldn’t try to move the vines once they’ve grown or you might uproot a potential potato.
You shouldn’t need to fertilize your plants but if you do, use a low-nitrogen mixture or you will end up with leafy vines and no potatoes. Sweet potatoes don’t like to compete so keep the patch well weeded until the vines grow out. The leaves will soon shade out most weed plants.
Too much water can make your larger potatoes split, so watch the calendar and reduce the watering when you get to about 3 weeks before harvest time.
Containers
Considering how the plants will produce underground tubers along the vines, there really is no way to adapt sweet potatoes to container gardening.
Pests and Diseases
Wireworms are one insect pest that can damage your sweet potato crop by eating into the growing potatoes. They are pale yellow to light rusty brown. Unfortunately, you can’t do that much about them. Leaving a large chunk of “bait” potato in your garden can attract them, making for easier capture and disposal. There are some natural predators that can be applied to the garden, such as some species of nematodes.
A more serious pest is the sweet potato weevil. It’s a small insect with a black body, red head and long black nose. If you see them on your plant, you likely have a problem even though it’s their larvae that are causing the most damage and not the weevils themselves. They are unlikely in your soil unless you have been growing sweet potatoes in other seasons.
Keep your garden safe by only buying slips that are certified to be weevil-free. Using your own store-bought potatoes to grow slips may introduce eggs into your garden. They can also live in morning glories (closely related plant) so never plant these flowers near your vegetable garden if you are growing sweet potatoes.
Because the tubers are growing so close to the surface, you can also have a problem with mice or other rodents. Mice can be difficult to get rid of in the garden but commercial poisons, baits or traps can help.
Harvest and Storage
Average sweet potatoes are 4 to 6 inches long, and each plant will produce anywhere between 4 to 12 of them.
The leaves of the plant will start to die back when its time to start digging up the potatoes. They grow right under the surface so don’t be too rough when you dig. You can bruise them quite easily. Any potatoes that are cut by the shovel should be used first and not stored. If a frost hits before you’ve harvested, they will be fine. But once that happens, don’t put it off much longer.
You don’t necessarily have to wait until full maturity to dig up potatoes either. With a little care, you can dig small new potatoes without killing the rest of the plant.
For immediate use, keep your fresh sweet potatoes out on the counter and not in the refrigerator. They’ll last about a week this way. Unlike traditional potatoes, sweet potatoes are not good for really long-term storage. Keep extra potatoes in a cool but dry place and they will be usable for about a month. If you’re doing that, don’t wash them first. They need to be very dry and washing will add more moisture, leading to quicker spoiling.
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Comment on Save Paul James, Gardening by the Yard Cancelled, HGTV == Bad by Shirl
April 1st, 2009 
I’m angry.
Scripps Networks, owners of HGTV, are canning Gardening by the Yard and other gardening shows.
I want to swear and curse them out, I consider myself sailor quality in those activities, but this is a family blog so I’ll leave it to your imagination.
HGTV has forgotten the second letter in their name. As chronicled here they’ve been dropping gardening content for years, and little of what they do have is more like, as the link above says, using plants as design elements rather than things to cultivate.
Now they’re cancelling the one, one, educational gardening (as opposed to landscape design show) they have left. As you can read here they say.
They said gardening doesn’t sell and only old people garden. Well, we may be a seasoned, thrifty bunch, but gardening is still the #1 hobby in America.
This is a lie. Young people are in to gardening at unprecedented levels nowadays because young people are into being green and gardening, especially things like growing your own food, is green. There are 25 year old homesteaders out there trying to grow all their own food, this is not an activity for just old people. And with the economic crisis this has only increased. If anything HGTV should have made this move 4 years ago when people where all just interested in flipping houses rather than working the land, but to do it now when the pendulum is swinging the other way is ridiculous.
I am only 28 years old, I’ve been gardening all my life and I garden with a passion. Even for the few years when I lived in an apartment I had a patio garden (from the ground our patio looked like a jungle). I am smart, successful, young, technologically hip, and a big time gardener, and I’m not alone. So to say Paul James doesn’t appeal to young people is ridiculous. My youngest brother likes him too, he is only 20 and has been watching Paul James since he was probably 12.
I’ve learned so much from Paul. I would probably have not gotten more interested in dwarf conifers had it not been for him. I wouldn’t know what the heck a blue atlas cedar was had I not seen that beautiful specimen in his yard so many times. Paul taught me all about soil and especially about compost, I probably saw my first compost tumbler on his show. I’ve learned about vegetables from him, I’ve learned about trees. I’ve learned how to put in a rock wall, and how to build a fountain. And the only times I got close to bored was when Paul wasn’t on the screen.
Paul James is the Alton Brown of HGTV (or is Alton the Paul James of Food Network?). He is both entertaining and educational, a mix that is hard to find. He is the ultimate TV gardening personality (note to Paul though, this did not translate to your cooking show.). To say young people are not going to be interested in him as opposed to interested in a show where someone with a $30,000 a year income buys a $800,000 house? Or someone puts in a million dollar yard we can certainly all relate too? Please.
Is PBS going to be the only channel with gardening content? And what then, what do we have? Victory Garden which is slow and meandering and not nearly as entertaining (and invariably just about gardening on the coasts or at professional public gardens), or Smart Gardening which is so much filler content to fill 30 minutes? (“Today’s Smart Gardening Tips, exactly the same as last weeks: Choose the Best Plants, Water Well, and Have Fun!”)
If Paul James is cancelled he should get a show on Discovery Green. That channel is a little pretentious at times, and sometimes a little out of the mainstream, but I find myself watching it more and more. I think Paul would be a good fit there.
Either that, or, fulfill my dream of Paul, Alton Brown, and Les Stroud (Discovery’s Survivorman) going off on adventures together trying to live off wild foragables. That would be an awesome show.
There is a protest being organized to help save the show, don’t think it can’t work. Fans of CBS’ “Jericho” sent tons of nuts to CBS’ offices and managed to save that show for another season. Scrubs was cancelled by NBC, and picked up by ABC, same thing happened with Buffy. It can happen, show your support. The protest campaign is here.
Oh, date aside, this is no joke.
Oh, and if anyone from HGTV reads this. Paul James is the youngest person you have on your network. Age is not appearance of grey hair, age is a state of mind. And tell me, who acts more like a kid than him?
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Comment on Use Compost, Save Money by Trisha
August 22nd, 2010
Behold! My new Pinus Contorta “Taylor’s Sunburst”!
I know it doesn’t look anything special now, but this is one rare and amazing plant. In the spring the new growth lights up to a bright yellow (in contrast with the dark green older growth) in an amazing display. In Spring it will look like this:
So, did I name this post incorrectly? What does this tree have to do with compost and saving money? Well as I said, this is one rare and amazing plant. At Gee Farms, where I bought mine, a new grafted one about 6 inches tall is $50. A 4 foot one is $900. Mine, listed at 2 foot (but really two and a half+, I was told it has been potted up for sale at that size for 2 seasons), was $200.
Pretty expensive. If 4 feet is $900 then each half foot is over $100, and each inch is just under $20, lets round up and call it $20 an inch.
I make my own compost with my compost tumbler, but despite the fact that I compost just about everything I can. All garden waste, tree trimmings, all kitchen scraps that aren’t meat, etc. Despite all that, I garden so much I can’t make enough compost to fulfill all my garden needs. So I always ending buying more.
At the garden center 40 pound bags of topsoil are about $1 each, 40 pound bags of composted manure are $1.50 each. The compost however is a far far better growing medium. When you plant something you have just that one opportunity to improve the soil, you need to take it.
I’ve heard in some places when you plant a tree you should mix some native soil into the planting hole because you don’t want the tree to get “confused” or “disappointed.” I don’t buy it, for one, trees don’t think, they don’t have feelings, and in nature, all the time, will tree roots go through different types of soil. Secondly, I’ve noticed no problems planting trees in super improved soil, in fact, I’ve noticed only benefits. I think this whole theory was a result of one guy’s poor intuition that unfortunately caught on.
So anyways, you should always plant your new plants in the best soil possible, and full compost is the best soil possible. Yes, it is more expensive than top soil, but it is not expensive, it is still cheap, just not as cheap. Suppose a tree planted in composted manure grows just 1 inch per year more than a tree planted in top soil. With my new tree that 1 inch is worth $20 a year. I only needed to buy 4 bags of compost for this tree, so that is only $2 in extra cost, for $20 the first year, and that is if the compost only gives me 1 extra inch, if it gives a larger benefit the benefit is even higher.
Of course my tree is really expensive, not all trees are, but mine is also slow growing, and not all trees are. If you had a fast growing tree like a lombardy poplar you might get an extra foot or two per year by planting in really good soil.
An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure, and a bag of compost up front can give you pounds of wood down the road. Spend the couple extra quarters up front and get bagged compost for all your planting (I also plant veggies directly in it), your plants will do better, and the increased yields and growth will far far outweigh the incremental cost of the compost.
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Comment on Front Yard Farming by Scott Weber
September 3rd, 2010
I’ve seen articles recently about global food shortages and feeding our populations and whatnot, bunch of scare tactics mostly, but when you sit down and think about it, there is a lot of land that could be used to grow food, but isn’t.
Highway medians, roadsides, parks, but mostly, front yards.
Some backwards and oppressive cities have ordinances requiring you to have x percentage of front yard as perfectly green lawn, and if you try to put in garden beds, xeriscaping, or just don’t remember to water, they fine you.
Garden beds require less fertilizer, less water, and less labor than lawn, and can make you money when used right. Sure, kids can’t play in gardens like they can on lawns, but unless you live on a very low traffic street, you want them playing in the back yard anyways. On my street, which is 4 lanes, I put in a new super secure gate as soon as my son learned to walk just to make sure he can never go into the front yard.
So, assuming you don’t live in a third reich city and can plant your front yard as you wish, why not get rid of the grass and put in planter beds? On a side note, I think it is funny the same sort of people who put in the stupid lawn ordinances are the types who act like chicken littles about food shortages.
My front yard is full of planting beds and I add a new one or two every year (it is almost an addiction for me).
I grow a mix of ornamentals and edibles in my front yard, I’m too much of a landscape artist to fully commit to just utilitarian gardening like I showed in this blog post on growing your own food. Plus, I want to sell this house one day (probably in about 5 years) so I have to be cognizant of resale value.
Right now, in addition to the sweet potatoes, apple trees, pawpaw tree, and herbs I am growing in my front yard, I’ve got a ginormous 15′x15′ mound of butternut squash. My wife calls it “The Blob” and we always see people walking by scoping it out. A few years ago squirrels told me where to plant my squash and so I did so this year. Butternut squash are versatile in the kitchen, and fairly easy to grow. A little supplemental watering if there is a drought, and that is it. They can be affected by powdering mildew, so a fungicide can be helpful, but they are one of few squash varieties resistant to squash vine borer.
I’m letting the blob grow all it wants, I’ll just mow around it (not that I’ve had to mow, we’ve had a drought lately, hence the wilty leaves). I’ll probably get 60 pounds of squash off of these plants, all for the price of a pack of seeds. It might not be the most attractive thing in the world, but a squash vine is not a permanent landscape feature, it can be removed at any time. So to grow it or another vine (such as watermellon) in your front yard all you need is a small planting hole/mound (with improved soil please), and then let it spill over onto the grass, and mow around it. Unlike a crop like say corn, you don’t have to commit a large portion of your yard to permanent garden if you don’t want to. You could also grow pumpkins this way as a project for the kids.
For most squash you don’t even need to start them until June (or even later if you have a longer growing season than we do in Michigan), and they take a little while to get going, so it isn’t as if it’ll cover your yard for the entire summer either.
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