Plants
Garlic vine
Rangoon creeper
Blue Passion flower vine
Here, a plain white pergola gets a beautiful purple upgrade with the introduction of a wisteria to frame the green garden view.
7. Flame vine (Pyrostegia venusta)The flame vine or golden shower climber is a fast-growing, woody climber that blooms with countless orange-red flowers during winter and spring. The tip of each branch forms a cluster of 15-20 flowers, presenting a distinctive ‘fiery’ look to the vine plant.What it needs:Regular watering and full to partial sun facilitate the healthy growth of this evergreen climber.
4. Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides)The fragrance-laden star jasmine or confederate jasmine is an evergreen climber, but is not a true jasmine. It wears shiny green foliage and white flowers on woody stems. The five-petalled flowers blossom abundantly during the late spring and summer. True jasmines, almost identical to the star jasmine, are juhi (Jasminum auriculatum), Arabian jasmine (J. sambac) and angelwing jasmine (J. nitidum). They are twining vines with fragrant little white flowers, commonly grown in India.What it needs:Although star jasmine is a hardy, winter-tolerant plant, it favours medium watering and well-drained soil. It can do well in full to partial sun conditions.
Laara Copley-Smith Garden & Landscape Design SaveEmail Rotating the crops and amending the soil with organic matter and leaf molds ensure healthy crops. Interplanting edibles with companion plants is also important. Copley-Smith even intentionally allows some edibles to flower and self-seed. Here she grows Veronicastrum, aster and Perovskia. Pollinator plants attract natural fauna, but sometimes staying hands off encourages wildlife most; Copley-Smith keeps a stack of logs as a habitat and cuts back spent grasses and shrubs only after the threat of winter has passed, to provide shelter and food for wildlife over winter.
Here netting protects cabbage from birds and cabbage white butterfly.
10. Zucchini. If you plant zucchinis, be prepared to start eating them a couple of months later and to continue consuming them throughout the summer. The zucchini is legendary for how easy it is to grow and how much it produces, but the same can be said of almost any of the squashes, including pumpkins. They’re notorious for springing up where seeds have overwintered, including compost piles, and the resulting amount of fruit can be overwhelming. The space requirements can also be a little daunting, as most require a fair amount of room for sprawling. But if you have the space (or find a compact variety), zucchinis and other squashes are easy edibles to grow.
9. Peppers. Peppers of all types need a long, warm to hot growing season, but they’re worth the wait. Plant sweet peppers for milder flavor and a range of colors from yellow and red to green and purple, and sizes from tiny to large enough to stuff and bake. If your taste buds are more adventurous, give hot peppers a try. You’ll find everything from mildly spicy to so hot, you’ll need to taste with caution.
7. Tomatoes. For many gardeners it’s really not an edible garden without a tomato or two. Though you may hear all sorts of stories about possible problems, from whiteflies to scary-sounding diseases, the fact that tomatoes are probably the most popular edible to grow should encourage you. The key is to find the varieties that do well in your climate. The good news is that there are so many varieties now readily available, from heirlooms to disease-resistant hybrids, so you can easily find something that works for you.
6. Beans. Beans are an edible-garden staple, and snap beans are the most popular type of bean to grow. Choose from bush beans, which produce an earlier crop while staying lower to the ground, or vining beans, the familiar climbing varieties that will climb up almost anything they can wrap their tendrils around. Once you’ve mastered these, you can branch out to dry beans, lima beans, scarlet runner beans, fava beans and even soybeans.
5. Strawberries. The taste of freshly picked strawberries is reason enough to grow them. Add to that their versatility in terms of varieties for almost all climates and their adaptability to any number of containers, including hanging ones, and you have a plant that can work for almost any gardener. Most gardeners treat them as short-lived perennials, meaning you’ll still have lush foliage after the fruiting season is over. While the list of possible problems might seem daunting, most gardeners find that strawberries are reliable and fairly trouble free (except for keeping birds out).
4. Herbs. Most of our favorite herbs are also the easiest edibles to grow. Some, like mint, are almost impossible not to grow — plant some in the ground and you’ll be pulling up mint all over your garden. Most herbs do best with full sun and little to regular water, and many, such as thyme, do double duty as ground covers. Plant them in a formal herb garden, mix with other edibles or grow in any type of planter or box.
3. Salad greens. Growing your own salad greens is remarkably easy, and these are among the few edibles that do best in partial shade when it’s warm. Lettuce especially can get bitter in hot weather, even if you grow the newer varieties that have been bred to resist bolting. Start with some of the loose-leafed varieties of lettuce and mix in other greens, such as arugula, chicory, chervil and spinach, for a home-grown salad mix.
2. Carrots. Long and orange may be the familiar look, but today’s carrots come in a range of colors, from white to purple, and a range of shapes, from long and narrow to short and plump. Like radishes, they give you almost instant gratification when it comes to harvesting, as you generally can start pulling them to eat in a month or so. More than most other edibles, they do require loose, clod- and stone-free soil to maintain their shape.
1. Radishes. Radishes may be one of the easiest edibles to grow. With some popular varieties, you can start eating the tops (as you thin out your plantings) within two weeks and start harvesting in three weeks. You can plant successively from early spring until summer approaches, then start planting again come fall.
Planting and care: Choose a well-drained site in full sun. Mix compost or manure into the soil two to three weeks prior to planting. Set up any irrigation furrows or drip systems before planting as well. To maximize pollination, plant corn either in a block containing at least four rows of corn that are 3 feet apart (the most productive method) or in a series of hills (somewhat less productive but easier to tend). Water the soil thoroughly before planting. If you're planting in a block, sow seeds 1 to 2 inches deep and 4 to 6 inches apart. When seedlings reach 6 inches, thin them to 1 to 1 1/2 feet apart. To plant in hills, mound up the soil a few inches high and 3 feet apart. Sow five to six seeds per hill, 1 to 2 inches deep, then thin to three plants per hill. For best container results, plant in three or four 20-inch containers. Make three holes per container, sowing two seeds in each hole. Thin to one plant per hole once seeds have germinated and reached about 1/2 foot tall. Traditional Landscape by ecocentrix landscape architecture ecocentrix landscape architecture SaveEmail Keep the soil moist but not soggy, and water deeply once the silks form. Feed the soil when pl...
Most herbs want full sun, but other than that, you don’t need to worry too much. Many of the more popular herbs, such as thyme and lavender, will grow in poor conditions. Some, such as mint, will grow almost anywhere. In fact, mint can be so invasive, it's best to put it in a pot raised off the ground.
'Torch Glow' bougainvillea
When to plant: In spring when the soil has reached 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (13 to 16 degrees Celsius) Light requirement: Full sun Water requirement: Regular to generous Days to maturity: 68 to 90 Favorites: Giganteus, Kong, Mammoth Grey Stripe, Mammoth Russian, Mongolian Gian, Rostov OG, Russia Giant, Sunseed, Sunspot, Sunzilla, Titan Planting and care: Choose a spot that gets full sun for at least six hours per day, preferably more, and that is not overly windy. Before planting, work in a complete fertilizer about 2 inches to the side of the planting row and about 2 inches deep. Plant seeds 1/2 inch deep and 6 to 12 inches apart, in rows 2 to 3 feet apart. Thin to 1 to 1 1/2 feet apart once the seedlings have reached about 6 inches. It’s generally better to start sunflowers from seeds, as transplanting can be tricky due to fragile taproots, but if you buy seedlings, set them 1 to 1 1/2 feet apart.
What grows in the shade? Many beautiful plants will thrive in full or partial shade. Take some hints from naturally occurring plant communities in shady environments for plants to include in your shade garden. The forest floor: The ground of wooded areas has many types of ground covers, flowering bulbs and even tree species that will seed and grow in the shade. Examples include ferns, Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). The understory: The layer beneath the tree canopy in a woodland is called the understory, and this layer is home to woody shrubs and small trees — many of them flowering — that thrive in full to partial shade. Examples include rhododendrons, fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) and flowering dogwood (Cornus florida). The forest edge: The space between meadow and woodland is a transitional ecosystem with a mix of sun and shade. Plants that thrive in this zone are usually highly adaptable. Understory flowering plants will also grow well at the forest edge, usually with a more impressive flower display. Examples include all of the sumacs (Rhus spp) and sassafras. There are also several grasses in the Carex genus that do grea...
Lonicera sempervirens Common names: Trumpet honeysuckle (for the way flower petal ends flare outward like a trumpet), coral honeysuckle
umbrella plant
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