Daylily
by National Gardening Association Editors
Daylily
Few plants are as rugged, widely adapted, or versatile as daylilies. And with more than 13,000 cultivars available, there's a size and flower color for every garden.
About This Plant
Plant breeders continue to expand the color palette available in daylilies, which now includes yellow, orange, red, white, and purple flowers. Varieties with muliticolored blooms, often with a contrasting "eye," or center, are increasingly popular. Most daylilies have a distinct, three- to four-week bloom period in early to late summer, although some varieties continue to bloom sporadically all season long. Individual flowers last just one day but new ones open daily for the duration of the bloom time. Foliage height ranges from 1 to 4 feet, depending on variety. Flower stalks on the tallest varieties can reach 6 feet. Flowers are edible.
Special Features
Easy care/low maintenance
Multiplies readily
Tolerates dry soil
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun to light shade and well-drained soil. In areas with hot summers, light afternoon shade will keep brightly colored flowers from fading.
Planting Instructions
Plant in spring, spacing plants 1 to 3 feet apart, depending on the variety. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the pot the plant is in. Carefully remove the plant from its container and place it in the hole so the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the root ball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. Avoid excessive fertilizing as this will inhibit flower production. Water plants during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. Remove individual spent flowers daily and cut back flower stalks once all flowers have gone by. Divide plants every three to four years as new growth begins in the spring, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps.
Geranium
by National Gardening Association Editors
Geranium
An easy-to-grow perennial, geranium is often used in borders, rock gardens, and as a ground cover. Another common name is cranesbill.
About This Plant
Geranium is a diverse group containing types that grow in a range of conditions, from full sun to shade. Flower colors include pink, blue, white, and purple. Most geraniums blooms in midsummer, although some species will bloom in spring and fall. Plants grow 6 inches to 4 feet tall, depending on the variety. These true geraniums are not the annual flowers commonly grown in windowboxes, which are more properly referred to by their botanical name, Pelargonium.
Special Features
Easy care/low maintenance
Multiplies readily
Deer resistant
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun to light shade and well-drained soil. In hot climates, choosing a site with moist soil and afternoon shade will improve vigor and prolong bloom.
Planting Instructions
Plant in spring, spacing plants 6 inches to 2 feet apart, depending on the variety. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the pot the plant is in. Carefully remove the plant from its container and place it in the hole so the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the root ball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. Water plants during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. Cut back the plant after flowering to stimulate new growth and reblooming. Divide plants every 3 to 4 years as new growth begins in the spring, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps.
Hosta
by National Gardening Association Editors
Hosta
Hosta is an easy-to-grow, long-lived, shade-loving perennial that is prized for its colorful leaves. Other common names are plantain lily and funkia.
About This Plant
An ideal foliage plant for shady areas, hosta grows well under deciduous trees, in borders, and as a ground cover. Foliage height ranges from 6 inches to 3 feet, with taller flower spikes appearing in early to mid summer. Foliage colors range from chartreuse to deep blue-green, and many varieties have striking variegation. Flower colors include white and lavender; some flowers have a sweet scent. Because hosta is a favored food of slugs, snails, and deer, control measures may be required.
Special Features
Easy care/low maintenance
Multiplies readily
Unusual foliage
Site Selection
Select a site with light to full shade and moist, well-drained soil.
Planting Instructions
Plant in spring, spacing plants 1 to 3 feet apart, depending on the variety. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the pot the plant is in. Carefully remove the plant from its container and place it in the hole so the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the root ball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. Water plants during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. After the first killing frost, cut plant back to an inch or two above soil line. Divide plants every 3 to 4 years as new growth begins in the spring, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps.
Bearded Iris
by National Gardening Association Editors
Bearded Iris
With their swordlike leaves and showy flowers, bearded iris are an eye-catching addition to any garden. They're easy to plant, require minimum care, and readily multiply. Dwarf varieties make attractive edging.
About This Plant
Bearded iris are available in a wide variety of flower colors, including pink, blue, red, yellow, and purple. They bloom in early summer, with some varieties reblooming later in the summer. They grow from 8 inches to 4 feet tall, depending on variety. The flowers are lovely in bouquets, and the foliage remains attractive even after flowers have faded. Unfortunately, the plants are susceptible to borers, so check the rhizomes (fleshy roots) yearly for holes, discarding any infested ones.
Special Features
Easy care/low maintenance
Multiplies readily
Fragrant
Good for cut flowers
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun and well-drained soil.
Planting Instructions
Plant bearded iris in mid summer to early fall, spacing plants 1 to 2 feet apart, depending on variety. Excellent soil drainage is a must. Prepare garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. If planting a rhizome (fleshy root), dig a shallow hole 10 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep. Make a ridge of soil down the middle and place the rhizome on the ridge, spreading roots down both sides. Fill the hole with soil, and firm it gently. In clay soil, the top of the rhizome should be exposed. In sandy soil, rhizomes can be buried with a thin layer of soil. If planting container-grown plants, set the plant so the rhizome is at the soil surface. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost around the base of plants each spring, leaving the rhizome (fleshy root) exposed. As flowers fade, cut back the flower stalks to the base of the plant. To encourage a second bloom on reblooming varieties, promptly remove faded flowers and maintain consistent watering throughout the summer. In autumn, trim away dead foliage and prune back healthy leaves to a height of 4 to 5 inches. Once the soil has frozen, apply a layer of mulch to help prevent roots from heaving out of the soil during alternate freezing and thawing. If heaving occurs, don't try to force plants back into the soil. Instead, cover rhizomes and exposed roots with soil. Divide bearded iris every 4 to 5 years, preferably in late summer. Each division should have one or two leaf fans. Older rhizomes that have few white feeding roots should be discarded.
Dianthus
by National Gardening Association Editors
Dianthus
There are numerous types of dianthus, so there's one for almost any garden situation. Many types have flowers with a fragrant, spicy scent and notched petals. Common dianthus include Sweet William, pinks, and carnations.
About This Plant
Most dianthus have pink, red, or white flowers with notched petals. Sweet Williams are biennial or short-lived perennials covered with bicolor flowers in late spring. Pinks are low-growing dianthus suitable for rock gardens. Carnations are taller and good for bouquets but tend to be less hardy than other dianthus.
Special Features
Multiplies readily
Fragrant
Good for cut flowers
Deer resistant
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun and well-drained soil, preferably with neutral to alkaline soil pH. Dianthus won't tolerate wet soils, especially in winter.
Planting Instructions
Plant in spring or fall, spacing plants 6 to 12 inches apart, depending on the type. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the plant's container. Carefully remove the plant from its pot and place it in the hole so the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the root ball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. Water plants during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. Stake tall varieties to keep them upright. Remove spent blooms on tall varieties, or shear back mounding plants after bloom to encourage rebloom. After the first killing frost, cut stems back to an inch or two above soil line. Divide plants every 3 to 4 years as new growth begins in the spring, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps.
Aster
by National Gardening Association Editors
Aster
Aster's brilliant flowers brighten the fall garden when little else is blooming. Indeed, "aster," the Latin word for "star," aptly describes the starry flower heads. Another common name is Michaelmas daisy.
About This Plant
Aster thrives in areas with cool, moist summers. It produces blue, white, or pink flowers in the late summer or fall. Plant height ranges from 8 inches to 8 feet, depending on variety. Tall varieties make good back-of-the-border plants and are also attractive planted in naturalized meadows. Aster is susceptible to powdery mildew and rust diseases, so choose disease-resistant varieties.
Special Features
Attracts butterflies
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun to light shade and well-drained soil.
Planting Instructions
Plant in spring, spacing plants 1 to 3 feet apart, depending on the variety. Prepare garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the pot the plant is in. Carefully remove the plant from its container and place it in the hole so the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the root ball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. Pinch young shoots back to encourage bushiness. Water plants during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. Stake tall varieties to keep them upright. After the first killing frost, cut stems back to an inch or two above soil line. Divide plants every three to four years as new growth begins in the spring, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps containing three to five shoots.
Foxglove
by National Gardening Association Editors
Foxglove
Foxglove bears tall, dramatic spikes of tubular flowers with speckled throats. Foxglove blooms in midsummer and adds elegance to a perennial border, woodland area, or shade garden.
About This Plant
Foxglove's low-growing foliage is topped by 2- to 5-foot-tall flower spikes, depending on the variety. Flower colors include pink, red, purple, white, and yellow. Foxgloves are biennials or short-lived perennials. However, although individual plants may be short-lived, foxglove readily self-sows and multiplies. Foxglove leaves contain digitalis, a potent heart medicine, and are considered poisonous.
Special Features
Easy care/low maintenance
Multiplies readily
Good for cut flowers
Deer resistant
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun to light shade and moist yet well-drained soil.
Planting Instructions
Set plants out in spring or fall, spacing plants 1 to 2 feet apart, depending on the variety; sow seeds in early summer. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the pot the plant is in. Carefully remove the plant from its container and place it in the hole so the top of the root ball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the root ball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. Water plants during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. Stake tall varieties to keep them upright. Remove the central flower spike after flowering to encourage other side shoots to form and produce more flowers. However, if you want the plant to self-sow and multiply, leave the flower spike intact on the plant so seeds can mature and disperse.
Coreopsis
by National Gardening Association Editors
Coreopsis
Prized for its dependable nature and colorful, daisylike flowers, coreopsis has a long bloom period and is generally troublefree and easy to grow. Another common name is tickseed.
About This Plant
Coreopsis is tolerant of a variety of soil types and environmental conditions, making it a popular choice for home gardeners. Tall varieties can reach 4 feet in height and are good for the back of the border and in cutting gardens. Shorter, mounding varieties are more delicate and good for edging. Most coreopsis sport yellow flowers, although a pink variety is also available.
Special Features
Easy care/low maintenance
Multiplies readily
Good for cut flowers
Tolerates dry soil
Site Selection
Select a site with full sun and well-drained soil.
Planting Instructions
Plant in spring, spacing plants 2 to 3 feet apart, depending on the variety. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole twice the diameter of the pot the plant is in. Carefully remove the plant from its container and place it in the hole so the top of the rootball is level with the soil surface. Carefully fill in around the rootball and firm the soil gently. Water thoroughly.
Care
Apply a thin layer of compost each spring, followed by a 2-inch layer of mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. Water plants during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week. Stake tall varieties to keep them upright. After the first killing frost, cut stems back to an inch or two above soil line. Divide plants every few years as new growth begins in the spring, lifting plants and dividing them into clumps.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Gardening Basics: Spices, Herbs plus Herbal Tea Recipe
Growing Oregano
By: National Gardening editors
There are several types of oregano. And while we recommend only one for kitchen use, others can be used as attractive border plantings or for wreath-making.
The Right Oregano
The oregano most often used in cooking is Origanum heracleoticum and goes by the common names Greek oregano, winter sweet marjoram, and Italian oregano. It's a hardy plant that establishes quickly, getting no taller than 6 to 8 inches. Be sure not to buy the common oregano (Origanum vulgare) if you want to cook with it. Common oregano has no real flavor, though it is covered with ornamental lavender flowers in summer, which dry well and are often used in wreaths. Golden oregano can be used for a ground cover or in container plantings. For culinary oregano, purchase a plant or plants from a reputable herb nursery to insure a flavorful, hardy plant.
Getting Started
Oregano is easily started from seed after the last spring frost; you can also divide an established bed to get new plants. Rich, fertile soil is best. Thin plants to stand 8 to 10 inches apart. Trim back before flowering (approximately 5 to 6 weeks after planting) to stimulate a denser, bushier growth habit. Plants will seed easily so you can thin out 3- to 4- year old plants to keep the bed quality high.
Harvest Time
Harvest leaves as you need them; the optimal flavor period is just before flowers bloom. Leaves dry easily and store well; they can be frozen, too.
Growing Thyme
By: National Gardening editors
The thyme group of herbs is aromatic, verstalie, and plentiful- over fifty varieties are judged beneficial for culinary or garden uses.
Types of Thyme
The thyme most often used in cooking is know as English thyme (a form of Thymus vulgaris). Like the other thymes, it has woody stems with small oval leaves. It will grow 8 to 12 inches high (many other thymes are smaller). Creeping varieties are good as edging plants or in rock gardens.
Loved for its lemon scent, lemon thyme (Thymus citriodorus) is a delightful plant for both garden and kitchen. One cultivar of lemon thyme with variegated yellow leaves and a prostrate habit is known as 'Doone Valley'. It makes a beautiful ground cover, particularly in winter when it turns strong shades of yellow, red, and green. Caraway thyme (Thymus herbabarona) is a low-growing plant combining the fragrancees of caraway and thyme; it has dark green leaves.
Getting Started
Seeds are troublesome to start because of slow, uneven germination. Buy a plant or two of the variety you want from a good nursery and plant it in the spring in full sun where the soil is light and well drained. You can also start plants from cuttings if you have a friend willing to share. Space the plants 9 inches apart.
Thyme Care
Where winters are very cold, mulch the plants after the ground freezes with a light mulch such as pine needles. Trim the plants back a bit in the spring and summer to contain growth and prevent them from developing too much woody growth.
Thyme to Harvest
Leaves and sprigs can be harvested all summer. In the early fall cut and tie sprigs together and hang them upside down in a dark, well-ventilated, warm area to dry. You can also dry stemless leaves on a tray or freeze them.
Best Herbs for Teas
By: Evelyn Gaspar
Once I began blending and testing herb teas to sell under my Garden Party label, I knew what I didn't want. An herb tea should never be flat and flavorless. Whether it's fruity or spicy, soothing or lively, simple or sophisticated, it needs taste and personality.
I found my homegrown mint, lemon balm and chamomile were more flavorful than the herbal ingredients I could buy. I also learned that many of the old-fashioned beverage flavorers, such as rose petals and toasted sunflower hulls, are still delightful additions. And for simple pleasures, few things equal the fragrance and flavor of a few fresh leaves of lemon verbena steeped in boiling water.
Best Herbs for Tea
Here are my picks for the most flavorful and widely adapted "tea" plants for home gardens, along with tips for harvesting and my favorite recipes. All of these plants grow well throughout the United States. They are hardy perennials (up to -20oF) that do well in sun or part shade, except where noted.
* Bee Balm (Monarda didyma), a member of the mint family, is native to the eastern United States and Canada. Here in the drier West, I pamper it, making sure it's in water-retentive soil. Both the brightly colored flowers and the leaves, with their complex flavors of citrus and spice, are used for tea.
* Betony (Stachys officinalis) bears two- to three-foot spikes of violet flowers. The deep green, hairy leaves make a slightly astringent tea that's similar to a mild, fragrant China tea.
* Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is a two- to three-foot-tall mint-family member. The fuzzy, scalloped leaves have a lemon-mint flavor. If you have cats, you know they roll in it. My solution: Grow a surplus and dry the leaves on top of the refrigerator where the cats can't reach them. One caution: Pregnant women should avoid drinking catnip tea.
* Chamomile bears small, daisy-like flowers that have long been used in Europe for tea. German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is a two-foot annual. Roman or English chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) is a lush green perennial ground coverms of C. nobile bear small, yellow, button-like flowers. Although many references designate German chamomile as the sweeter type preferred for tea, I harvest the mature flowers of both chamomiles for a light, apple-scented tea.
* Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) produces seeds that lend a warm, citrusy flavor to tea. The leaves, used in cooking, are known as cilantro or Chinese parsley. This fast-growing half-hardy annual prefers cool weather. Plant in fall in mild climates; elsewhere, succession-plant through spring and summer.
* Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a three- to five-foot perennial often cultivated as an annual. In cold climates, you can succession-plant through the early spring and summer, and it will often self-sow. Here in the desert, I plant in fall. Fennel likes full sun. Both the feathery leaves and the seeds are used for licorice-flavored teas.
* Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) is our family favorite. This floppy two-foot-tall member of the mint family has scalloped, lemon-scented leaves that make a soothing evening tea and add body to blends as well. It's listed for zones 4 and 5, but I've found it less hardy than other mints. A rooted cutting will overwinter indoors.
* Lemon Verbena (Aloysia triphylla) is, among all the plants with "lemon" in their names, the most like oil of lemon, hence the most strongly flavored. The leaves are long, slightly sticky and deciduous. This woody shrub prefers full sun and a light, well-drained soil. It's hardy only in zones 10 and 11. Elsewhere, grow it in a planter and winter it indoors (treat it first with insecticidal soap, as it's prone to whiteflies and spider mites).
* Mint (Mentha spp.) comes in many varieties, all of which have been used as teas. In my opinion, peppermint leaves (M. x piperita) are the only ones that stand up to drying and steeping, making a wonderfully refreshing iced tea. Like any mint, peppermint can be invasive. It tolerates drier conditions than spearmint. Here in the desert we give it shade.
* Roses (Rosa spp.) can be used to make two kinds of tea, those from the hips (fruit) and those from the petals. You can use the petals of any fragrant variety that's been grown organically. I gather them when the blooms are just past their peak. Rosa rugosa is one that's recommended for both petals and hips because it's a fragrant, pest-free rose that doesn't require spraying. Rose hip tea is red, with a tart lemon-orange flavor, and is a source of vitamin C. Cut slits in plump hips to speed drying and crush them slightly before brewing tea.
* Sunflower seed hulls, roasted and ground, were used by Native Americans and pioneers as a coffee substitute. I run a rolling pin over the seeds to crack them, then remove the kernels for baking and snacks. I place the hulls in a dry cast-iron frying pan and stir over medium-high heat for a few minutes until they're blackened. It's a smoky operation, but the aroma is toasty and inviting. The hulls add a hearty flavor to teas, as well as darken them.
* Yerba Buena (Satureja douglasii) is a low-growing perennial with wonderful menthol-mint-flavored leaves. A native of the Pacific redwood forests and hardy only to 10oF, it needs a climate that's moist and mild. We grew it in San Francisco, and miss it here in the desert.
Harvesting
Aromatic oils are most concentrated when herb plants are in bud, so that's a good time to harvest, although you can certainly take cuttings here and there during the growing season. Cut back the entire plant by two thirds. In my region, I get about three cuttings before letting the plants go.
The plants listed here can all be used fresh for tea, or they can be dried first. To dry them, I spread the stems on trays in a warm, airy place and turn them twice a day. When they're dry (four to eight days), I gently strip off the leaves, buds or flowerheads and store them in closed containers.
I cut stalk fennel and coriander when the seeds are barely mature, but before they shatter, and invert them in paper sacks. In a few weeks, when the seeds have dropped to the bottom and dried, I funnel them into storage containers.
Photo by Suzanne DeJohn/National Gardening Association
Herbal Tea Recipe
By: Evelyn Gaspar
Once you've harvesting your herbs for tea, here's how to blend and brew up a healthy pot of tea.
Blending and Brewing
In "merry olde England," a tea with one ingredient was called a simple. By all means, start by sampling some simples and get familiar with the various teas. That way, you'll know if you're one of a very small percentage of people that may experience a reaction to one of these ingredients.
Once you discover the art of blending, however, you'll probably prefer the made-to-order tastes and subtle accents you can create. But just as mixing contrasting colors can make a muddy mess, mixing unrelated flavors can be unsatisfying. The trick is to choose one flavor or family of flavors to carry your message. Then, for accent, add small amounts of other herbs or bits of dried fruit or citrus peel, toasted almonds or walnuts, or whole spices. Use about three parts of your dominant ingredient(s) to one part of accent items. Crumble the leaves if necessary to mix evenly, but not enough to go through your strainer or tea ball.
Recipes
The recipes given here call for dried ingredients and yield six cups of tea. Use one tablespoon of dried herbs per cup, plus one for the pot. For fresh leaves or flowers, triple the amounts (seed measurements don't change). Pour boiling water over the herbs, cover and let steep for one to three minutes. Herb teas are naturally pale. Sweetening with honey darkens them and adds body. Lemon juice bleaches the color; try rose hips instead. Peppermint, betony and sunflower teas can take a little milk.
b>Mint Mania
3 tablespoons peppermint leaves
1 tablespoon catnip leaves
1 tablespoon rose petals
1 tablespoon lemon verbena leaves
Orchard
3 tablespoons chamomile flowers
2 tablespoons lemon verbena leaves
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon crushed coriander seed
1 teaspoon snipped dried apricot
Bistro
4 tablespoons toasted sunflower hulls
4 teaspoons fennel seed
4 teaspoons orange rind (colored part only)
Maytime
3 tablespoons chamomile flowers
1 tablespoon bee balm leaves
2 teaspoons rosemary leaves
2 teaspoons crushed coriander seed
2 teaspoons peppermint leaves
By: National Gardening editors
There are several types of oregano. And while we recommend only one for kitchen use, others can be used as attractive border plantings or for wreath-making.
The Right Oregano
The oregano most often used in cooking is Origanum heracleoticum and goes by the common names Greek oregano, winter sweet marjoram, and Italian oregano. It's a hardy plant that establishes quickly, getting no taller than 6 to 8 inches. Be sure not to buy the common oregano (Origanum vulgare) if you want to cook with it. Common oregano has no real flavor, though it is covered with ornamental lavender flowers in summer, which dry well and are often used in wreaths. Golden oregano can be used for a ground cover or in container plantings. For culinary oregano, purchase a plant or plants from a reputable herb nursery to insure a flavorful, hardy plant.
Getting Started
Oregano is easily started from seed after the last spring frost; you can also divide an established bed to get new plants. Rich, fertile soil is best. Thin plants to stand 8 to 10 inches apart. Trim back before flowering (approximately 5 to 6 weeks after planting) to stimulate a denser, bushier growth habit. Plants will seed easily so you can thin out 3- to 4- year old plants to keep the bed quality high.
Harvest Time
Harvest leaves as you need them; the optimal flavor period is just before flowers bloom. Leaves dry easily and store well; they can be frozen, too.
Growing Thyme
By: National Gardening editors
The thyme group of herbs is aromatic, verstalie, and plentiful- over fifty varieties are judged beneficial for culinary or garden uses.
Types of Thyme
The thyme most often used in cooking is know as English thyme (a form of Thymus vulgaris). Like the other thymes, it has woody stems with small oval leaves. It will grow 8 to 12 inches high (many other thymes are smaller). Creeping varieties are good as edging plants or in rock gardens.
Loved for its lemon scent, lemon thyme (Thymus citriodorus) is a delightful plant for both garden and kitchen. One cultivar of lemon thyme with variegated yellow leaves and a prostrate habit is known as 'Doone Valley'. It makes a beautiful ground cover, particularly in winter when it turns strong shades of yellow, red, and green. Caraway thyme (Thymus herbabarona) is a low-growing plant combining the fragrancees of caraway and thyme; it has dark green leaves.
Getting Started
Seeds are troublesome to start because of slow, uneven germination. Buy a plant or two of the variety you want from a good nursery and plant it in the spring in full sun where the soil is light and well drained. You can also start plants from cuttings if you have a friend willing to share. Space the plants 9 inches apart.
Thyme Care
Where winters are very cold, mulch the plants after the ground freezes with a light mulch such as pine needles. Trim the plants back a bit in the spring and summer to contain growth and prevent them from developing too much woody growth.
Thyme to Harvest
Leaves and sprigs can be harvested all summer. In the early fall cut and tie sprigs together and hang them upside down in a dark, well-ventilated, warm area to dry. You can also dry stemless leaves on a tray or freeze them.
Best Herbs for Teas
By: Evelyn Gaspar
Once I began blending and testing herb teas to sell under my Garden Party label, I knew what I didn't want. An herb tea should never be flat and flavorless. Whether it's fruity or spicy, soothing or lively, simple or sophisticated, it needs taste and personality.
I found my homegrown mint, lemon balm and chamomile were more flavorful than the herbal ingredients I could buy. I also learned that many of the old-fashioned beverage flavorers, such as rose petals and toasted sunflower hulls, are still delightful additions. And for simple pleasures, few things equal the fragrance and flavor of a few fresh leaves of lemon verbena steeped in boiling water.
Best Herbs for Tea
Here are my picks for the most flavorful and widely adapted "tea" plants for home gardens, along with tips for harvesting and my favorite recipes. All of these plants grow well throughout the United States. They are hardy perennials (up to -20oF) that do well in sun or part shade, except where noted.
* Bee Balm (Monarda didyma), a member of the mint family, is native to the eastern United States and Canada. Here in the drier West, I pamper it, making sure it's in water-retentive soil. Both the brightly colored flowers and the leaves, with their complex flavors of citrus and spice, are used for tea.
* Betony (Stachys officinalis) bears two- to three-foot spikes of violet flowers. The deep green, hairy leaves make a slightly astringent tea that's similar to a mild, fragrant China tea.
* Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is a two- to three-foot-tall mint-family member. The fuzzy, scalloped leaves have a lemon-mint flavor. If you have cats, you know they roll in it. My solution: Grow a surplus and dry the leaves on top of the refrigerator where the cats can't reach them. One caution: Pregnant women should avoid drinking catnip tea.
* Chamomile bears small, daisy-like flowers that have long been used in Europe for tea. German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is a two-foot annual. Roman or English chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) is a lush green perennial ground coverms of C. nobile bear small, yellow, button-like flowers. Although many references designate German chamomile as the sweeter type preferred for tea, I harvest the mature flowers of both chamomiles for a light, apple-scented tea.
* Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) produces seeds that lend a warm, citrusy flavor to tea. The leaves, used in cooking, are known as cilantro or Chinese parsley. This fast-growing half-hardy annual prefers cool weather. Plant in fall in mild climates; elsewhere, succession-plant through spring and summer.
* Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a three- to five-foot perennial often cultivated as an annual. In cold climates, you can succession-plant through the early spring and summer, and it will often self-sow. Here in the desert, I plant in fall. Fennel likes full sun. Both the feathery leaves and the seeds are used for licorice-flavored teas.
* Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) is our family favorite. This floppy two-foot-tall member of the mint family has scalloped, lemon-scented leaves that make a soothing evening tea and add body to blends as well. It's listed for zones 4 and 5, but I've found it less hardy than other mints. A rooted cutting will overwinter indoors.
* Lemon Verbena (Aloysia triphylla) is, among all the plants with "lemon" in their names, the most like oil of lemon, hence the most strongly flavored. The leaves are long, slightly sticky and deciduous. This woody shrub prefers full sun and a light, well-drained soil. It's hardy only in zones 10 and 11. Elsewhere, grow it in a planter and winter it indoors (treat it first with insecticidal soap, as it's prone to whiteflies and spider mites).
* Mint (Mentha spp.) comes in many varieties, all of which have been used as teas. In my opinion, peppermint leaves (M. x piperita) are the only ones that stand up to drying and steeping, making a wonderfully refreshing iced tea. Like any mint, peppermint can be invasive. It tolerates drier conditions than spearmint. Here in the desert we give it shade.
* Roses (Rosa spp.) can be used to make two kinds of tea, those from the hips (fruit) and those from the petals. You can use the petals of any fragrant variety that's been grown organically. I gather them when the blooms are just past their peak. Rosa rugosa is one that's recommended for both petals and hips because it's a fragrant, pest-free rose that doesn't require spraying. Rose hip tea is red, with a tart lemon-orange flavor, and is a source of vitamin C. Cut slits in plump hips to speed drying and crush them slightly before brewing tea.
* Sunflower seed hulls, roasted and ground, were used by Native Americans and pioneers as a coffee substitute. I run a rolling pin over the seeds to crack them, then remove the kernels for baking and snacks. I place the hulls in a dry cast-iron frying pan and stir over medium-high heat for a few minutes until they're blackened. It's a smoky operation, but the aroma is toasty and inviting. The hulls add a hearty flavor to teas, as well as darken them.
* Yerba Buena (Satureja douglasii) is a low-growing perennial with wonderful menthol-mint-flavored leaves. A native of the Pacific redwood forests and hardy only to 10oF, it needs a climate that's moist and mild. We grew it in San Francisco, and miss it here in the desert.
Harvesting
Aromatic oils are most concentrated when herb plants are in bud, so that's a good time to harvest, although you can certainly take cuttings here and there during the growing season. Cut back the entire plant by two thirds. In my region, I get about three cuttings before letting the plants go.
The plants listed here can all be used fresh for tea, or they can be dried first. To dry them, I spread the stems on trays in a warm, airy place and turn them twice a day. When they're dry (four to eight days), I gently strip off the leaves, buds or flowerheads and store them in closed containers.
I cut stalk fennel and coriander when the seeds are barely mature, but before they shatter, and invert them in paper sacks. In a few weeks, when the seeds have dropped to the bottom and dried, I funnel them into storage containers.
Photo by Suzanne DeJohn/National Gardening Association
Herbal Tea Recipe
By: Evelyn Gaspar
Once you've harvesting your herbs for tea, here's how to blend and brew up a healthy pot of tea.
Blending and Brewing
In "merry olde England," a tea with one ingredient was called a simple. By all means, start by sampling some simples and get familiar with the various teas. That way, you'll know if you're one of a very small percentage of people that may experience a reaction to one of these ingredients.
Once you discover the art of blending, however, you'll probably prefer the made-to-order tastes and subtle accents you can create. But just as mixing contrasting colors can make a muddy mess, mixing unrelated flavors can be unsatisfying. The trick is to choose one flavor or family of flavors to carry your message. Then, for accent, add small amounts of other herbs or bits of dried fruit or citrus peel, toasted almonds or walnuts, or whole spices. Use about three parts of your dominant ingredient(s) to one part of accent items. Crumble the leaves if necessary to mix evenly, but not enough to go through your strainer or tea ball.
Recipes
The recipes given here call for dried ingredients and yield six cups of tea. Use one tablespoon of dried herbs per cup, plus one for the pot. For fresh leaves or flowers, triple the amounts (seed measurements don't change). Pour boiling water over the herbs, cover and let steep for one to three minutes. Herb teas are naturally pale. Sweetening with honey darkens them and adds body. Lemon juice bleaches the color; try rose hips instead. Peppermint, betony and sunflower teas can take a little milk.
b>Mint Mania
3 tablespoons peppermint leaves
1 tablespoon catnip leaves
1 tablespoon rose petals
1 tablespoon lemon verbena leaves
Orchard
3 tablespoons chamomile flowers
2 tablespoons lemon verbena leaves
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon crushed coriander seed
1 teaspoon snipped dried apricot
Bistro
4 tablespoons toasted sunflower hulls
4 teaspoons fennel seed
4 teaspoons orange rind (colored part only)
Maytime
3 tablespoons chamomile flowers
1 tablespoon bee balm leaves
2 teaspoons rosemary leaves
2 teaspoons crushed coriander seed
2 teaspoons peppermint leaves
Gardening Basics: Peas
Preparing to Plant Peas
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Peas are everyone's garden favorite. There's nothing like the taste of fresh sweet peas in spring. Here's some history and tips on planting peas.
A Brief History of Peas
Northerners and southerners have different ideas about the meaning of the word "pea." To southerners, peas are black-eyeds, crowders and creams; to northerners, these same varieties are known as shell beans. The northern version of "peas" is known as English or green peas, and if you ask home gardeners to name their favorite vegetable, many will say green peas.
Garden peas originated in western Asia and Eastern Europe. We know they existed as far back as the Stone Age, because dried pea seeds were discovered among relics in lake villages of Switzerland. Apparently 1,000 years ago the pea, which was small and dark colored, was grown only for its dried seeds. At the turn of the millennium, people started eating them fresh, too.
The popularity of peas increased during the 18th century. The Anglo-Saxon word for peas was "pise," later to be called "pease," but nobody knew whether that referred to one pea or many. So, the word "peas" was coined. Because our green garden peas were derived from varieties that thrived in England, they are called "English peas."
Planting Peas
When you're deciding where to plant which vegetable, there are two good reasons why it's a good idea to locate your peas in a section that receives full sun:
* Sunny spots will be the first places to thaw in the spring, and you want to get your peas into the ground as early as possible.
* If peas are planted in the shade, they'll grow. However, the sugar content will be low, and the peas will taste as if they've been sitting around at the store for a few weeks.
Although peas do need full sun, be careful not to plant the tall varieties where they'll shade other plants.
No matter what size your garden, you'll have the best results if you plant peas in 16-inch-wide rows with walkways at least the same width. Not only will you harvest more, but you'll put less time and work into your crop. For most varieties, if you plant in wide rows there's no need to build trellises or fences for support, because the vines hold each other up. Also, wide-row vines form a living- mulch canopy that helps to eliminate weeds and keeps the soil cool and moist.
When To Plant Peas
Peas are a cool-weather crop that can withstand frost. Northern gardeners can often plant their first crop near the end of March, as soon as the garden has thawed and the soil can be worked. A few varieties, however, are happier being planted when it's warmer and harvested during midsummer. Seed catalogs and packets indicate the preferred time for planting different varieties.
In the Far North, garden peas can be harvested almost all summer if you use a little ingenuity. Plant peas every three to four weeks for a continual summer harvest. Once you've harvested your first crop of peas, pull out and compost the vines or till them in and replant a second crop of peas in the same space. Or you can plant another short-season vegetable.
In the West, gardeners can harvest peas year-round; in the South they're best if grown in the fall, winter and very early spring before the weather gets too hot.
Planting Peas
By: National Gardening editors
You can plant peas in a number of different fashions. Check to see which one suits your garden best.
Wide Rows
Although peas can be grown successfully in single rows, you'll have a more abundant harvest with much less work if you grow peas in wide rows. With wide-row growing, you'll spend less time weeding, watering and harvesting, and more time shelling, because the harvest is larger.
It's easiest to make your wide rows the same width as your rake, which is normally 14 to 16 inches. To mark off a wide row, put a stake at each end of the row. Stretch a string close to the ground between the two stakes. Hold one edge of an iron rake next to the string, and drag the rake down the length of the row. This will level and smooth the seedbed at the same time that it marks off the width of the row.
Remove large stones and any debris from the seedbed and really smooth the soil before you plant. Once you've finished, don't walk on the bed - you'll only pack it down. You want the soil loose for your seeds.
Broadcast pea seeds 1-1/2 to two inches apart across the entire raked area.
Using the back of a hoe, gently tamp down the seeds, pressing them into the soil. With a rake, pull enough soil from outside the row to cover the seeds. The amount of soil covering each seed should equal four times the diameter of the seed, or about 1-1/2 inches for peas. Gently level off the row.
Finally, the soil should be firmed down again, so that there's good contact with the seeds.
It's a good idea to water the rows gently after planting, especially if the soil is dry. If you water before planting, you'll pack down the soil.
Leave 18-inch-wide walkways between your wide rows. This allows enough room for the plants to spread out, and it's also wide enough to walk through, allowing you to cultivate and harvest easily.
Single Rows
The simplest way to make a single row is to put stakes in the ground at each end of the row and stretch a string tightly between them. Draw a shallow furrow with a hoe beside the string in the well-spaded seedbed.
Plant seeds one to two inches apart in rows at least 16 inches apart. After planting the row, use a hoe to cover the seeds with 1-1/2 inches of soil. Then gently firm the soil with the back of the hoe and water well.
Double Rows
Although they're similar to single rows, double rows use garden space more productively. Make two shallow furrows four to five inches apart. Drop the seeds into the furrows, one to two inches apart and 1-1/2 inches deep. Continue planting as you would for single rows.
The double-row method is especially helpful for trellising tall pea varieties. Simply place the vine supports between the double rows.
If you have irrigation problems, place a soaker hose (a garden hose made of porous material that allows the water to seep out slowly) between the two rows for efficient watering.
Another way to irrigate double rows is to dig a shallow furrow between the two seed rows. To water the peas, simply run water down the middle furrow.
Caring for Peas
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Peas don't need as much attention as other vegetables, but do need support, weeding, some fertilizing and care.
Support for Climbers
'Alderman' and 'Super Sugar Snap' peas are both climbing varieties. Because they grow five to six feet tall, these peas usually need some type of support, like a fence, trellis or brush.
In single rows, position the support about three inches behind the row. For double rows, put it in between the rows, so the peas can grow up either side of the support. Or, to maximize space, you can plant a double row on each side of the trellis.
Supports are easy to make. A simple one uses 4- to 5-foot-long stakes placed five feet apart down the row. Run three wires horizontally between the stakes, one foot apart. If you prefer, use chicken wire with a 2-inch mesh instead of the separate wires.
Unlike other climbing vegetables, peas naturally grasp the support with their tendrils, though you may need to guide them gently towards the support as they become tall enough to reach it.
Fertilizng
Because peas are good foragers, they don't need much fertilizer - especially nitrogen. A day or two before planting, broadcast three to four pounds of 5-10-10 commercial fertilizer over each 100 square feet of garden space. Then work it into the top two to three inches of soil.
You may prefer to use organic fertilizers, such as well-rotted or dehydrated manure or bone meal. Spread a one- to two-inch layer over your raised beds and work in the material. If you use local manure, be sure it's well aged. Animals' digestive tracts don't destroy weed seeds, so if you put fresh manure on your garden, you'll probably also be planting weeds.
The primary ingredients of synthetic fertilizer are three nutrients that are vital to all plants: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). If you have a 100-pound bag of 5-10-10 fertilizer, it contains five percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphorus and 10 percent potassium. (The order is constant.) The remaining 75 pounds is sand or other filler plus some trace minerals.
Each of the three major nutrients contained in fertilizer has a unique job to accomplish while your plants are growing. Nitrogen helps plants have healthy lush green foliage. However, too much nitrogen can burn seeds or plants if it comes in direct contact with them, and it can also generate too much vine growth rather than pods with peas inside. Phosphorus is necessary for the development of strong, healthy roots. Potassium, or potash, helps the plant to grow, bear fruit and resist diseases.
It's important to mix chemical fertilizers thoroughly into the soil before you start planting.
Weeding
Once your seedlings start to emerge, weeds also appear. Weeding is the scourge of gardening for most people, but it doesn't have to be. If you stay ahead of it, which is easy with wide rows, you won't have to bribe the neighborhood kids to do it for you.
With wide-row growing, you can usually drag an iron rake across the row as soon as the seedlings emerge in order to thin the row and get rid of early-germinating weeds. Do not do this with peas or beans. These plants are tender, and they may break. However, peas and beans grow quickly, forming a canopy that soon shades weed seedlings from the sun, which inhibits their growth.
Mulching
When your single- and double-row plants are a few inches tall, you can sharply curtail weeding by putting mulch in the walkways. A 3- to 6-inch layer of mulch completely shades the ground, preventing weed growth.
Mulch also conserves moisture and helps to keep the ground at a constant cool temperature. Mulch is almost a necessity if your soil is sandy, warm and too dry. You can use black plastic, or organic mulches, such as bark, straw, lawn clippings, leaves or pine needles.
To keep moisture in the soil and weeds out, apply mulch soon after you cultivate following a soaking rain. Be sure not to add trouble where there wasn't any before. Use only mulch that's free of weed seeds.
Harvesting Peas
By: the Editors of National Gardening
One of the marvelous things about growing your own vegetables is that you decide when it's time to harvest. You can pick your vegetables just before preparing them, knowing that you have the youngest, freshest ones in town. Most commercial gardeners won't pick the youngest vegetables because they earn more money for heavier crops. But generally, the younger the harvest, the more tender and flavorful it is.
English Peas
There's nothing more delicious than the first tender peas, picked right off the vine, shelled and eaten raw. Not only are they sweet and tasty, but they also contain an abundance of vitamins A, B and C.
English peas are sweet because of their high sugar content. However, just a few hours after picking, the sugar starts turning to starch. That's why it's important to shell and cook peas immediately after harvesting them.
In general, you can begin harvesting English peas between 55 and 70 days after planting, depending on the variety. When mature, the pea pods will be nearly round and the peas will taste sweet. You should have several pickings over a period of seven to 10 days.
Use two hands to pick peas, so that you won't damage the brittle vines or uproot the plants. Hold onto the pea vine with one hand, and pick off the pods with the other.
Always pick overmature pods. If allowed to remain on the vines, they'll decrease your total yield.
Once the peas have been harvested, till or spade the whole plants back into the ground, or pull the plants and put them in your compost pile.
If your peas were planted early in the spring, you'll have time to plant another vegetable in that same location. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, root crops and spinach do well in soil where nitrogen-fixing legumes have grown.
Edible-Podded Peas
Harvest snow peas the same way you would English peas, only pick them before the peas have filled out in the pods. These pods will be bright green, tender and flat.
Snap peas, on the other hand, should fill out completely, so they're nice and plump. Remove their strings and blossom ends, and then steam, boil, stir fry or freeze them. Better yet, enjoy them raw!
Southern Peas
Picked when the pods are still green, southern peas can be shelled, boiled and served in the same manner as English peas. However, don't expect the same sugar content found in English peas; southern peas contain much higher levels of starch.
You can also leave southern peas on the vine to fully mature and dry. If your growing season ends before the peas are thoroughly dry, either pull the vines and hang them in a well-ventilated area, or shell the peas and dry them in the sun or in a dehydrator.
Dried Split Peas
'Alaska' is the English pea variety usually grown and dried for split peas. This hardy pea has a low sugar content and produces smooth seeds. Although generally dried commercially, home gardeners can dry Alaska peas easily.
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Peas are everyone's garden favorite. There's nothing like the taste of fresh sweet peas in spring. Here's some history and tips on planting peas.
A Brief History of Peas
Northerners and southerners have different ideas about the meaning of the word "pea." To southerners, peas are black-eyeds, crowders and creams; to northerners, these same varieties are known as shell beans. The northern version of "peas" is known as English or green peas, and if you ask home gardeners to name their favorite vegetable, many will say green peas.
Garden peas originated in western Asia and Eastern Europe. We know they existed as far back as the Stone Age, because dried pea seeds were discovered among relics in lake villages of Switzerland. Apparently 1,000 years ago the pea, which was small and dark colored, was grown only for its dried seeds. At the turn of the millennium, people started eating them fresh, too.
The popularity of peas increased during the 18th century. The Anglo-Saxon word for peas was "pise," later to be called "pease," but nobody knew whether that referred to one pea or many. So, the word "peas" was coined. Because our green garden peas were derived from varieties that thrived in England, they are called "English peas."
Planting Peas
When you're deciding where to plant which vegetable, there are two good reasons why it's a good idea to locate your peas in a section that receives full sun:
* Sunny spots will be the first places to thaw in the spring, and you want to get your peas into the ground as early as possible.
* If peas are planted in the shade, they'll grow. However, the sugar content will be low, and the peas will taste as if they've been sitting around at the store for a few weeks.
Although peas do need full sun, be careful not to plant the tall varieties where they'll shade other plants.
No matter what size your garden, you'll have the best results if you plant peas in 16-inch-wide rows with walkways at least the same width. Not only will you harvest more, but you'll put less time and work into your crop. For most varieties, if you plant in wide rows there's no need to build trellises or fences for support, because the vines hold each other up. Also, wide-row vines form a living- mulch canopy that helps to eliminate weeds and keeps the soil cool and moist.
When To Plant Peas
Peas are a cool-weather crop that can withstand frost. Northern gardeners can often plant their first crop near the end of March, as soon as the garden has thawed and the soil can be worked. A few varieties, however, are happier being planted when it's warmer and harvested during midsummer. Seed catalogs and packets indicate the preferred time for planting different varieties.
In the Far North, garden peas can be harvested almost all summer if you use a little ingenuity. Plant peas every three to four weeks for a continual summer harvest. Once you've harvested your first crop of peas, pull out and compost the vines or till them in and replant a second crop of peas in the same space. Or you can plant another short-season vegetable.
In the West, gardeners can harvest peas year-round; in the South they're best if grown in the fall, winter and very early spring before the weather gets too hot.
Planting Peas
By: National Gardening editors
You can plant peas in a number of different fashions. Check to see which one suits your garden best.
Wide Rows
Although peas can be grown successfully in single rows, you'll have a more abundant harvest with much less work if you grow peas in wide rows. With wide-row growing, you'll spend less time weeding, watering and harvesting, and more time shelling, because the harvest is larger.
It's easiest to make your wide rows the same width as your rake, which is normally 14 to 16 inches. To mark off a wide row, put a stake at each end of the row. Stretch a string close to the ground between the two stakes. Hold one edge of an iron rake next to the string, and drag the rake down the length of the row. This will level and smooth the seedbed at the same time that it marks off the width of the row.
Remove large stones and any debris from the seedbed and really smooth the soil before you plant. Once you've finished, don't walk on the bed - you'll only pack it down. You want the soil loose for your seeds.
Broadcast pea seeds 1-1/2 to two inches apart across the entire raked area.
Using the back of a hoe, gently tamp down the seeds, pressing them into the soil. With a rake, pull enough soil from outside the row to cover the seeds. The amount of soil covering each seed should equal four times the diameter of the seed, or about 1-1/2 inches for peas. Gently level off the row.
Finally, the soil should be firmed down again, so that there's good contact with the seeds.
It's a good idea to water the rows gently after planting, especially if the soil is dry. If you water before planting, you'll pack down the soil.
Leave 18-inch-wide walkways between your wide rows. This allows enough room for the plants to spread out, and it's also wide enough to walk through, allowing you to cultivate and harvest easily.
Single Rows
The simplest way to make a single row is to put stakes in the ground at each end of the row and stretch a string tightly between them. Draw a shallow furrow with a hoe beside the string in the well-spaded seedbed.
Plant seeds one to two inches apart in rows at least 16 inches apart. After planting the row, use a hoe to cover the seeds with 1-1/2 inches of soil. Then gently firm the soil with the back of the hoe and water well.
Double Rows
Although they're similar to single rows, double rows use garden space more productively. Make two shallow furrows four to five inches apart. Drop the seeds into the furrows, one to two inches apart and 1-1/2 inches deep. Continue planting as you would for single rows.
The double-row method is especially helpful for trellising tall pea varieties. Simply place the vine supports between the double rows.
If you have irrigation problems, place a soaker hose (a garden hose made of porous material that allows the water to seep out slowly) between the two rows for efficient watering.
Another way to irrigate double rows is to dig a shallow furrow between the two seed rows. To water the peas, simply run water down the middle furrow.
Caring for Peas
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Peas don't need as much attention as other vegetables, but do need support, weeding, some fertilizing and care.
Support for Climbers
'Alderman' and 'Super Sugar Snap' peas are both climbing varieties. Because they grow five to six feet tall, these peas usually need some type of support, like a fence, trellis or brush.
In single rows, position the support about three inches behind the row. For double rows, put it in between the rows, so the peas can grow up either side of the support. Or, to maximize space, you can plant a double row on each side of the trellis.
Supports are easy to make. A simple one uses 4- to 5-foot-long stakes placed five feet apart down the row. Run three wires horizontally between the stakes, one foot apart. If you prefer, use chicken wire with a 2-inch mesh instead of the separate wires.
Unlike other climbing vegetables, peas naturally grasp the support with their tendrils, though you may need to guide them gently towards the support as they become tall enough to reach it.
Fertilizng
Because peas are good foragers, they don't need much fertilizer - especially nitrogen. A day or two before planting, broadcast three to four pounds of 5-10-10 commercial fertilizer over each 100 square feet of garden space. Then work it into the top two to three inches of soil.
You may prefer to use organic fertilizers, such as well-rotted or dehydrated manure or bone meal. Spread a one- to two-inch layer over your raised beds and work in the material. If you use local manure, be sure it's well aged. Animals' digestive tracts don't destroy weed seeds, so if you put fresh manure on your garden, you'll probably also be planting weeds.
The primary ingredients of synthetic fertilizer are three nutrients that are vital to all plants: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). If you have a 100-pound bag of 5-10-10 fertilizer, it contains five percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphorus and 10 percent potassium. (The order is constant.) The remaining 75 pounds is sand or other filler plus some trace minerals.
Each of the three major nutrients contained in fertilizer has a unique job to accomplish while your plants are growing. Nitrogen helps plants have healthy lush green foliage. However, too much nitrogen can burn seeds or plants if it comes in direct contact with them, and it can also generate too much vine growth rather than pods with peas inside. Phosphorus is necessary for the development of strong, healthy roots. Potassium, or potash, helps the plant to grow, bear fruit and resist diseases.
It's important to mix chemical fertilizers thoroughly into the soil before you start planting.
Weeding
Once your seedlings start to emerge, weeds also appear. Weeding is the scourge of gardening for most people, but it doesn't have to be. If you stay ahead of it, which is easy with wide rows, you won't have to bribe the neighborhood kids to do it for you.
With wide-row growing, you can usually drag an iron rake across the row as soon as the seedlings emerge in order to thin the row and get rid of early-germinating weeds. Do not do this with peas or beans. These plants are tender, and they may break. However, peas and beans grow quickly, forming a canopy that soon shades weed seedlings from the sun, which inhibits their growth.
Mulching
When your single- and double-row plants are a few inches tall, you can sharply curtail weeding by putting mulch in the walkways. A 3- to 6-inch layer of mulch completely shades the ground, preventing weed growth.
Mulch also conserves moisture and helps to keep the ground at a constant cool temperature. Mulch is almost a necessity if your soil is sandy, warm and too dry. You can use black plastic, or organic mulches, such as bark, straw, lawn clippings, leaves or pine needles.
To keep moisture in the soil and weeds out, apply mulch soon after you cultivate following a soaking rain. Be sure not to add trouble where there wasn't any before. Use only mulch that's free of weed seeds.
Harvesting Peas
By: the Editors of National Gardening
One of the marvelous things about growing your own vegetables is that you decide when it's time to harvest. You can pick your vegetables just before preparing them, knowing that you have the youngest, freshest ones in town. Most commercial gardeners won't pick the youngest vegetables because they earn more money for heavier crops. But generally, the younger the harvest, the more tender and flavorful it is.
English Peas
There's nothing more delicious than the first tender peas, picked right off the vine, shelled and eaten raw. Not only are they sweet and tasty, but they also contain an abundance of vitamins A, B and C.
English peas are sweet because of their high sugar content. However, just a few hours after picking, the sugar starts turning to starch. That's why it's important to shell and cook peas immediately after harvesting them.
In general, you can begin harvesting English peas between 55 and 70 days after planting, depending on the variety. When mature, the pea pods will be nearly round and the peas will taste sweet. You should have several pickings over a period of seven to 10 days.
Use two hands to pick peas, so that you won't damage the brittle vines or uproot the plants. Hold onto the pea vine with one hand, and pick off the pods with the other.
Always pick overmature pods. If allowed to remain on the vines, they'll decrease your total yield.
Once the peas have been harvested, till or spade the whole plants back into the ground, or pull the plants and put them in your compost pile.
If your peas were planted early in the spring, you'll have time to plant another vegetable in that same location. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, root crops and spinach do well in soil where nitrogen-fixing legumes have grown.
Edible-Podded Peas
Harvest snow peas the same way you would English peas, only pick them before the peas have filled out in the pods. These pods will be bright green, tender and flat.
Snap peas, on the other hand, should fill out completely, so they're nice and plump. Remove their strings and blossom ends, and then steam, boil, stir fry or freeze them. Better yet, enjoy them raw!
Southern Peas
Picked when the pods are still green, southern peas can be shelled, boiled and served in the same manner as English peas. However, don't expect the same sugar content found in English peas; southern peas contain much higher levels of starch.
You can also leave southern peas on the vine to fully mature and dry. If your growing season ends before the peas are thoroughly dry, either pull the vines and hang them in a well-ventilated area, or shell the peas and dry them in the sun or in a dehydrator.
Dried Split Peas
'Alaska' is the English pea variety usually grown and dried for split peas. This hardy pea has a low sugar content and produces smooth seeds. Although generally dried commercially, home gardeners can dry Alaska peas easily.
Gardening Basics: Peppers, Okra and Eggplant
Pepper Types
By: National Gardening editors
Seed companies break the peppers we grow down into two categories: hot and sweet. The hot types include Cayenne, Jalapeno and Anaheim. Examples of sweet peppers are Bell and Pimiento. Banana and Cherry peppers come both sweet and hot.
Anaheim
Mildly hot, elongated, blunt-ended pods measure from four to 10 inches long and turn from green to red at maturity. These peppers are often called New Mexico chilis because of their long history of being grown in that region. Popular varieties include 'Anaheim TMR', 'NuMex Big Jim' and 'NuMex Sunrise'.
Banana
Long, thin-walled pepper that ripens to red or yellow; often used in the immature pale green stage. The hot type is called Hungarian Wax. Varieties include 'Sweet Banana' and 'Giant Yellow Banana'.
Bell
Characterized by large, blocky fruits with three or four lobes, these peppers are about three inches wide and four inches long and they taper slightly. Starting off as dark green to yellow-green, most turn red when fully ripe, although some turn yellow or orange, and even brown or purple. Bell peppers are regularly harvested and used when green. There are around 200 varieties in the Bell group. 'California Wonder', 'Northstar' and 'Ace' belong to this group.
Cayenne
These are hot chile peppers. The fruits are slim, pointed and slightly curved, ranging in length from two to eight inches. Most of the fruits are green, ripening to red. They can be used in either the green or the red stage. Examples are 'Large Thick Cayenne', 'Super Cayenne' and 'Long Red Cayenne'.
Cherry
Fruits are cherry or globe-shaped with three cells. They grow on long, upright stems, usually above the leaves of the plant. They are usually orange to deep red when harvested and may be sweet or hot, large or small. Varieties include 'Cherry Sweet' and 'Large Cherry'.
Jalapeno
One of the most well known hot peppers. The three-inch-long by one-inch-wide conical fruits can be eaten green or red and their mildly hot flavor is popular on nachos, salsas and pickled. Varieties include 'Jalapa', 'Jalapeno M' and 'TAM Jalapeno'.
Pimiento
These peppers are sweet and have very thick walls. The fruit is conical, two to three inches wide, three to four inches long and slightly pointed. Pimientos are red when ripe, and they're most commonly used at this stage. Popular varieties include 'Super Red Pimiento' and 'Pimiento L'.
Ornamental Peppers
Ornamental peppers are a true member of the Capsicum family like the peppers that are grown for food outdoors. Give them lots of sun and keep them evenly moist, and they'll produce many small cone-shaped peppers. These plants, which you can usually buy through a seed catalog, at a florist shop or even in a supermarket, are very pretty when the miniature peppers start to ripen. Often you'll have a plant simultaneously splashed with green, yellow, red and orange because each pepper ripens at its own pace.
These mini peppers are edible, but they are hot! You can use them in cooking or for attractive and different hors d'oeuvres along with crackers and a dip. Just be careful not to confuse them with a plant called the Jerusalem or Christmas Cherry. Instead of the cone-shaped peppers, these plants have round, reddish-orange fruits when ripe and they are not edible.
The Name Game
Chile, Chili, Cayenne, Jalapeno - By Any Name, It's Hot!
Names for hot peppers can get confusing. Some people call them chili peppers, cayennes or jalapenos, and others just call them hot peppers. What are they really called? Is each of these names a separate category?
The confusion started in Mexico. Chile is the Spanish word for pepper. To specify which type of pepper, Mexicans would add the word for the particular type after the name chile. Therefore, chile dulce would be sweet pepper, chile jalapeno would be the Jalapeno pepper, and so on. When chile found its way into this country, different meanings were given to it in various parts of the country, and it even acquired a new spelling. In the Southwest and West, chile is used to refer to the Anaheim pepper. In other parts of the South and the Southeast, and still other sections of the country, chile refers to any type of hot pepper. Some folks refer to all hot peppers as cayennes or jalapenos. And all over the country we have different chile con carnes, which are pepper based.
Chile and chili are not varieties of peppers, but only words used to describe that the pepper is hot. So whether you say chile or chili, cayenne or jalapeno, and whether the word describes just an Anaheim pepper or all hot peppers, watch out! That pepper is hot!
Starting Eggplant, Pepper, and Okra Seeds Indoors
By: National Gardening editors
Unless you live in the Deep South or Southwest, you won't want to sow your pepper or eggplant seeds directly into the ground. Most gardeners in these regions prefer either to buy transplants or start their own indoors for outdoor planting when the weather and the ground have warmed enough.
Starting Up With Okra
Okra has a reputation for being hard to transplant and because it doesn't require a very long season, many gardeners will sow their okra seeds right in the ground at the proper time. But if you want to and are willing to take a little extra care of the long taproot or main root that okra develops, you can successfully transplant this crop.
Some Basics On Starting Seed Indoors
It's very easy to grow your own transplants, and growing your own gives you the freedom to pick your own varieties. It also lets you make sure the plants get the best care right from the start.
To grow your own transplants, all you need is:
1. Sterilized soil or potting mix;
2. Suitable containers such as peat pots, flats, Jiffy 7's, milk cartons cut in half, or anything that will hold soil and provide good drainage;
3. A place to put the seeds while they're germinating that provides a warm, even temperature - bottom heat is especially important;
4. Plenty of sunshine or grow lights;
5. Seeds.
For good germination, make sure the container has holes for drainage. If excess water can't drain, your seeds will rot.
All your efforts can be ruined by damping off, a fungus disease that attacks the emerging seedlings, if you don't take steps to prevent it. The best preventive measures are to make sure your potting soil mix is sterile and that you don't overwater. Purchased soil and potting mixes usually are sterile. If you want to use your own garden soil, you can get rid of the fungus organisms and weed seeds by baking the soil in a shallow pan (like a cookie sheet), in a 200F oven for about an hour. Don't do this when you're hungry; the smell is enough to make you lose your appetite. And don't try to sterilize soil in a microwave oven: you may damage the oven. Another way to prevent damping off is to treat the seeds with captan, which can be bought at a garden supply store. Be sure to follow the directions on the package.
Pot Basics
To start growing your transplants, fill the container with moistened, not wet, potting mix or soil. If you're using peat pots or Jiffy 7's, plant a few seeds in each. This ensures at least one good plant per pot. In flats, sprinkle the seed about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart. Then firm them into the soil with a flat, rigid object. such as a small wooden shingle or a kitchen spatula. Sprinkle some more of the potting mix over the seeds, covering them only to a depth of three to four times their own diameter. For pepper and eggplant seeds, about 1/4 inch of the moistened soil or mix is about right. Okra seeds are bigger and can take about an inch of covering. Firm the top of the soil again, so that the seeds come into good contact with the moistened soil to help germination.
Cover the flat or container with plastic wrap or put it in a plastic bag to help retain moisture. Then place the bundle in a spot that's consistently warm but not hot, such as the top of the fridge. Cover the packages with a few sheets of newspaper to help insulate them.
A sunny window is the worst place to put seeds that are trying to germinate. It's hot during the day and usually cold at night. These temperature extremes don't help the seeds to germinate. The top of your refrigerator is a great location because the temperature is constant, warming the soil around your seeds. It has the added benefit of getting flats or containers out of your way. Eggplant, pepper and okra seeds don't need sunlight to sprout, just warmth and a bit of moisture.
Fertilizing Eggplant, Peppers, and Okra
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Eggplant, peppers and okra are heavy feeders, but they are also picky eaters. They like small amounts of food all season long. Too much nitrogen will produce lots of foliage but not much in the way of fruits.
Adding Fertilizer
So, before planting, add some organic fertilizer, like dehydrated chicken manure, or any other type of animal manure. You can also work two to four pounds of a balanced fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, into each 100 square feet of soil. The numbers 10-10-10 refer to the percentages, by weight, of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in the bag of fertilizer. For an extra boost at planting time, put a handful of compost or a teaspoon of 5-10-10, mixed with some soil, into the bottom of the hole and then cover the fertilizer with one to two inches of soil. This protects your plants from getting burned if the roots come into contact with the fertilizer.
The Match Trick
If you've tried to grow peppers in the past and you've been disappointed with the results, try this trick. Peppers like a pH that's a bit on the acid side (5.5 to 6.0), so take a few matches from a matchbook and mix them with the soil and fertilizer in the bottom of the transplant hole. Then cover this mixture with two to three inches of soil. The roots of the transplants must not come into contact with the matches because the sulfur can damage them. The sulfur in the matches lowers the pH around the roots, and the peppers seem to love it.
A variation of this trick can be done by buying sulfur powder at the drugstore, mixing a pinch of it with the soil in the bottom of the hole and covering it before planting.
Try the match trick. It just might give you the largest pepper crop you've ever had.
Careful with the Fertilizer
You also have to be careful when fertilizing. Sometimes pepper plants will have lots of blossoms but not enough fruit. This could be due to extremes of heat (temperatures above 90F) or cold (below 55F). Under these conditions, blossoms will drop off the plant rather than set. A lack of magnesium can contribute to the problem. To restore magnesium, buy some Epsom salts at the drugstore and add about one tablespoon to an empty spray bottle. Then fill the bottle with lukewarm water, shake it up so the Epsom salts dissolve and spray the solution on the leaves and blossoms of your pepper plants. If you do this a couple of times during the blossom period, you should have plenty of peppers.
Harvesting Eggplant, Peppers and Okra
By: the Editors of National Gardening
The most important thing about harvesting eggplant, peppers and okra is to start as soon as there's something to eat. It's the job of the plant to make seeds, so too much of the plant's effort will go into ripening the fruit instead of producing new fruit if you don't harvest regularly and often. Make it a practice to go out every few days and pick what's ready to eat. Try to get the most out of each plant. After all, having good things to eat is one of the main reasons to garden.
You can harvest peppers when they're as small as golf balls. Most peppers, except for a few varieties like Sweet Banana, are green when young. Don't be surprised if you see your bell peppers turn red; many of them do as they ripen. Harvest them by cutting through the stem of each fruit with a knife. You can have an almost-continuous harvest from your pepper plants by cutting often, as this encourages the plant to keep blossoming, especially in the beginning of the summer. Later in the season, leave some green peppers on your plants to turn red. They taste wonderful and are colorful in pepper relish.
In the South, pepper plants can be cut back after the first big harvest to encourage another crop. That's because peppers are really a perennial plant, although they are most often grown as an annual. If your season is long enough, cut the plant back to a few inches above the soil surface. The plant will grow back and give you a second, large harvest. Don't forget to sidedress, though, so the plant will have enough food to continue its work.
Eggplant tastes best when harvested young. If you cut into an eggplant and find an abundance of brown seeds, it's already too late for prime eating. The fruit will be a dark, glossy purple when it's ready to harvest. The surface of the eggplant will turn dull and it will taste bitter as it gets older and past its prime. To harvest eggplant, cut through the stem above the green cap, or calyx, on the top. It's a tough stem, so have a sharp knife handy. The calyx can be prickly, so you may want to wear gloves. You can cut these plants back like peppers if your season is long enough for a second crop.
Gloves and a long-sleeved shirt are practically a must when you harvest okra. The pods and leaves are usually covered with little spines you can hardly see. These spines can get under your skin and make your hands and arms itch for days.
Overripe okra is too tough to eat, and it grows so fast you may have to harvest every day. A pod that's ready one day will have gone by the next. The best pods, those not more than four inches long, should be cut with a knife or broken right below the cap on the bottom. Only one pod grows beneath each leaf, so break off the leaf after harvesting the pod. This helps you remember where you've already harvested and indicates where to start the next time.
Okra plants grow so tall in the South you may have to stand on a ladder to harvest them! Okra doesn't get nearly that tall in the North. When the plants get too tall to harvest, southern gardeners can cut them back to 12 to 18 inches above the ground. This is usually done in July or August. The plants will sprout again to make a second crop. You can also grow dwarf varieties that grow less than six feet tall.
Photographs by Suzanne DeJohn/NationalGardening.com (top); National Gardening.com
By: National Gardening editors
Seed companies break the peppers we grow down into two categories: hot and sweet. The hot types include Cayenne, Jalapeno and Anaheim. Examples of sweet peppers are Bell and Pimiento. Banana and Cherry peppers come both sweet and hot.
Anaheim
Mildly hot, elongated, blunt-ended pods measure from four to 10 inches long and turn from green to red at maturity. These peppers are often called New Mexico chilis because of their long history of being grown in that region. Popular varieties include 'Anaheim TMR', 'NuMex Big Jim' and 'NuMex Sunrise'.
Banana
Long, thin-walled pepper that ripens to red or yellow; often used in the immature pale green stage. The hot type is called Hungarian Wax. Varieties include 'Sweet Banana' and 'Giant Yellow Banana'.
Bell
Characterized by large, blocky fruits with three or four lobes, these peppers are about three inches wide and four inches long and they taper slightly. Starting off as dark green to yellow-green, most turn red when fully ripe, although some turn yellow or orange, and even brown or purple. Bell peppers are regularly harvested and used when green. There are around 200 varieties in the Bell group. 'California Wonder', 'Northstar' and 'Ace' belong to this group.
Cayenne
These are hot chile peppers. The fruits are slim, pointed and slightly curved, ranging in length from two to eight inches. Most of the fruits are green, ripening to red. They can be used in either the green or the red stage. Examples are 'Large Thick Cayenne', 'Super Cayenne' and 'Long Red Cayenne'.
Cherry
Fruits are cherry or globe-shaped with three cells. They grow on long, upright stems, usually above the leaves of the plant. They are usually orange to deep red when harvested and may be sweet or hot, large or small. Varieties include 'Cherry Sweet' and 'Large Cherry'.
Jalapeno
One of the most well known hot peppers. The three-inch-long by one-inch-wide conical fruits can be eaten green or red and their mildly hot flavor is popular on nachos, salsas and pickled. Varieties include 'Jalapa', 'Jalapeno M' and 'TAM Jalapeno'.
Pimiento
These peppers are sweet and have very thick walls. The fruit is conical, two to three inches wide, three to four inches long and slightly pointed. Pimientos are red when ripe, and they're most commonly used at this stage. Popular varieties include 'Super Red Pimiento' and 'Pimiento L'.
Ornamental Peppers
Ornamental peppers are a true member of the Capsicum family like the peppers that are grown for food outdoors. Give them lots of sun and keep them evenly moist, and they'll produce many small cone-shaped peppers. These plants, which you can usually buy through a seed catalog, at a florist shop or even in a supermarket, are very pretty when the miniature peppers start to ripen. Often you'll have a plant simultaneously splashed with green, yellow, red and orange because each pepper ripens at its own pace.
These mini peppers are edible, but they are hot! You can use them in cooking or for attractive and different hors d'oeuvres along with crackers and a dip. Just be careful not to confuse them with a plant called the Jerusalem or Christmas Cherry. Instead of the cone-shaped peppers, these plants have round, reddish-orange fruits when ripe and they are not edible.
The Name Game
Chile, Chili, Cayenne, Jalapeno - By Any Name, It's Hot!
Names for hot peppers can get confusing. Some people call them chili peppers, cayennes or jalapenos, and others just call them hot peppers. What are they really called? Is each of these names a separate category?
The confusion started in Mexico. Chile is the Spanish word for pepper. To specify which type of pepper, Mexicans would add the word for the particular type after the name chile. Therefore, chile dulce would be sweet pepper, chile jalapeno would be the Jalapeno pepper, and so on. When chile found its way into this country, different meanings were given to it in various parts of the country, and it even acquired a new spelling. In the Southwest and West, chile is used to refer to the Anaheim pepper. In other parts of the South and the Southeast, and still other sections of the country, chile refers to any type of hot pepper. Some folks refer to all hot peppers as cayennes or jalapenos. And all over the country we have different chile con carnes, which are pepper based.
Chile and chili are not varieties of peppers, but only words used to describe that the pepper is hot. So whether you say chile or chili, cayenne or jalapeno, and whether the word describes just an Anaheim pepper or all hot peppers, watch out! That pepper is hot!
Starting Eggplant, Pepper, and Okra Seeds Indoors
By: National Gardening editors
Unless you live in the Deep South or Southwest, you won't want to sow your pepper or eggplant seeds directly into the ground. Most gardeners in these regions prefer either to buy transplants or start their own indoors for outdoor planting when the weather and the ground have warmed enough.
Starting Up With Okra
Okra has a reputation for being hard to transplant and because it doesn't require a very long season, many gardeners will sow their okra seeds right in the ground at the proper time. But if you want to and are willing to take a little extra care of the long taproot or main root that okra develops, you can successfully transplant this crop.
Some Basics On Starting Seed Indoors
It's very easy to grow your own transplants, and growing your own gives you the freedom to pick your own varieties. It also lets you make sure the plants get the best care right from the start.
To grow your own transplants, all you need is:
1. Sterilized soil or potting mix;
2. Suitable containers such as peat pots, flats, Jiffy 7's, milk cartons cut in half, or anything that will hold soil and provide good drainage;
3. A place to put the seeds while they're germinating that provides a warm, even temperature - bottom heat is especially important;
4. Plenty of sunshine or grow lights;
5. Seeds.
For good germination, make sure the container has holes for drainage. If excess water can't drain, your seeds will rot.
All your efforts can be ruined by damping off, a fungus disease that attacks the emerging seedlings, if you don't take steps to prevent it. The best preventive measures are to make sure your potting soil mix is sterile and that you don't overwater. Purchased soil and potting mixes usually are sterile. If you want to use your own garden soil, you can get rid of the fungus organisms and weed seeds by baking the soil in a shallow pan (like a cookie sheet), in a 200F oven for about an hour. Don't do this when you're hungry; the smell is enough to make you lose your appetite. And don't try to sterilize soil in a microwave oven: you may damage the oven. Another way to prevent damping off is to treat the seeds with captan, which can be bought at a garden supply store. Be sure to follow the directions on the package.
Pot Basics
To start growing your transplants, fill the container with moistened, not wet, potting mix or soil. If you're using peat pots or Jiffy 7's, plant a few seeds in each. This ensures at least one good plant per pot. In flats, sprinkle the seed about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart. Then firm them into the soil with a flat, rigid object. such as a small wooden shingle or a kitchen spatula. Sprinkle some more of the potting mix over the seeds, covering them only to a depth of three to four times their own diameter. For pepper and eggplant seeds, about 1/4 inch of the moistened soil or mix is about right. Okra seeds are bigger and can take about an inch of covering. Firm the top of the soil again, so that the seeds come into good contact with the moistened soil to help germination.
Cover the flat or container with plastic wrap or put it in a plastic bag to help retain moisture. Then place the bundle in a spot that's consistently warm but not hot, such as the top of the fridge. Cover the packages with a few sheets of newspaper to help insulate them.
A sunny window is the worst place to put seeds that are trying to germinate. It's hot during the day and usually cold at night. These temperature extremes don't help the seeds to germinate. The top of your refrigerator is a great location because the temperature is constant, warming the soil around your seeds. It has the added benefit of getting flats or containers out of your way. Eggplant, pepper and okra seeds don't need sunlight to sprout, just warmth and a bit of moisture.
Fertilizing Eggplant, Peppers, and Okra
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Eggplant, peppers and okra are heavy feeders, but they are also picky eaters. They like small amounts of food all season long. Too much nitrogen will produce lots of foliage but not much in the way of fruits.
Adding Fertilizer
So, before planting, add some organic fertilizer, like dehydrated chicken manure, or any other type of animal manure. You can also work two to four pounds of a balanced fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, into each 100 square feet of soil. The numbers 10-10-10 refer to the percentages, by weight, of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in the bag of fertilizer. For an extra boost at planting time, put a handful of compost or a teaspoon of 5-10-10, mixed with some soil, into the bottom of the hole and then cover the fertilizer with one to two inches of soil. This protects your plants from getting burned if the roots come into contact with the fertilizer.
The Match Trick
If you've tried to grow peppers in the past and you've been disappointed with the results, try this trick. Peppers like a pH that's a bit on the acid side (5.5 to 6.0), so take a few matches from a matchbook and mix them with the soil and fertilizer in the bottom of the transplant hole. Then cover this mixture with two to three inches of soil. The roots of the transplants must not come into contact with the matches because the sulfur can damage them. The sulfur in the matches lowers the pH around the roots, and the peppers seem to love it.
A variation of this trick can be done by buying sulfur powder at the drugstore, mixing a pinch of it with the soil in the bottom of the hole and covering it before planting.
Try the match trick. It just might give you the largest pepper crop you've ever had.
Careful with the Fertilizer
You also have to be careful when fertilizing. Sometimes pepper plants will have lots of blossoms but not enough fruit. This could be due to extremes of heat (temperatures above 90F) or cold (below 55F). Under these conditions, blossoms will drop off the plant rather than set. A lack of magnesium can contribute to the problem. To restore magnesium, buy some Epsom salts at the drugstore and add about one tablespoon to an empty spray bottle. Then fill the bottle with lukewarm water, shake it up so the Epsom salts dissolve and spray the solution on the leaves and blossoms of your pepper plants. If you do this a couple of times during the blossom period, you should have plenty of peppers.
Harvesting Eggplant, Peppers and Okra
By: the Editors of National Gardening
The most important thing about harvesting eggplant, peppers and okra is to start as soon as there's something to eat. It's the job of the plant to make seeds, so too much of the plant's effort will go into ripening the fruit instead of producing new fruit if you don't harvest regularly and often. Make it a practice to go out every few days and pick what's ready to eat. Try to get the most out of each plant. After all, having good things to eat is one of the main reasons to garden.
You can harvest peppers when they're as small as golf balls. Most peppers, except for a few varieties like Sweet Banana, are green when young. Don't be surprised if you see your bell peppers turn red; many of them do as they ripen. Harvest them by cutting through the stem of each fruit with a knife. You can have an almost-continuous harvest from your pepper plants by cutting often, as this encourages the plant to keep blossoming, especially in the beginning of the summer. Later in the season, leave some green peppers on your plants to turn red. They taste wonderful and are colorful in pepper relish.
In the South, pepper plants can be cut back after the first big harvest to encourage another crop. That's because peppers are really a perennial plant, although they are most often grown as an annual. If your season is long enough, cut the plant back to a few inches above the soil surface. The plant will grow back and give you a second, large harvest. Don't forget to sidedress, though, so the plant will have enough food to continue its work.
Eggplant tastes best when harvested young. If you cut into an eggplant and find an abundance of brown seeds, it's already too late for prime eating. The fruit will be a dark, glossy purple when it's ready to harvest. The surface of the eggplant will turn dull and it will taste bitter as it gets older and past its prime. To harvest eggplant, cut through the stem above the green cap, or calyx, on the top. It's a tough stem, so have a sharp knife handy. The calyx can be prickly, so you may want to wear gloves. You can cut these plants back like peppers if your season is long enough for a second crop.
Gloves and a long-sleeved shirt are practically a must when you harvest okra. The pods and leaves are usually covered with little spines you can hardly see. These spines can get under your skin and make your hands and arms itch for days.
Overripe okra is too tough to eat, and it grows so fast you may have to harvest every day. A pod that's ready one day will have gone by the next. The best pods, those not more than four inches long, should be cut with a knife or broken right below the cap on the bottom. Only one pod grows beneath each leaf, so break off the leaf after harvesting the pod. This helps you remember where you've already harvested and indicates where to start the next time.
Okra plants grow so tall in the South you may have to stand on a ladder to harvest them! Okra doesn't get nearly that tall in the North. When the plants get too tall to harvest, southern gardeners can cut them back to 12 to 18 inches above the ground. This is usually done in July or August. The plants will sprout again to make a second crop. You can also grow dwarf varieties that grow less than six feet tall.
Photographs by Suzanne DeJohn/NationalGardening.com (top); National Gardening.com
Gardening Basics: Root Crops
How Root Crops Grow
Root crops are cool-season vegetables. Their tiny seeds germinate best in damp soil that's between 50o and 60oF. Early spring and fall are the best times to plant.
Germination
Germination is the sprouting action of seeds, and some root crops germinate more quickly than others. Radishes sprout in just 2 to 3 days; turnips and rutabagas in 5 to 10. The rest are slower, taking from 7 to 20 days to germinate. When they do, tiny seedlings push their way up through the shallow soil covering.
While the seedling develops into the greens above the ground, a large, edible taproot forms and grows downward. It's also the major storage organ of the plant, although it does form smaller, branching side roots to help it gather food, oxygen and water. Some root crops have more of these hairlike roots than others, but you can scrub or wash them off before eating the vegetable.
Growing On
As the root grows, it expands down, out and up; often showing its shoulders above ground. The sun discolors the exposed root, turning carrots green and turnips purple. Green shoulders on carrots are hard and bitter, so pull the roots before they're big enough to show above ground or cover them with mulch or soil. The colorful top on turnips or rutabagas taste fine.
A cross section of the roots shows that these plants are formed in three layers: a hard core, the edible fleshy part and the skin. The best-tasting roots have the least amount of that tough center, and quick, steady growth helps here.
All root crops need food, water and air. They also develop best if they meet no soil clumps or rocks to check their growth. Give them good growing conditions, and you'll enjoy straight, thick, good-tasting produce. Poor or improper soil preparation is usually to blame for crooked or forked roots. If you've ever bitten into a woody, fibrous carrot, you'll understand why good growing conditions are so important.
When root crops grow wild, some are biennials, forming the root in one season and producing a flowering seed stalk the next. In the garden, we interrupt this natural process by harvesting the roots before they start the reproduction process. Once the roots send up a flower-bearing stem, they're beyond the eating stage.
Differing Growth Rates
Root crops all vary in their growth rates, as do the individual varieties. Short, stocky carrots or beets mature fairly quickly, whereas long, tapered vegetables take longer to fully develop. You can eat the roots as soon as they're finger or marble size, so you have a lot of flexibility when it comes time to harvest.
Root crops could be called the "polar bears" of the garden because both the seeds and the plants are well adapted to sudden drops in temperature. Even hard frosts won't hurt them. In fact, parsnips and salsify need about a week of cool nights to sweeten them. This is because the carbohydrates in the roots change to sugars when the soil temperature is between 34o and 38oF.
Don't Transplant Root Crops
Even though you can transplant all vegetables with some success if you're very careful and you know what you're doing, there's really no need to transplant root crops to the home garden. If you want earlier carrots or turnips, get out in the garden earlier and plant the seeds.
Generally it's hard to keep the sensitive roots of any root crop from being upset during transplanting, and this interrupts their growth too much for them to recover completely. Chances are you'll end up with stunted or misshapen roots. And it's really not worth the time or effort when they grow so well started right in the garden.
Planting Root Crops
With the planning and soil preparation taken care of, you're ready to decide whether to plant in raised beds or trenches, and whether to use wide or single rows.
Easy Raised Beds
The simplest raised beds are nothing more than well-worked garden soil raked into a mound. They're easy to make, even in the smallest garden, and they enhance vegetable growth.
Raised beds work because they make an ideal growing environment. Here's how:
The soil in a raised bed has room on the sides to give with little or no resistance as the roots grow, even if it's hard-packed or wet. Roots develop easily, which makes them healthy, well-formed and better tasting.
You can plant much earlier in the spring on raised beds because the soil warms up and dries out in the bed before it does in the rest of the garden. If you make some raised beds in the fall, you can plant on them very early the next spring. This way, you may be harvesting baby beets and carrots almost before your neighbors have planted a single seed.
If your garden stays waterlogged for a long time after each rain, raised beds solve that problem. On level beds, standing water cuts off the oxygen supply to the roots, and the weight of the water packs the soil so tightly it stifles root growth. On raised beds, water runs off and into the walkways in between. The soil in the bed dries out quicker, and the water seeps gradually back into the soil from the sides.
The added height makes the soil deep and loose, so you can grow longer carrots and parsnips than is possible on a level bed. In making raised beds, you place some of the valuable topsoil from the walkways onto them. This increases the total amount of topsoil on the seedbed.
Wide-row growing makes sense on raised beds to make the most efficient use of all that growing space. If you're going to do the work making them, you might as well make it worthwhile by getting as much food from them as you can.
Raised beds are convenient and attractive. Your crops are 10 to 12 inches closer to your hands, saving you some bending and kneeling. It's easier to keep children and pets from walking on the garden soil and packing it down or stepping on plants, because they can easily tell the walkways from the seedbeds.
Last, but not least, raised beds give your whole garden a neat, well-tended look that is very pleasing to the eye.
Raised beds are as easy as one-two-three! Once you have the soil well-tilled or spaded to a depth of six to eight inches, you can probably make a raised bed in less time than it takes to read this page. Here's how:
Determine the width and length of the bed and the walkways, using stakes for guidelines. The dimensions will depend on whether you plant in wide or narrow rows.
Use a hoe to pull the loosely tilled soil from the walkways up onto the bed until it's four to eight inches higher than the walkway.
Rake the top of the bed smooth, leveling the surface as you go. You're all set to plant.
You fertilize, plant, thin and harvest in the same ways on raised beds as on level ground. You can add fertilizer to the whole plot before you make the beds -- the fertilized soil will end up on the beds anyway. You can also mulch between the beds to prevent weeds and keep the soil moist.
There's no need to brace the sides of beds six to 10 inches high unless you have the materials handy. For taller beds, railroad ties or planks give a neater appearance.
Raised beds work in almost every kind of soil, in just about any part of the country and with all of your garden vegetables. They dry out faster than normal beds, however, so raised beds aren't recommended for very dry areas or sandy soils.
You don't have to turn your whole garden into raised beds, but try growing a few root crops on some this year and you'll be convinced -- raised beds make sense!
Wide-Row Planting
Once you've prepared the soil, follow these easy steps for wide-row planting:
Mark the row by stretching a string close to the ground between two stakes spaced the length you want. You only need one string for a straight line -- the width of your rake will determine the width of the row. Garden rakes are usually 14 to 16 inches wide.
Hold one edge of an iron garden rake next to the string and drag the rake down the length of the row. This marks off the area where you'll broadcast the seeds.
Rake just the seedbed a few times to remove lumps and stones and get it really smooth and level before you plant. There's no need to rake your whole garden. Don't walk on the seedbed once it's prepared or you'll pack it down again. A smooth, clod-free, loose seedbed is one of the most important elements for gardening success.
Add extra bonemeal, rock phosphate or superphosphate now, raking it into the top inch of soil.
Sprinkle the seeds onto the planting area, trying to broadcast them thinly and evenly. Root crop seeds are small, and you'll have to develop your own system to keep from sowing them too thickly. Beet seeds are larger than the others, and they're easier to control. But once you get the hang of it, the rest are no trouble, either.
You'll be thinning the row when the seedlings first come up, so don't worry if a few extra seeds slip out of your fingers as you go. In fact, more seeds will ensure not having any skips or bare spots within the row.
Lightly sprinkle radish seeds in with your main crop. Use about five percent as much radish seed as the other vegetable.
Firm all the seeds into the soil with the back of a hoe. This anchors the seeds and gives them good contact with the soil, helping them germinate.
Cover the seeds with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil pulled from the side of the row with a rake, leveling the top of the seedbed as you go. The rule for all seeds is to cover them with fine, moist soil to a depth four times their diameter. These small seeds don't need much soil over them. Only cover them more (with an extra 1/4 inch of soil) in midsummer plantings, when the weather is hot and dry.
Gently firm the soil again with the back of a hoe.
Single-Row Planting
Stake out a single row just as you would a wide row, stretching a string along the ground between two stakes to mark off the length of the row.
Rake the seedbed smooth right over the string, then mark your planting line by making a furrow beside the string. Do this with the corner of a hoe or the end of a rake handle, or by laying the hoe or rake handle beside the string and pressing it lightly into the soil.
Sprinkle the seeds thinly along the planting line, then sow radish seeds in the same line (again about five percent). Firm the seeds into the soil, cover with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil, and firm again.
Whether you plant in wide rows, single rows or multiple rows, you should keep the soil around the seeds moist for the first week after you plant. Root crops won't germinate well in a dry seedbed. If the soil is dry, give the rows a light sprinkling of water right after planting. Because the soil is drier in the late summer, try this trick when planting for fall: Soak the seeds for an hour or so before planting to give them a head start on germination. Place them on a saucer or plate, barely cover them with room-temperature water, wait awhile, then plant. Once you've soaked the seeds you must plant them, because you've started the germination process. The wet seeds are a little harder to plant, but the results are worth it.
Keep an eye on the soil the first few days. If it rains, check it for a hard crusting when it dries. If the seedlings have to struggle through a crust, they'll suffer. Make it easy for them by carefully scratching the top 1/4 inch of soil in the row with an iron rake, a weeding tool or a piece of wire (a coat hanger works well).
Tips on Sowing Root Crop Seeds
The easiest way to sow root crop seeds is to sprinkle them by hand, keeping your hand two to three feet above the row. This scatters the seeds more evenly than if your hand is down very close to the row. (If it's a very windy day, of course, move a little closer!) Mix some fine soil or sand with the seeds to help even out the distribution.
You can also broadcast the seeds, mixed with dry sand, from a salt shaker if the holes are big enough, or right from the packet by tearing a tiny hole in one corner for them to slip through.
Growing Root Crops
Three essentials to a healthy crop of roots is thining, weeding, and watering.
The First Thinning
Thinning is a must with root crops. Crowded conditions cause them to become stunted or twisted around each other, and that's not good. You have to thin if you want roots that are big enough to eat. Starting when the seedlings are approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall, you can thin by hand or use the simple but effective iron-rake method.
Thinning with a rake is a snap. Just pull an iron garden rake once across the row with its teeth going into the soil about 1/4 inch. The teeth are spaced at intervals to catch just enough seedlings, pulling them from the row. Don't look down as you're doing this -- it's a horrible sight. You may think you've destroyed the whole row of plants, but don't fret. The remaining ones will perk up in a day or so. You can thin a single row this way, too.
Raking also cultivates the soil, stirring up and killing "weedlings." Most young weeds haven't had time to develop a deep taproot, so this initial thinning will dislodge them before they come up, exposing their shallow roots and killing them. Some of the worst garden weeds (pigweed, lamb's-quarter and many others) have very strong taproots, and the idea is to catch these weeds before they put down deep roots.
By thinning with a rake, you also break any crust on the surface, aerating the soil at the same time.
You can thin by hand if the rake technique seems a little too drastic. Simply pull up enough plants that the remaining ones will stand one to two inches apart. You may not trust the rake method at first, but try it on at least part of a row. With the rake you can thin (and weed) all your root crops in just a minute or two, whereas thinning by hand seems to take forever.
The best time to thin is a few hours after a rain or a thorough watering, when the soil is damp but the plants have dried off completely. (Never weed, thin or harvest around wet plants, because you can spread disease from your hands and clothing without knowing it.) Damp soil permits seedlings to be pulled without disturbing the roots of the remaining plants, and any weeds that start to germinate after a rain will be uprooted, too. If it's very dry on the day you decide to thin, water the surface of the soil, so you don't pull up more seedlings than you intend.
Because beet seeds produce clusters of seedlings, the simplest way to thin them is with an iron rake. The rake teeth will uproot just the right number of seedlings. If you thin by hand, don't try to remove any of the seedlings from within a single cluster. It's too easy to disturb the remaining ones. Instead, pull up whole clusters, leaving two to three inches between them. If you like beet greens, sow the seeds a little thicker than is usually recommended on seed packages. When the beets are a little bigger, thin them again; along with the greens, you'll also get a great harvest of marble-sized baby beets.
Thinning always seems more traumatic for the gardener than it is for the plants. People don't like to pull up those helpless seedlings that have just barely made it through the soil surface. Think of it as helping your whole crop and giving you more food to eat, and it will soon be a natural part of your garden routine.
Weeding
Most root crops grow very slowly the first few weeks, and they can't compete with weeds. But there are several time-saving ways to stay ahead in the weeding game.
Try this trick in the early spring before you even plant a seed: Wait a week or so between the initial soil preparation and planting day. During this time, go out several times and till or stir the soil. This exposes and kills the first batches of tiny "weedlings" lurking near the surface that may try to overrun your young seedlings.
Once your plants are up, you should stir up the soil within the rows every four or five days until the seedlings are well established. You can save a lot of bending over by using special hoes for weeding. Many have a strong, narrow blade with a curved gooseneck to let you pull weeds from even tight spots in the row without damaging the stems or roots of vegetables.
Once the plants get too tall to use a weeding tool, buckle down and hand pull every weed as soon as you see it. Keep in mind that any weed that grows in your garden is a robber, stealing sun, water and food from your crops, and in the end, stealing food from you.
To keep down weeds between the rows, stir the soil surface there, too. Or, you can put down a two- to three-inch layer of mulch (shredded leaves, straw, lawn clippings or even newspapers) between the rows to do the work for you. Mulch has the added advantage of keeping the soil moist and at an even temperature. Your root crops will really appreciate this.
Naturally, the more weed prevention you can accomplish early, the easier it will be later on. And by planting in wide rows, you'll have very little hand weeding to do. But you're bound to get some weeds, so go out to your garden daily and keep them pulled!
The Second Thinning and the First Harvest
Thin again by hand several weeks after the first thinning to give the remaining plants space to reach their mature size. (Enjoy the thinnings of these sweet, tender "baby" carrots and beets.) This is also when you would harvest the radishes planted as companion plants. In heavy soil, leave the White Icicle radishes until they're quite large, then pull them to create that beneficial void in the soil. The beets, carrots, parsnips or turnips left in the row will push the soil around them into the gaps as they grow.
The third time you go out to thin, you'll be harvesting for real. See how you can kill a few birds with one stone, as each chore combines with the others?
Watering
Root crops need about one inch of water per week. If you can supply this water evenly, with no long dry spells to inhibit the growth of the roots and greens, you'll encourage a healthy crop. The exception to the one inch per week rule of thumb is the light sprinklings you should provide after sowing the seeds and until the seedlings emerge. Once the seedlings are up, return to the following watering habits:
Water when your garden needs it, not just by a calendar schedule. Don't be tempted to water your plants if the greens are drooping occasionally in the late afternoon sun -- this is normal. But, if they look wilted before eleven o'clock in the morning, they need water.
Another mistake gardeners often make is to give their gardens many light waterings instead of a few thorough soakings. Once your seeds are sprouted, soak the soil when it needs it to a depth of four to six inches. By watering deeply you encourage the taproot to grow down seeking the moisture. Shallow waterings promote shallow root growth, which is exactly what you don't want, especially if you live in a drought-prone area.
How much does it take to water your garden to a depth of four to six inches? If you're using a sprinkler, set a pan in the area you're watering. When the water is an inch deep in the pan, the nearby soil will be sufficiently soaked-about six inches down.
Harvesting Root Crops
After all your hard work, it's time to enjoy your harvest. Here's how to pick your crops.
Time to Eat!
Start harvesting beets and turnips early for their greens, and baby carrots when they're the size of your little finger. This will give you a good start on a long harvesting period; the roots left in the row will have more room to grow; and you won't be faced with an entire row of vegetables ready to be pulled on the same day. Besides, the smaller the root, the better it tastes!
For a few extra meals of beet or turnip greens, just go out and snip off the leaves you want. As long as you leave some greens on the plant, it will continue to grow more of
them -- as well as growing a nice big root, too.
Pull the largest roots every time you harvest. People are tempted to leave the biggest ones, so they'll grow even bigger. Don't do it! By pulling the largest roots, you're sure to have them before they're so big they're all woody and bitter. Again, this encourages the remaining plants to fill in and grow bigger, giving you what seems like an inexhaustible supply of medium-sized, savory roots.
Once some root crops get bigger, you may have to wiggle them back and forth (or loosen them with a trowel, pitchfork or spade) to get them out. If a top breaks off in your hand, don't give up. Dig down into the soil and pull that root! If you water the soil before harvesting, the roots will pop out more easily.
Harvest whenever you need fresh roots, picking just enough. You should be able to enjoy all your spring-planted root crops in this fresh, garden-to-table fashion.
Where's the Biggest Carrot?
If you want to find the biggest carrot in the row just by looking at the greens, remember this: the bigger the root, the darker the greens and the thicker the stem. If some of the greens in the row look darker than the others, you can be sure the largest carrots are underneath. With beets, radishes or turnips, the greens with the thickest stems will point the way to the biggest roots.
Root crops are cool-season vegetables. Their tiny seeds germinate best in damp soil that's between 50o and 60oF. Early spring and fall are the best times to plant.
Germination
Germination is the sprouting action of seeds, and some root crops germinate more quickly than others. Radishes sprout in just 2 to 3 days; turnips and rutabagas in 5 to 10. The rest are slower, taking from 7 to 20 days to germinate. When they do, tiny seedlings push their way up through the shallow soil covering.
While the seedling develops into the greens above the ground, a large, edible taproot forms and grows downward. It's also the major storage organ of the plant, although it does form smaller, branching side roots to help it gather food, oxygen and water. Some root crops have more of these hairlike roots than others, but you can scrub or wash them off before eating the vegetable.
Growing On
As the root grows, it expands down, out and up; often showing its shoulders above ground. The sun discolors the exposed root, turning carrots green and turnips purple. Green shoulders on carrots are hard and bitter, so pull the roots before they're big enough to show above ground or cover them with mulch or soil. The colorful top on turnips or rutabagas taste fine.
A cross section of the roots shows that these plants are formed in three layers: a hard core, the edible fleshy part and the skin. The best-tasting roots have the least amount of that tough center, and quick, steady growth helps here.
All root crops need food, water and air. They also develop best if they meet no soil clumps or rocks to check their growth. Give them good growing conditions, and you'll enjoy straight, thick, good-tasting produce. Poor or improper soil preparation is usually to blame for crooked or forked roots. If you've ever bitten into a woody, fibrous carrot, you'll understand why good growing conditions are so important.
When root crops grow wild, some are biennials, forming the root in one season and producing a flowering seed stalk the next. In the garden, we interrupt this natural process by harvesting the roots before they start the reproduction process. Once the roots send up a flower-bearing stem, they're beyond the eating stage.
Differing Growth Rates
Root crops all vary in their growth rates, as do the individual varieties. Short, stocky carrots or beets mature fairly quickly, whereas long, tapered vegetables take longer to fully develop. You can eat the roots as soon as they're finger or marble size, so you have a lot of flexibility when it comes time to harvest.
Root crops could be called the "polar bears" of the garden because both the seeds and the plants are well adapted to sudden drops in temperature. Even hard frosts won't hurt them. In fact, parsnips and salsify need about a week of cool nights to sweeten them. This is because the carbohydrates in the roots change to sugars when the soil temperature is between 34o and 38oF.
Don't Transplant Root Crops
Even though you can transplant all vegetables with some success if you're very careful and you know what you're doing, there's really no need to transplant root crops to the home garden. If you want earlier carrots or turnips, get out in the garden earlier and plant the seeds.
Generally it's hard to keep the sensitive roots of any root crop from being upset during transplanting, and this interrupts their growth too much for them to recover completely. Chances are you'll end up with stunted or misshapen roots. And it's really not worth the time or effort when they grow so well started right in the garden.
Planting Root Crops
With the planning and soil preparation taken care of, you're ready to decide whether to plant in raised beds or trenches, and whether to use wide or single rows.
Easy Raised Beds
The simplest raised beds are nothing more than well-worked garden soil raked into a mound. They're easy to make, even in the smallest garden, and they enhance vegetable growth.
Raised beds work because they make an ideal growing environment. Here's how:
The soil in a raised bed has room on the sides to give with little or no resistance as the roots grow, even if it's hard-packed or wet. Roots develop easily, which makes them healthy, well-formed and better tasting.
You can plant much earlier in the spring on raised beds because the soil warms up and dries out in the bed before it does in the rest of the garden. If you make some raised beds in the fall, you can plant on them very early the next spring. This way, you may be harvesting baby beets and carrots almost before your neighbors have planted a single seed.
If your garden stays waterlogged for a long time after each rain, raised beds solve that problem. On level beds, standing water cuts off the oxygen supply to the roots, and the weight of the water packs the soil so tightly it stifles root growth. On raised beds, water runs off and into the walkways in between. The soil in the bed dries out quicker, and the water seeps gradually back into the soil from the sides.
The added height makes the soil deep and loose, so you can grow longer carrots and parsnips than is possible on a level bed. In making raised beds, you place some of the valuable topsoil from the walkways onto them. This increases the total amount of topsoil on the seedbed.
Wide-row growing makes sense on raised beds to make the most efficient use of all that growing space. If you're going to do the work making them, you might as well make it worthwhile by getting as much food from them as you can.
Raised beds are convenient and attractive. Your crops are 10 to 12 inches closer to your hands, saving you some bending and kneeling. It's easier to keep children and pets from walking on the garden soil and packing it down or stepping on plants, because they can easily tell the walkways from the seedbeds.
Last, but not least, raised beds give your whole garden a neat, well-tended look that is very pleasing to the eye.
Raised beds are as easy as one-two-three! Once you have the soil well-tilled or spaded to a depth of six to eight inches, you can probably make a raised bed in less time than it takes to read this page. Here's how:
Determine the width and length of the bed and the walkways, using stakes for guidelines. The dimensions will depend on whether you plant in wide or narrow rows.
Use a hoe to pull the loosely tilled soil from the walkways up onto the bed until it's four to eight inches higher than the walkway.
Rake the top of the bed smooth, leveling the surface as you go. You're all set to plant.
You fertilize, plant, thin and harvest in the same ways on raised beds as on level ground. You can add fertilizer to the whole plot before you make the beds -- the fertilized soil will end up on the beds anyway. You can also mulch between the beds to prevent weeds and keep the soil moist.
There's no need to brace the sides of beds six to 10 inches high unless you have the materials handy. For taller beds, railroad ties or planks give a neater appearance.
Raised beds work in almost every kind of soil, in just about any part of the country and with all of your garden vegetables. They dry out faster than normal beds, however, so raised beds aren't recommended for very dry areas or sandy soils.
You don't have to turn your whole garden into raised beds, but try growing a few root crops on some this year and you'll be convinced -- raised beds make sense!
Wide-Row Planting
Once you've prepared the soil, follow these easy steps for wide-row planting:
Mark the row by stretching a string close to the ground between two stakes spaced the length you want. You only need one string for a straight line -- the width of your rake will determine the width of the row. Garden rakes are usually 14 to 16 inches wide.
Hold one edge of an iron garden rake next to the string and drag the rake down the length of the row. This marks off the area where you'll broadcast the seeds.
Rake just the seedbed a few times to remove lumps and stones and get it really smooth and level before you plant. There's no need to rake your whole garden. Don't walk on the seedbed once it's prepared or you'll pack it down again. A smooth, clod-free, loose seedbed is one of the most important elements for gardening success.
Add extra bonemeal, rock phosphate or superphosphate now, raking it into the top inch of soil.
Sprinkle the seeds onto the planting area, trying to broadcast them thinly and evenly. Root crop seeds are small, and you'll have to develop your own system to keep from sowing them too thickly. Beet seeds are larger than the others, and they're easier to control. But once you get the hang of it, the rest are no trouble, either.
You'll be thinning the row when the seedlings first come up, so don't worry if a few extra seeds slip out of your fingers as you go. In fact, more seeds will ensure not having any skips or bare spots within the row.
Lightly sprinkle radish seeds in with your main crop. Use about five percent as much radish seed as the other vegetable.
Firm all the seeds into the soil with the back of a hoe. This anchors the seeds and gives them good contact with the soil, helping them germinate.
Cover the seeds with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil pulled from the side of the row with a rake, leveling the top of the seedbed as you go. The rule for all seeds is to cover them with fine, moist soil to a depth four times their diameter. These small seeds don't need much soil over them. Only cover them more (with an extra 1/4 inch of soil) in midsummer plantings, when the weather is hot and dry.
Gently firm the soil again with the back of a hoe.
Single-Row Planting
Stake out a single row just as you would a wide row, stretching a string along the ground between two stakes to mark off the length of the row.
Rake the seedbed smooth right over the string, then mark your planting line by making a furrow beside the string. Do this with the corner of a hoe or the end of a rake handle, or by laying the hoe or rake handle beside the string and pressing it lightly into the soil.
Sprinkle the seeds thinly along the planting line, then sow radish seeds in the same line (again about five percent). Firm the seeds into the soil, cover with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil, and firm again.
Whether you plant in wide rows, single rows or multiple rows, you should keep the soil around the seeds moist for the first week after you plant. Root crops won't germinate well in a dry seedbed. If the soil is dry, give the rows a light sprinkling of water right after planting. Because the soil is drier in the late summer, try this trick when planting for fall: Soak the seeds for an hour or so before planting to give them a head start on germination. Place them on a saucer or plate, barely cover them with room-temperature water, wait awhile, then plant. Once you've soaked the seeds you must plant them, because you've started the germination process. The wet seeds are a little harder to plant, but the results are worth it.
Keep an eye on the soil the first few days. If it rains, check it for a hard crusting when it dries. If the seedlings have to struggle through a crust, they'll suffer. Make it easy for them by carefully scratching the top 1/4 inch of soil in the row with an iron rake, a weeding tool or a piece of wire (a coat hanger works well).
Tips on Sowing Root Crop Seeds
The easiest way to sow root crop seeds is to sprinkle them by hand, keeping your hand two to three feet above the row. This scatters the seeds more evenly than if your hand is down very close to the row. (If it's a very windy day, of course, move a little closer!) Mix some fine soil or sand with the seeds to help even out the distribution.
You can also broadcast the seeds, mixed with dry sand, from a salt shaker if the holes are big enough, or right from the packet by tearing a tiny hole in one corner for them to slip through.
Growing Root Crops
Three essentials to a healthy crop of roots is thining, weeding, and watering.
The First Thinning
Thinning is a must with root crops. Crowded conditions cause them to become stunted or twisted around each other, and that's not good. You have to thin if you want roots that are big enough to eat. Starting when the seedlings are approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall, you can thin by hand or use the simple but effective iron-rake method.
Thinning with a rake is a snap. Just pull an iron garden rake once across the row with its teeth going into the soil about 1/4 inch. The teeth are spaced at intervals to catch just enough seedlings, pulling them from the row. Don't look down as you're doing this -- it's a horrible sight. You may think you've destroyed the whole row of plants, but don't fret. The remaining ones will perk up in a day or so. You can thin a single row this way, too.
Raking also cultivates the soil, stirring up and killing "weedlings." Most young weeds haven't had time to develop a deep taproot, so this initial thinning will dislodge them before they come up, exposing their shallow roots and killing them. Some of the worst garden weeds (pigweed, lamb's-quarter and many others) have very strong taproots, and the idea is to catch these weeds before they put down deep roots.
By thinning with a rake, you also break any crust on the surface, aerating the soil at the same time.
You can thin by hand if the rake technique seems a little too drastic. Simply pull up enough plants that the remaining ones will stand one to two inches apart. You may not trust the rake method at first, but try it on at least part of a row. With the rake you can thin (and weed) all your root crops in just a minute or two, whereas thinning by hand seems to take forever.
The best time to thin is a few hours after a rain or a thorough watering, when the soil is damp but the plants have dried off completely. (Never weed, thin or harvest around wet plants, because you can spread disease from your hands and clothing without knowing it.) Damp soil permits seedlings to be pulled without disturbing the roots of the remaining plants, and any weeds that start to germinate after a rain will be uprooted, too. If it's very dry on the day you decide to thin, water the surface of the soil, so you don't pull up more seedlings than you intend.
Because beet seeds produce clusters of seedlings, the simplest way to thin them is with an iron rake. The rake teeth will uproot just the right number of seedlings. If you thin by hand, don't try to remove any of the seedlings from within a single cluster. It's too easy to disturb the remaining ones. Instead, pull up whole clusters, leaving two to three inches between them. If you like beet greens, sow the seeds a little thicker than is usually recommended on seed packages. When the beets are a little bigger, thin them again; along with the greens, you'll also get a great harvest of marble-sized baby beets.
Thinning always seems more traumatic for the gardener than it is for the plants. People don't like to pull up those helpless seedlings that have just barely made it through the soil surface. Think of it as helping your whole crop and giving you more food to eat, and it will soon be a natural part of your garden routine.
Weeding
Most root crops grow very slowly the first few weeks, and they can't compete with weeds. But there are several time-saving ways to stay ahead in the weeding game.
Try this trick in the early spring before you even plant a seed: Wait a week or so between the initial soil preparation and planting day. During this time, go out several times and till or stir the soil. This exposes and kills the first batches of tiny "weedlings" lurking near the surface that may try to overrun your young seedlings.
Once your plants are up, you should stir up the soil within the rows every four or five days until the seedlings are well established. You can save a lot of bending over by using special hoes for weeding. Many have a strong, narrow blade with a curved gooseneck to let you pull weeds from even tight spots in the row without damaging the stems or roots of vegetables.
Once the plants get too tall to use a weeding tool, buckle down and hand pull every weed as soon as you see it. Keep in mind that any weed that grows in your garden is a robber, stealing sun, water and food from your crops, and in the end, stealing food from you.
To keep down weeds between the rows, stir the soil surface there, too. Or, you can put down a two- to three-inch layer of mulch (shredded leaves, straw, lawn clippings or even newspapers) between the rows to do the work for you. Mulch has the added advantage of keeping the soil moist and at an even temperature. Your root crops will really appreciate this.
Naturally, the more weed prevention you can accomplish early, the easier it will be later on. And by planting in wide rows, you'll have very little hand weeding to do. But you're bound to get some weeds, so go out to your garden daily and keep them pulled!
The Second Thinning and the First Harvest
Thin again by hand several weeks after the first thinning to give the remaining plants space to reach their mature size. (Enjoy the thinnings of these sweet, tender "baby" carrots and beets.) This is also when you would harvest the radishes planted as companion plants. In heavy soil, leave the White Icicle radishes until they're quite large, then pull them to create that beneficial void in the soil. The beets, carrots, parsnips or turnips left in the row will push the soil around them into the gaps as they grow.
The third time you go out to thin, you'll be harvesting for real. See how you can kill a few birds with one stone, as each chore combines with the others?
Watering
Root crops need about one inch of water per week. If you can supply this water evenly, with no long dry spells to inhibit the growth of the roots and greens, you'll encourage a healthy crop. The exception to the one inch per week rule of thumb is the light sprinklings you should provide after sowing the seeds and until the seedlings emerge. Once the seedlings are up, return to the following watering habits:
Water when your garden needs it, not just by a calendar schedule. Don't be tempted to water your plants if the greens are drooping occasionally in the late afternoon sun -- this is normal. But, if they look wilted before eleven o'clock in the morning, they need water.
Another mistake gardeners often make is to give their gardens many light waterings instead of a few thorough soakings. Once your seeds are sprouted, soak the soil when it needs it to a depth of four to six inches. By watering deeply you encourage the taproot to grow down seeking the moisture. Shallow waterings promote shallow root growth, which is exactly what you don't want, especially if you live in a drought-prone area.
How much does it take to water your garden to a depth of four to six inches? If you're using a sprinkler, set a pan in the area you're watering. When the water is an inch deep in the pan, the nearby soil will be sufficiently soaked-about six inches down.
Harvesting Root Crops
After all your hard work, it's time to enjoy your harvest. Here's how to pick your crops.
Time to Eat!
Start harvesting beets and turnips early for their greens, and baby carrots when they're the size of your little finger. This will give you a good start on a long harvesting period; the roots left in the row will have more room to grow; and you won't be faced with an entire row of vegetables ready to be pulled on the same day. Besides, the smaller the root, the better it tastes!
For a few extra meals of beet or turnip greens, just go out and snip off the leaves you want. As long as you leave some greens on the plant, it will continue to grow more of
them -- as well as growing a nice big root, too.
Pull the largest roots every time you harvest. People are tempted to leave the biggest ones, so they'll grow even bigger. Don't do it! By pulling the largest roots, you're sure to have them before they're so big they're all woody and bitter. Again, this encourages the remaining plants to fill in and grow bigger, giving you what seems like an inexhaustible supply of medium-sized, savory roots.
Once some root crops get bigger, you may have to wiggle them back and forth (or loosen them with a trowel, pitchfork or spade) to get them out. If a top breaks off in your hand, don't give up. Dig down into the soil and pull that root! If you water the soil before harvesting, the roots will pop out more easily.
Harvest whenever you need fresh roots, picking just enough. You should be able to enjoy all your spring-planted root crops in this fresh, garden-to-table fashion.
Where's the Biggest Carrot?
If you want to find the biggest carrot in the row just by looking at the greens, remember this: the bigger the root, the darker the greens and the thicker the stem. If some of the greens in the row look darker than the others, you can be sure the largest carrots are underneath. With beets, radishes or turnips, the greens with the thickest stems will point the way to the biggest roots.
Gardening Basics: Potatoes
Getting Started With Potatoes
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Since most home gardeners start potatoes by cutting and planting last season's tubers, common sense says you should use the healthiest tubers possible.
Disease-free Spuds
How do you acquire disease-free potatoes for planting? Simple, go to a good garden store in the spring and buy certified potatoes for your "seed" or order your seed potatoes from a reliable mail-order source or on-line.
Certified seed potatoes are grown under carefully monitored conditions where state agricultural inspectors enforce high standards of disease and pest control, plant health and quality of harvested tubers. Most certified seed potatoes are grown in northern states where there are fewer disease-spreading insects than in the South. However, the cooler temperatures of the North favor the development of some diseases. Plants that do become infected at the breeding ground can be spotted and eliminated, leaving only the strong disease-free plants.
Gardeners who save some of their own crop to use for seed potatoes the next season are taking a chance. While the tubers may look fine and be perfectly okay for eating, certain virus diseases may be present. If these potatoes were planted, the disease would likely pass from the seed piece to the new plant.
Buying Market Potatoes as Starters
Potatoes from the market generally don't make good seed potatoes. They may have diseases and usually are treated with a growth-stopping chemical so that they won't sprout in the stores or in storage. Buying certified seed potatoes locally or through the mail is a better idea.
In many areas, garden stores buy certified seed potatoes in 100-pound bags and break them down into smaller packages for gardeners. How much should you buy? Eight to ten pounds of seed potatoes should plant a 100-foot-row and with that length of row, you could harvest three to four bushels of potatoes if you let them grow to maturity. If you harvest some when they're small for midsummer eating (around flowering time), the total yield will be less. If you get your seed potatoes and can't plant them right away, simply store them in your root cellar or a cool, dark, well-ventilated place.
Planting Potatoes
By: National Gardening editors
Growing Potato Towers
Ever think of growing a few potato plants in bushel baskets to make a potato tower? Well, you can -- it's easy and fun. You can be a potato grower in the smallest yard or just on the back porch or patio.
Line a bushel basket with plastic and punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage. Stir a few tablespoons of houseplant food or fertilizer into a bucket of moist soil. Put a 4- or 5-inch layer of soil in the basket. Position several seed pieces 6- to 8-inches apart on the earth, then cover them with 3 or 4 more inches of soil. Keep the basket in a warm, sunny place. As the plants grow, add more soil around the stems to give the tubers room to expand, and be sure to keep the soil well-watered.
Caring for Potatoes
Caring for potatoes requires proper watering, cultivating and hilling.
Cultivation
Stirring up the soil on the surface keeps it loose so that the plants' roots can get water and air. They have to drink and breathe just as we do. Whenever the soil becomes packed or crusty, raking the top inch of soil lightly can help.
If you hill your potatoes during the first four to eight weeks after planting, you shouldn't have any problems with weeds. Hilling buries weeds near the plants, and it usually takes care of most walkway weeds, too.
Once the hills are made, though, don't disturb them with a hoe or any other tool. If you want to remove some weeds, pull them by hand.
Hilling
There are several reasons why you must pull soil up around the stems of your potato plants, or "hill" them, once or twice during the season:
* The additional loose soil allows the developing tubers to expand easily.
* Hilling helps to keep the potatoes from poking through the soil and becoming "green" from the sun. ("Greening" gives them a bitter flavor.)
* Hilling buries and kills weeds around the plants before they become a serious problem.
* Rain collects in gardens with heavy soils, blocking the flow of air to the plant roots. However, a hilled row of potatoes sheds water. Hilling keeps the plants better drained and more productive because the earth doesn't pack around them.
* Pulling soil from between the rows up around the plants creates a natural irrigation ditch.
Hill the plants for the first time about a week after they poke through the soil. Do the job with a hoe or a tiller with a hilling attachment, and pull up as much soil as you can around the stems. If you cover some, or even all, of the leaves of the plants, don't worry about it. They'll push back through in a few days. In fact, if your early planted potatoes are up and there's a chance of a late frost, you can cover the plants entirely to protect them from injury. Potatoes can take a light frost; burying them is just added insurance.
Do the second hilling three or four weeks later, before the potato vines spill out into the walkways.
Proper Watering
Potatoes need a steady, season-long supply of water, but it's most important 6 to 10 weeks after planting, when the plants start to develop their tubers.
An uneven water supply can cause knobs or growth cracks in potatoes. If the plants don't get enough water, the tubers won't grow and their cells will start to mature. Then, when a sudden increase in water does occur, the potatoes start a second, new growth, causing the tubers to crack or develop into odd shapes.
Deep Watering is Best
Potatoes can take some periods of dry weather. However, if it's been very dry and the tubers are beginning to develop underground, water the plants. If you need to water, be sure you do a thorough job, applying enough to moisten the soil 8- to 10-inches below ground. Deep watering is the only way to go. Research shows that irrigated potatoes obtain 57 percent of their water from the top foot of soil, 24 percent from the second foot of soil and as much as 13 percent from the third foot of soil. Though the potato plant is mostly shallow-rooted, some roots do indeed go deep for water.
Photography by NationalGardening.com
Harvesting Potatoes
By: the Editors of National Gardening
After all your work of planting and caring for your potato plants, here's how to get the most from your harvest.
New Potatoes
The earliest or "new" potatoes of the season are a treat not to be missed. They're small, round, smooth and delicious. When you think you have early potatoes big enough to eat, reach into your early hills, feel for the best-sized spuds and ease them out. The plants keep right on growing and producing more.
During seasons when the soil has been quite moist (which makes hunting by hand tougher), dig up entire plants, harvest all the baby potatoes you can find and put the plants back in the earth. They'll survive this rude transplant and produce quite a few more potatoes. But working fast is important; freshly dug potatoes shouldn't stay in the sun very long.
The best tool for digging is a 5- or 6-pronged fork. Dig down under a hill, then lift up. The dirt falls between the prongs, and you're left with a forkful of potatoes. There's less bending this way, too.
Later Harvest
In the North, harvest the main storage crop in September, when the days are getting cool and frost isn't far off. That's when the plant tops are dying and sending the last of the vines' energy underground to the tubers.
If you'll be storing most of the late potatoes, wait for the best weather conditions possible before digging them up. Choose a warm, dry day after a period of little or no rain. Cloudy days are even better, since too much light turns newly dug potatoes green, changing their flavor.
After you dig a few hills, you'll discover that all the potatoes in a hill are at pretty much the same level. Once you figure out how deep to dig your fork, you won't injure as many potatoes. Of course, if you've got some beginners on the work crew, there'll be a few spiked spuds. Put them aside for the evening meal; they won't keep. A pointed shovel does a good job, too. You can dig deep enough next to a hill to raise the entire hill at one time.
Be gentle. Try not to rough up or bump the potatoes. Each bruise lowers the storage quality and appearance of the tuber.
After the Harvest
Leave the potatoes outdoors for an hour or so to dry. During that time most of the soil stuck on them should also drop off. There's no real need to brush the tubers, although some people use a very soft brush gently to take off clumps of dirt. Don't wash the potatoes; it's hard to get them really dry afterward.
Put the potatoes in the dark after they've dried in the open for a short time. Don't leave them in burlap bags or other containers where light can penetrate and start them greening.
If possible, storage potatoes should have a short drying or "curing" period of one to two weeks after the harvest. Curing allows any slight cuts or bruises on the potatoes to heal rapidly. Keep the tubers in a dark place with temperatures around 55o to 60oF with high humidity of up to 85 or 95 percent.
After a curing period, move the potatoes to a much cooler, dark place for winter storage. Experts recommend 35o to 40oF with moderate humidity and ventilation. If these standards are met in your basement or root cellar, you can expect mature potatoes to store for up to eight months. Higher temperatures will mean quicker sprouting and shriveling.
Because potatoes have to breathe in storage, a root cellar needs good air circulation The potatoes are still carrying on normal life processes, using oxygen to heal bruises and cracks and giving off carbon dioxide, heat and moisture. Good air circulation in the storage room helps this continuing process. A good way to store potatoes is in bins with slatted sides and bottoms; however, don't pile them higher than 6- to 8-inches tall.
Occasionally, potatoes turn "sweet" during storage. This happens because potatoes convert a certain amount of starch to sugar, which is used up in the "breathing" process. When the tubers are stored in cool root cellars, the breathing slows down and they don't use up all the sugar they produced. Occasionally, this extra sugar gives the potatoes a sweet taste if they've been taken directly from cool storage and cooked. However, this is rarely a problem. If your potatoes sweeten, just bring a week's supply out of storage at one time and keep them in a warmer spot. The extra sugar will revert to starch -- a process experts call "reconditioning".
A Note on Green Potatoes
When potatoes are exposed to light their skins start to turn green -- a sign that a toxic substance called solanine is developing. This occurs if potatoes aren't fully covered by soil while they're growing, if you leave them in the sun for too long after the harvest, or if they aren't stored in complete darkness. Potatoes you buy from the supermarket also turn green if they aren't stored in a dark place.
Because solanine is slightly toxic, it's possible to get sick if you have a large helping of greened potatoes. Peeling or cutting away green sections before cooking usually eliminates the problem, as most of the solanine is located in the spud's skin.
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Since most home gardeners start potatoes by cutting and planting last season's tubers, common sense says you should use the healthiest tubers possible.
Disease-free Spuds
How do you acquire disease-free potatoes for planting? Simple, go to a good garden store in the spring and buy certified potatoes for your "seed" or order your seed potatoes from a reliable mail-order source or on-line.
Certified seed potatoes are grown under carefully monitored conditions where state agricultural inspectors enforce high standards of disease and pest control, plant health and quality of harvested tubers. Most certified seed potatoes are grown in northern states where there are fewer disease-spreading insects than in the South. However, the cooler temperatures of the North favor the development of some diseases. Plants that do become infected at the breeding ground can be spotted and eliminated, leaving only the strong disease-free plants.
Gardeners who save some of their own crop to use for seed potatoes the next season are taking a chance. While the tubers may look fine and be perfectly okay for eating, certain virus diseases may be present. If these potatoes were planted, the disease would likely pass from the seed piece to the new plant.
Buying Market Potatoes as Starters
Potatoes from the market generally don't make good seed potatoes. They may have diseases and usually are treated with a growth-stopping chemical so that they won't sprout in the stores or in storage. Buying certified seed potatoes locally or through the mail is a better idea.
In many areas, garden stores buy certified seed potatoes in 100-pound bags and break them down into smaller packages for gardeners. How much should you buy? Eight to ten pounds of seed potatoes should plant a 100-foot-row and with that length of row, you could harvest three to four bushels of potatoes if you let them grow to maturity. If you harvest some when they're small for midsummer eating (around flowering time), the total yield will be less. If you get your seed potatoes and can't plant them right away, simply store them in your root cellar or a cool, dark, well-ventilated place.
Planting Potatoes
By: National Gardening editors
Growing Potato Towers
Ever think of growing a few potato plants in bushel baskets to make a potato tower? Well, you can -- it's easy and fun. You can be a potato grower in the smallest yard or just on the back porch or patio.
Line a bushel basket with plastic and punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage. Stir a few tablespoons of houseplant food or fertilizer into a bucket of moist soil. Put a 4- or 5-inch layer of soil in the basket. Position several seed pieces 6- to 8-inches apart on the earth, then cover them with 3 or 4 more inches of soil. Keep the basket in a warm, sunny place. As the plants grow, add more soil around the stems to give the tubers room to expand, and be sure to keep the soil well-watered.
Caring for Potatoes
Caring for potatoes requires proper watering, cultivating and hilling.
Cultivation
Stirring up the soil on the surface keeps it loose so that the plants' roots can get water and air. They have to drink and breathe just as we do. Whenever the soil becomes packed or crusty, raking the top inch of soil lightly can help.
If you hill your potatoes during the first four to eight weeks after planting, you shouldn't have any problems with weeds. Hilling buries weeds near the plants, and it usually takes care of most walkway weeds, too.
Once the hills are made, though, don't disturb them with a hoe or any other tool. If you want to remove some weeds, pull them by hand.
Hilling
There are several reasons why you must pull soil up around the stems of your potato plants, or "hill" them, once or twice during the season:
* The additional loose soil allows the developing tubers to expand easily.
* Hilling helps to keep the potatoes from poking through the soil and becoming "green" from the sun. ("Greening" gives them a bitter flavor.)
* Hilling buries and kills weeds around the plants before they become a serious problem.
* Rain collects in gardens with heavy soils, blocking the flow of air to the plant roots. However, a hilled row of potatoes sheds water. Hilling keeps the plants better drained and more productive because the earth doesn't pack around them.
* Pulling soil from between the rows up around the plants creates a natural irrigation ditch.
Hill the plants for the first time about a week after they poke through the soil. Do the job with a hoe or a tiller with a hilling attachment, and pull up as much soil as you can around the stems. If you cover some, or even all, of the leaves of the plants, don't worry about it. They'll push back through in a few days. In fact, if your early planted potatoes are up and there's a chance of a late frost, you can cover the plants entirely to protect them from injury. Potatoes can take a light frost; burying them is just added insurance.
Do the second hilling three or four weeks later, before the potato vines spill out into the walkways.
Proper Watering
Potatoes need a steady, season-long supply of water, but it's most important 6 to 10 weeks after planting, when the plants start to develop their tubers.
An uneven water supply can cause knobs or growth cracks in potatoes. If the plants don't get enough water, the tubers won't grow and their cells will start to mature. Then, when a sudden increase in water does occur, the potatoes start a second, new growth, causing the tubers to crack or develop into odd shapes.
Deep Watering is Best
Potatoes can take some periods of dry weather. However, if it's been very dry and the tubers are beginning to develop underground, water the plants. If you need to water, be sure you do a thorough job, applying enough to moisten the soil 8- to 10-inches below ground. Deep watering is the only way to go. Research shows that irrigated potatoes obtain 57 percent of their water from the top foot of soil, 24 percent from the second foot of soil and as much as 13 percent from the third foot of soil. Though the potato plant is mostly shallow-rooted, some roots do indeed go deep for water.
Photography by NationalGardening.com
Harvesting Potatoes
By: the Editors of National Gardening
After all your work of planting and caring for your potato plants, here's how to get the most from your harvest.
New Potatoes
The earliest or "new" potatoes of the season are a treat not to be missed. They're small, round, smooth and delicious. When you think you have early potatoes big enough to eat, reach into your early hills, feel for the best-sized spuds and ease them out. The plants keep right on growing and producing more.
During seasons when the soil has been quite moist (which makes hunting by hand tougher), dig up entire plants, harvest all the baby potatoes you can find and put the plants back in the earth. They'll survive this rude transplant and produce quite a few more potatoes. But working fast is important; freshly dug potatoes shouldn't stay in the sun very long.
The best tool for digging is a 5- or 6-pronged fork. Dig down under a hill, then lift up. The dirt falls between the prongs, and you're left with a forkful of potatoes. There's less bending this way, too.
Later Harvest
In the North, harvest the main storage crop in September, when the days are getting cool and frost isn't far off. That's when the plant tops are dying and sending the last of the vines' energy underground to the tubers.
If you'll be storing most of the late potatoes, wait for the best weather conditions possible before digging them up. Choose a warm, dry day after a period of little or no rain. Cloudy days are even better, since too much light turns newly dug potatoes green, changing their flavor.
After you dig a few hills, you'll discover that all the potatoes in a hill are at pretty much the same level. Once you figure out how deep to dig your fork, you won't injure as many potatoes. Of course, if you've got some beginners on the work crew, there'll be a few spiked spuds. Put them aside for the evening meal; they won't keep. A pointed shovel does a good job, too. You can dig deep enough next to a hill to raise the entire hill at one time.
Be gentle. Try not to rough up or bump the potatoes. Each bruise lowers the storage quality and appearance of the tuber.
After the Harvest
Leave the potatoes outdoors for an hour or so to dry. During that time most of the soil stuck on them should also drop off. There's no real need to brush the tubers, although some people use a very soft brush gently to take off clumps of dirt. Don't wash the potatoes; it's hard to get them really dry afterward.
Put the potatoes in the dark after they've dried in the open for a short time. Don't leave them in burlap bags or other containers where light can penetrate and start them greening.
If possible, storage potatoes should have a short drying or "curing" period of one to two weeks after the harvest. Curing allows any slight cuts or bruises on the potatoes to heal rapidly. Keep the tubers in a dark place with temperatures around 55o to 60oF with high humidity of up to 85 or 95 percent.
After a curing period, move the potatoes to a much cooler, dark place for winter storage. Experts recommend 35o to 40oF with moderate humidity and ventilation. If these standards are met in your basement or root cellar, you can expect mature potatoes to store for up to eight months. Higher temperatures will mean quicker sprouting and shriveling.
Because potatoes have to breathe in storage, a root cellar needs good air circulation The potatoes are still carrying on normal life processes, using oxygen to heal bruises and cracks and giving off carbon dioxide, heat and moisture. Good air circulation in the storage room helps this continuing process. A good way to store potatoes is in bins with slatted sides and bottoms; however, don't pile them higher than 6- to 8-inches tall.
Occasionally, potatoes turn "sweet" during storage. This happens because potatoes convert a certain amount of starch to sugar, which is used up in the "breathing" process. When the tubers are stored in cool root cellars, the breathing slows down and they don't use up all the sugar they produced. Occasionally, this extra sugar gives the potatoes a sweet taste if they've been taken directly from cool storage and cooked. However, this is rarely a problem. If your potatoes sweeten, just bring a week's supply out of storage at one time and keep them in a warmer spot. The extra sugar will revert to starch -- a process experts call "reconditioning".
A Note on Green Potatoes
When potatoes are exposed to light their skins start to turn green -- a sign that a toxic substance called solanine is developing. This occurs if potatoes aren't fully covered by soil while they're growing, if you leave them in the sun for too long after the harvest, or if they aren't stored in complete darkness. Potatoes you buy from the supermarket also turn green if they aren't stored in a dark place.
Because solanine is slightly toxic, it's possible to get sick if you have a large helping of greened potatoes. Peeling or cutting away green sections before cooking usually eliminates the problem, as most of the solanine is located in the spud's skin.
Gardening Basics: Cole Crops
The Cole Crop Family
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Gardeners often group broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi together as "cole crops". Cole is the German word for cabbage, hence the term "cole slaw". Cole crops are hardy and grow best in cool weather. An easy way to remember this is to think how much "cole" sounds like "cold" or "cool".
Sprouting Cole Crops
Cole crop seed is slightly more tender than the mature plant. In order to sprout, it must be planted in rich, moist soil with the air temperature about 60oF and the soil temperature at least 45oF. Germination occurs four to eight days after planting seeds.
Once a seed sprouts, it sends down the start of its taproot while the stem and first leaves develop. These first leaves are called seed leaves. True leaves appear next and the plant is on its way toward fulfilling its natural goal: to produce flower buds that will eventually open and give way to a seed stalk.
Cabbage and Brussels sprouts actually surround a seed case with their tightly folded leaves, forming a head. Broccoli and cauliflower heads, or "curds", are tight bunches of the buds themselves.
Once the heads have formed, they gradually loosen (unless you pick them, of course) to make room for the seed stalk to develop. This loosening action is triggered under certain temperature, daylight and growing conditions, causing the plant to bolt, or go to seed.
Broccoli - Sprouts with Clout!
When broccoli first came to this country from Italy, it was considered exotic. Now, it's as much a part of our gardens and kitchens as peas or carrots.
The bluish green mature heads of broccoli can be harvested from early summer to late fall, depending on your climate and growing conditions. Once the first large head is harvested, most broccoli varieties produce smaller side, or lateral, shoots that extend the harvest for weeks.
In the North, plant broccoli in the early spring and again in midsummer for a fall harvest. The only time the plants won't produce heads is during the hottest weeks of summer. Your fall crop, however, will keep bearing shoots after the rest of your garden is spent. In the South, plant in late winter for an early summer harvest or early fall for winter harvesting. In warmer areas, you might want to try overwintering broccoli varieties.
There are several dependable, early varieties of broccoli, among them:
* 'DeCicco' takes 55 days to the first harvest of large, tight, dark green center heads, followed by weeks of many side shoots.
* 'Green Comet Hybrid' is extra early, maturing in only 40 days. Its disease- and heat-resistant qualities make up for the fact that it only produces a single, large head with few, if any, side shoots.
* 'Italian Green Sprouting' broccoli is widely available and good for both spring and fall crops. The head reaches a five- or six-inch harvestable size about 70 days from transplanting and produces many light green, tender side shoots. 'Romanesco' is another, later, Italian variety that produces conical, creamy green heads covered with spears that rise in a spiral to the top. Matures in 75 days.
* 'Packman Hybrid' matures in only 53 days. This is a dependable, early variety with good side-shoot development.
* 'Premium Crop Hybrid' is a main-season variety that matures in 82 days. It produces large heads, but few side shoots.
* 'Green Goliath' matures compact, blue-green heads in 55 days. It produces an abundance of side shoots and freezes well.
Brussels Sprouts
Even though Brussels sprouts have been a mealtime tradition for hundreds of years, many people dislike them. You may change your mind, however, if you grow your own. The difference between frozen supermarket sprouts and your own, fresh from the garden, is unbelievable.
Growing Brussels sprouts is almost as much fun as eating them. They start out looking just like cabbage or broccoli, but as they grow, the stems become tall and thick and sprouts pop out above each large leaf along the main stems. They look like miniature palm trees. You add to this look by breaking off the lower leaves once the harvest begins. The stems can end up two to three feet high, loaded with sprouts.
This vegetable originated in Brussels, Belgium, and is still extremely popular in Europe. As more Americans try them, Brussels sprouts are becoming better known and enjoyed in this country, too.
'Long Island Improved' is the most popular variety of Brussels sprouts. 'Jade Cross' is desirable for its disease resistance and 'Rubine Red' for its red foliage and sprouts. These varieties mature 80 to 90 days after transplanting, and they grow best as a fall and early winter crop. The sprouts not only withstand frosts, their flavor improves as the weather gets cooler.
Cabbage - King of the Garden
Cabbages of all kinds are a snap to grow and are one of the few salad vegetables you can have available from your garden well into winter. Raw cabbage is said to possess great healing power, and at one time it was prized by the Egyptians.
Cabbages can be either early, for spring planting, midseason, for planting anytime, or late for a fall crop. One thing to remember is that the late varieties need a longer growing season than the others, so you may end up planting your fall harvest earlier than a midseason variety. Check the seed packet for the days to maturity. Count back from the time you'd like to begin harvesting, and you'll have a handy planting and harvesting timetable.
Because cabbages are biennial plants, you don't have to worry about them going to seed in the garden. The main problem that gardeners have with cabbages is splitting heads, or no heads at all.
Following is a list of cabbage varieties, including red cabbage and Savoy cabbage, that should do well in most gardens.
* 'Stonehead' (65 to 70 days to maturity). Extremely solid heads; 6 inches in diameter; yellows resistant; early variety; short core.
* 'Early Round Dutch' (71 days). Heads are round and firm; slow to split or bolt; mature at different intervals for extended harvest; grow to average weight of 41/2 to 5 pounds.
* 'Late Flat Dutch' (90 to 100 days). Large, flat heads; good winter keepers; average weight 10 to 15 pounds. Great for kraut.
* 'Red Acre' (70 days). Early, sweet, uniformly ruby red colored, nonsplitting variety that averages 3 to 4 pounds.
* 'Early Jersey Wakefield' (60 to 75 days). Conical-shaped, two- to four-pound heads resist splitting and can be overwintered. Yellows resistant.
* 'Savoy Ace' (80 to 90 days). Vigorous, crinkly-leaved hybrid with dark green, semiround heads; heat resistant for summer growth; average weight of 4 to 5 pounds.
Cauliflower - "Cabbage with a College Education"
Many people are afraid to try growing cauliflower because they think it's finicky, or that it's a crop only experienced gardeners can have success with. Cauliflower, however, grows exactly like cabbage. To make the heads white or blanch them, you simply cover them with their own leaves for four or five days. Alternately, you can grow self-blanching varieties.
Cauliflower can be used in any recipe that calls for broccoli, or served raw with dips or in salads. Kids will often eat vegetables raw that they refuse to eat cooked. That's fine, because raw veggies have more nutrients in them than cooked ones, and are easier for you to prepare.
Unlike broccoli, cauliflower produces only one head per plant. The head is called the "curd" and your only concern is to keep light away from it as soon as it's three to four inches across. After that, it's just harvest and enjoy. It freezes well, so be sure to plant enough.
* 'Snow Crown' and 'Early Snowball' are both popular strains of early cauliflower, reaching maturity in 50 to 60 days. Both are white, self-blanching types and are heat tolerant, so will do well in the South.
* 'Purple Head' is an unusual cauliflower variety that doesn't need blanching. The head matures in 80 to 85 days, and it really is purple. It turns green when you cook it and is an interesting variety for freezing or pickling.
Chinese Cabbage
Oriental vegetables are showing up in gardens and kitchens all over America. They're nutritious and easy to grow. Chinese cabbage is a close cousin to the rest of the cabbage family.
The leaves of this vegetable form a loose, oblong head that grows 18 to 20 inches tall. It's sometimes called -- celery cabbage -- because it also resembles the tall, ribbed stalks of celery.
The flavor of Chinese cabbage is much sweeter than standard cabbage, with a nice nut-like aftertaste. The leaves are crisp and tender and can be used in any combination salad or stir-fry dish.
* 'Michihili' (72 days). Most common variety. Grows well in partial shade and will take a few autumn cold snaps. Can be harvested until November in the North, so in many parts of the country Chinese cabbage can easily become a fall, spring and even a winter delicacy.
* 'Jade Pagoda' (72 days). A hybrid Michihili type that grows 16" tall and produces slow-bolting, creamy yellow hearts.
Kohlrabi "Flying Saucers from Seed"
This strange-looking vegetable is sometimes called a "stem turnip" because the stem just above the ground forms a fattened bulb that tastes like a sweetened turnip. The name is derived from the German words kohl (cabbage) and rabe (turnip).
Kohlrabi is started from seed in the garden for both early spring and fall crops. The plants are very hardy, and will thrive in just about any kind of soil. Just be sure to time your spring planting so it matures before the temperatures reach above 80oF, or the globes will be woody or unpleasantly pungent. Kohlrabi is the one garden vegetable that seems to be insect and disease free, making it a popular plant!
Peeled and sliced, kohlrabi makes an excellent addition to the summer crudite and dip tray. It's also deliccious lightly steamed, and lends itself well to stir-fries and soups.
The two most common kohlrabi varieties are 'Early White' 'Vienna' (it's really pale green in color) and 'Early Purple Vienna', whose skin is bright purple and looks jazzy in the garden. Both plants mature in 50 to 60 days.
Spacing Cole Crop Plants
By: National Gardening editors
There's a simple rule of thumb for spacing cabbage; the closer you plant them, the smaller the heads. Commercial growers have started planting these vegetables closer because most shoppers prefer a 3- to 4-pound head to a larger one. You can plant cabbages closer than most seed packets instruct, and you can save space by staggering the plants in 10- to 20-inch-wide rows.
Spacing Cabbage
Start by planting the first two cabbages on each side of the row, 10- to 12-inches apart. Then measure down 10 inches and place the third cabbage in the center of the row. Continue alternating two plants, then one plant, until the row is complete. The row ends up looking like a domino design of cabbage plants. You can also plant wider rows with a 3-2-3 arrangement.
There are other advantages with this method than just saving space. The plants in staggered wide rows mature at different rates, so the harvest is stretched over a number of weeks. You'll also notice that the leaves of closely planted cabbages shade the ground, keeping it cool, moist
and weed free. This saves some gardening headaches like weeding, mulching and frequent watering.
Spacing Other Cole Crops
Cauliflower takes up about the same amount of space as cabbage, and can be spaced the same in staggered wide rows.
Broccoli and Brussels sprouts need a fair amount of room because their broad leaves extend a foot or more. Plant them in single rows, one behind the other, 15- to 18-inches apart, leaving 2 feet between each row.
Kohlrabi and Chinese cabbage are exceptions in the cole crop family; it's easiest to plant them right from seed in the garden. Plant kohlrabi like root crops: Sprinkle the seeds in 15-inch-wide bands with 3- to 4-inches between seeds. Here again, you can grow lots of food in just a small amount of space, and the closely spaced plants keep the soil cool and moist. It's almost a matter of just waiting until they're ready to harvest.
Plant Chinese cabbage the same way, spacing the seeds 4- to 5-inches apart in the wide row.
It's perfectly all right to plant all the cole crops in conventional single rows. Just leave the same amount of space between each plant as suggested here for staggered or wide-row spacing.
No matter which spacing method you choose, allow 16- to 24- inches between the rows, depending on the vegetable and your method of cultivation. You need more room if you use cultivating equipment than if you rely on hand-cultivating.
Growing Cole Crops
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Keeping weeds away, watering and fertilzing are ways to insure a strong cole crop harvest.
Away With Weeds!
Weeds aren't much of a problem with transplanted cole crops, especially if you plant in wide rows. Once the plants take hold and develop broad leaves, they shade the soil under the plants. Weeds -- like all plants -- can't grow without adequate light.
Watch out for weeds in your rows of direct-seeded plants for fall, however. The first few weeks your plants are growing is when weeds can damage the crop.
By working the soil and raking it four or five times before planting, you can prevent quite a few weeds. Stirring the top few inches of soil exposes or buries weed seeds that would otherwise sprout.
Once you've planted some cole crop seeds, you can continue this invisible weed-killing method by using a rake or weeding tool to scratch the top 1/4 inch of soil. Be careful, however, not to stir up the seeds you're trying to grow.
When the seedlings are well established, you can cultivate the soil near them as well as the walkways between to keep out weeds. Use a hoe or other weeding tool to disturb the top 1/2 inch of soil every four or five days. Cultivating also aerates the soil, permitting air to get down to the roots of the plants.
Don't ever use a hoe right under the shallow-rooted cole crops. No matter how shallowly you cultivate or how careful you are, you're bound to injure some roots. It's safer to pull weeds there by hand.
Water
Make sure your cole crops stay moist as seedlings and receive a steady supply of water from the time they're up. They need about one inch of water per week.
If you have a rainy spring or fall, you won't have to worry about watering. Unfortunately, every gardening season seems to be drier at times than we'd like, so most of us have to supplement nature's watering occasionally.
Don't water out of sheer habit. If you have clay soil that retains moisture or if it rains hard every week or so, you may not have to water much. But, if you have light, sandy, quick-draining soil, you may have to water more often.
You can monitor rainfall with a rain gauge, or you can check the soil for dryness by digging down a few inches. If you find dry soil below three or four inches, water!
Water the garden thoroughly to a depth of five or six inches to encourage deeper root growth and to spread nutrients throughout the soil.
Evaluate your own garden and use every drop of water wisely; your plants will be healthier for it.
Mulch
Mulch is a protective layer of material such as straw, hay, leaves or grass clippings. Placing four to eight inches of mulch around your garden vegetables prevents weeds, keeps the soil cool and helps retain moisture in the ground around your plants. Mulch is practically a must in the South.
Cole crops don't need to be mulched when the weather and soil are cool. But you can use mulch to provide the cool, moist growing conditions they need if it's hot.
Brussels sprouts have to be in the garden for a number of months before they mature, so it's likely they'll be subjected to some hot, sunny days. Mulching them will help them endure the heat with fewer problems.
One of the benefits of mulch is that it cuts down on weeds by shutting out light to the ground it covers. If you really hate to weed, you can mulch the walkways between your garden rows as well as the vegetables themselves. Try to use a mulching material such as straw that contains few, if any, weed seeds, so you aren't planting more weeds than you prevent.
Black plastic is another type of mulch, but it is used mostly to warm up the soil for heat-loving plants, such as melons and tomatoes. Don't use it on cole crops. Organic mulches are best, as they tend to keep the soil cool.
Side-Dress Fertilizer
Some plants need extra nutrients during their growing period. They either use the initial fertilizer completely or they take such a long time to reach maturity that the fertilizer has been washed away. Giving plants a second dose of nutrients is known as side-dressing.
You usually will want to sidedress broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage. The best time to sidedress cabbage is just before it starts to head. The plants will use this boost to produce a second crop once you've harvested the first. Brussels sprouts are in the ground a long time and the foliage is quite dense, so they really respond to a second dose of fertilizer just before they start budding.
To sidedress, simply draw a circle in the soil around the base of the plant, about four inches from the stem. Sprinkle a handful of 5-10-10 or dehydrated manure in the ring and cover it with an inch of soil.
The tender foliage can be burned by the nitrogen in the mixture, so place the plant food a few inches away from the base of the plant. This will also ensure that the nutrients will seep gradually into the soil, reaching the roots a little at a time rather than all at once.
If there's no rain soon after side-dressing, water around the base of the plant to send the nutrients to the roots.
It's Harvest Time
By: the Editors of National Gardening
You can enjoy a rich harvest of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts -- if you use your head at harvest time.
Harvesting Broccoli
Broccoli is like a trick candle you can't blow out. Once you pick the first head, the plant responds by producing more side shoots for you to eat. The first head is prime for cutting when its buds are packed close together without any sign of blossoming. Cut it off then, even if the head is smaller than you'd like. If you wait until the small yellow flower blossoms appear, the head will become bitter and the plant won't produce side shoots; it's already gone to seed (bolted). If you spot any yellow blossoms, cut the broccoli. You may stop the bolting process in time, and side shoots may form.
Leave 2 to 3 inches of stem on the plant; the second, lateral heads will branch out from there. Harvest these smaller spears on a daily basis, breaking or cutting them off the plant close to the main stem. Most of the broccoli stem is tender enough to eat, although the most tender part is at the top, nearest the newest growth. Again, if you harvest before these side shoots blossom, you should be able to keep the plant producing for weeks!
Brussels sprouts are easy to harvest. Starting when they're marble-sized, pick off sprouts from the bottom of the plant, moving up the stalk as you go. Also pick off any loose or soft buds, even if you aren't going to eat them, so the plant will keep producing new sprouts.
In the far North, you may be able to harvest Brussels sprouts into December or January, brushing aside snow to reach the plants. In more temperate climates, these extra-hardy plants will produce throughout the winter months.
Cutting Cabbage
Cabbage can be a challenge at midsummer harvest time because you can coax each plant into producing two, three or up to six heads for a fall harvest. To do it, you must harvest the first spring-planted cabbage when the heads are fairly small, about softball size. These small heads make terrific coleslaw for two. Leave four to five lower leaves on the plant, and from each leaf or two another small head may appear.
Of course, you can settle for just one cabbage from each plant. You have no choice in the fall, because your second crop of cabbage only has time to make single heads. Harvest the largest heads in the row; the larger and firmer they are, the better they'll keep.
Harvesting Cauliflower and Friends
Cauliflower heads are ready to harvest as soon as they are blanched pure white and have grown to be 6 to 12 inches across. Each plant produces only one head, so make the most of your growing efforts and keep harvesting any heads that are ready. Simply cut off the head, leaving about 3 inches of stem to keep the florets intact.
Chinese cabbage is best harvested fully grown, although the leaves are edible right from the start. When the loose heads are 12 to 15 inches tall, cut them off at the base with a sharp knife. Harvest the largest heads first to make room for the rest to develop.
Kohlrabi should be pulled when it's 2 to 3 inches across. Don't let it grow any bigger or the bulb will become tough, bitter and woody tasting.
Storage
Although all of the cole crops are easy to freeze, cabbages will also keep in a root cellar or other winter storage facility.
To store cabbages, harvest only fully mature heads, handling them carefully to prevent bruising. Don't wash the heads or trim off any outer leaves; these will help protect the heads.
Cabbages can be tricky to store for extended periods. They need cool, moist, dark surroundings, such as a root cellar with an even temperature. To prolong preservation, wrap each head in several thicknesses of newspaper. Check your stored cabbages often -- even slight rot can send out a three-alarm smell.
If you don't have a root cellar, you can make cabbage storage mounds outdoors with very little effort. Dig a deep hole, and line the bottom with a heavy layer of straw for insulation. Place the heads upside-down in the hole, cover them with more thick straw, shovel 4 to 5 inches of soil around the straw and leave an opening on top. Cover the opening with a board. Whenever you need a cabbage, dig down into the straw pit and repack the straw around the remaining vegetables when you're finished.
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Gardeners often group broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi together as "cole crops". Cole is the German word for cabbage, hence the term "cole slaw". Cole crops are hardy and grow best in cool weather. An easy way to remember this is to think how much "cole" sounds like "cold" or "cool".
Sprouting Cole Crops
Cole crop seed is slightly more tender than the mature plant. In order to sprout, it must be planted in rich, moist soil with the air temperature about 60oF and the soil temperature at least 45oF. Germination occurs four to eight days after planting seeds.
Once a seed sprouts, it sends down the start of its taproot while the stem and first leaves develop. These first leaves are called seed leaves. True leaves appear next and the plant is on its way toward fulfilling its natural goal: to produce flower buds that will eventually open and give way to a seed stalk.
Cabbage and Brussels sprouts actually surround a seed case with their tightly folded leaves, forming a head. Broccoli and cauliflower heads, or "curds", are tight bunches of the buds themselves.
Once the heads have formed, they gradually loosen (unless you pick them, of course) to make room for the seed stalk to develop. This loosening action is triggered under certain temperature, daylight and growing conditions, causing the plant to bolt, or go to seed.
Broccoli - Sprouts with Clout!
When broccoli first came to this country from Italy, it was considered exotic. Now, it's as much a part of our gardens and kitchens as peas or carrots.
The bluish green mature heads of broccoli can be harvested from early summer to late fall, depending on your climate and growing conditions. Once the first large head is harvested, most broccoli varieties produce smaller side, or lateral, shoots that extend the harvest for weeks.
In the North, plant broccoli in the early spring and again in midsummer for a fall harvest. The only time the plants won't produce heads is during the hottest weeks of summer. Your fall crop, however, will keep bearing shoots after the rest of your garden is spent. In the South, plant in late winter for an early summer harvest or early fall for winter harvesting. In warmer areas, you might want to try overwintering broccoli varieties.
There are several dependable, early varieties of broccoli, among them:
* 'DeCicco' takes 55 days to the first harvest of large, tight, dark green center heads, followed by weeks of many side shoots.
* 'Green Comet Hybrid' is extra early, maturing in only 40 days. Its disease- and heat-resistant qualities make up for the fact that it only produces a single, large head with few, if any, side shoots.
* 'Italian Green Sprouting' broccoli is widely available and good for both spring and fall crops. The head reaches a five- or six-inch harvestable size about 70 days from transplanting and produces many light green, tender side shoots. 'Romanesco' is another, later, Italian variety that produces conical, creamy green heads covered with spears that rise in a spiral to the top. Matures in 75 days.
* 'Packman Hybrid' matures in only 53 days. This is a dependable, early variety with good side-shoot development.
* 'Premium Crop Hybrid' is a main-season variety that matures in 82 days. It produces large heads, but few side shoots.
* 'Green Goliath' matures compact, blue-green heads in 55 days. It produces an abundance of side shoots and freezes well.
Brussels Sprouts
Even though Brussels sprouts have been a mealtime tradition for hundreds of years, many people dislike them. You may change your mind, however, if you grow your own. The difference between frozen supermarket sprouts and your own, fresh from the garden, is unbelievable.
Growing Brussels sprouts is almost as much fun as eating them. They start out looking just like cabbage or broccoli, but as they grow, the stems become tall and thick and sprouts pop out above each large leaf along the main stems. They look like miniature palm trees. You add to this look by breaking off the lower leaves once the harvest begins. The stems can end up two to three feet high, loaded with sprouts.
This vegetable originated in Brussels, Belgium, and is still extremely popular in Europe. As more Americans try them, Brussels sprouts are becoming better known and enjoyed in this country, too.
'Long Island Improved' is the most popular variety of Brussels sprouts. 'Jade Cross' is desirable for its disease resistance and 'Rubine Red' for its red foliage and sprouts. These varieties mature 80 to 90 days after transplanting, and they grow best as a fall and early winter crop. The sprouts not only withstand frosts, their flavor improves as the weather gets cooler.
Cabbage - King of the Garden
Cabbages of all kinds are a snap to grow and are one of the few salad vegetables you can have available from your garden well into winter. Raw cabbage is said to possess great healing power, and at one time it was prized by the Egyptians.
Cabbages can be either early, for spring planting, midseason, for planting anytime, or late for a fall crop. One thing to remember is that the late varieties need a longer growing season than the others, so you may end up planting your fall harvest earlier than a midseason variety. Check the seed packet for the days to maturity. Count back from the time you'd like to begin harvesting, and you'll have a handy planting and harvesting timetable.
Because cabbages are biennial plants, you don't have to worry about them going to seed in the garden. The main problem that gardeners have with cabbages is splitting heads, or no heads at all.
Following is a list of cabbage varieties, including red cabbage and Savoy cabbage, that should do well in most gardens.
* 'Stonehead' (65 to 70 days to maturity). Extremely solid heads; 6 inches in diameter; yellows resistant; early variety; short core.
* 'Early Round Dutch' (71 days). Heads are round and firm; slow to split or bolt; mature at different intervals for extended harvest; grow to average weight of 41/2 to 5 pounds.
* 'Late Flat Dutch' (90 to 100 days). Large, flat heads; good winter keepers; average weight 10 to 15 pounds. Great for kraut.
* 'Red Acre' (70 days). Early, sweet, uniformly ruby red colored, nonsplitting variety that averages 3 to 4 pounds.
* 'Early Jersey Wakefield' (60 to 75 days). Conical-shaped, two- to four-pound heads resist splitting and can be overwintered. Yellows resistant.
* 'Savoy Ace' (80 to 90 days). Vigorous, crinkly-leaved hybrid with dark green, semiround heads; heat resistant for summer growth; average weight of 4 to 5 pounds.
Cauliflower - "Cabbage with a College Education"
Many people are afraid to try growing cauliflower because they think it's finicky, or that it's a crop only experienced gardeners can have success with. Cauliflower, however, grows exactly like cabbage. To make the heads white or blanch them, you simply cover them with their own leaves for four or five days. Alternately, you can grow self-blanching varieties.
Cauliflower can be used in any recipe that calls for broccoli, or served raw with dips or in salads. Kids will often eat vegetables raw that they refuse to eat cooked. That's fine, because raw veggies have more nutrients in them than cooked ones, and are easier for you to prepare.
Unlike broccoli, cauliflower produces only one head per plant. The head is called the "curd" and your only concern is to keep light away from it as soon as it's three to four inches across. After that, it's just harvest and enjoy. It freezes well, so be sure to plant enough.
* 'Snow Crown' and 'Early Snowball' are both popular strains of early cauliflower, reaching maturity in 50 to 60 days. Both are white, self-blanching types and are heat tolerant, so will do well in the South.
* 'Purple Head' is an unusual cauliflower variety that doesn't need blanching. The head matures in 80 to 85 days, and it really is purple. It turns green when you cook it and is an interesting variety for freezing or pickling.
Chinese Cabbage
Oriental vegetables are showing up in gardens and kitchens all over America. They're nutritious and easy to grow. Chinese cabbage is a close cousin to the rest of the cabbage family.
The leaves of this vegetable form a loose, oblong head that grows 18 to 20 inches tall. It's sometimes called -- celery cabbage -- because it also resembles the tall, ribbed stalks of celery.
The flavor of Chinese cabbage is much sweeter than standard cabbage, with a nice nut-like aftertaste. The leaves are crisp and tender and can be used in any combination salad or stir-fry dish.
* 'Michihili' (72 days). Most common variety. Grows well in partial shade and will take a few autumn cold snaps. Can be harvested until November in the North, so in many parts of the country Chinese cabbage can easily become a fall, spring and even a winter delicacy.
* 'Jade Pagoda' (72 days). A hybrid Michihili type that grows 16" tall and produces slow-bolting, creamy yellow hearts.
Kohlrabi "Flying Saucers from Seed"
This strange-looking vegetable is sometimes called a "stem turnip" because the stem just above the ground forms a fattened bulb that tastes like a sweetened turnip. The name is derived from the German words kohl (cabbage) and rabe (turnip).
Kohlrabi is started from seed in the garden for both early spring and fall crops. The plants are very hardy, and will thrive in just about any kind of soil. Just be sure to time your spring planting so it matures before the temperatures reach above 80oF, or the globes will be woody or unpleasantly pungent. Kohlrabi is the one garden vegetable that seems to be insect and disease free, making it a popular plant!
Peeled and sliced, kohlrabi makes an excellent addition to the summer crudite and dip tray. It's also deliccious lightly steamed, and lends itself well to stir-fries and soups.
The two most common kohlrabi varieties are 'Early White' 'Vienna' (it's really pale green in color) and 'Early Purple Vienna', whose skin is bright purple and looks jazzy in the garden. Both plants mature in 50 to 60 days.
Spacing Cole Crop Plants
By: National Gardening editors
There's a simple rule of thumb for spacing cabbage; the closer you plant them, the smaller the heads. Commercial growers have started planting these vegetables closer because most shoppers prefer a 3- to 4-pound head to a larger one. You can plant cabbages closer than most seed packets instruct, and you can save space by staggering the plants in 10- to 20-inch-wide rows.
Spacing Cabbage
Start by planting the first two cabbages on each side of the row, 10- to 12-inches apart. Then measure down 10 inches and place the third cabbage in the center of the row. Continue alternating two plants, then one plant, until the row is complete. The row ends up looking like a domino design of cabbage plants. You can also plant wider rows with a 3-2-3 arrangement.
There are other advantages with this method than just saving space. The plants in staggered wide rows mature at different rates, so the harvest is stretched over a number of weeks. You'll also notice that the leaves of closely planted cabbages shade the ground, keeping it cool, moist
and weed free. This saves some gardening headaches like weeding, mulching and frequent watering.
Spacing Other Cole Crops
Cauliflower takes up about the same amount of space as cabbage, and can be spaced the same in staggered wide rows.
Broccoli and Brussels sprouts need a fair amount of room because their broad leaves extend a foot or more. Plant them in single rows, one behind the other, 15- to 18-inches apart, leaving 2 feet between each row.
Kohlrabi and Chinese cabbage are exceptions in the cole crop family; it's easiest to plant them right from seed in the garden. Plant kohlrabi like root crops: Sprinkle the seeds in 15-inch-wide bands with 3- to 4-inches between seeds. Here again, you can grow lots of food in just a small amount of space, and the closely spaced plants keep the soil cool and moist. It's almost a matter of just waiting until they're ready to harvest.
Plant Chinese cabbage the same way, spacing the seeds 4- to 5-inches apart in the wide row.
It's perfectly all right to plant all the cole crops in conventional single rows. Just leave the same amount of space between each plant as suggested here for staggered or wide-row spacing.
No matter which spacing method you choose, allow 16- to 24- inches between the rows, depending on the vegetable and your method of cultivation. You need more room if you use cultivating equipment than if you rely on hand-cultivating.
Growing Cole Crops
By: the Editors of National Gardening
Keeping weeds away, watering and fertilzing are ways to insure a strong cole crop harvest.
Away With Weeds!
Weeds aren't much of a problem with transplanted cole crops, especially if you plant in wide rows. Once the plants take hold and develop broad leaves, they shade the soil under the plants. Weeds -- like all plants -- can't grow without adequate light.
Watch out for weeds in your rows of direct-seeded plants for fall, however. The first few weeks your plants are growing is when weeds can damage the crop.
By working the soil and raking it four or five times before planting, you can prevent quite a few weeds. Stirring the top few inches of soil exposes or buries weed seeds that would otherwise sprout.
Once you've planted some cole crop seeds, you can continue this invisible weed-killing method by using a rake or weeding tool to scratch the top 1/4 inch of soil. Be careful, however, not to stir up the seeds you're trying to grow.
When the seedlings are well established, you can cultivate the soil near them as well as the walkways between to keep out weeds. Use a hoe or other weeding tool to disturb the top 1/2 inch of soil every four or five days. Cultivating also aerates the soil, permitting air to get down to the roots of the plants.
Don't ever use a hoe right under the shallow-rooted cole crops. No matter how shallowly you cultivate or how careful you are, you're bound to injure some roots. It's safer to pull weeds there by hand.
Water
Make sure your cole crops stay moist as seedlings and receive a steady supply of water from the time they're up. They need about one inch of water per week.
If you have a rainy spring or fall, you won't have to worry about watering. Unfortunately, every gardening season seems to be drier at times than we'd like, so most of us have to supplement nature's watering occasionally.
Don't water out of sheer habit. If you have clay soil that retains moisture or if it rains hard every week or so, you may not have to water much. But, if you have light, sandy, quick-draining soil, you may have to water more often.
You can monitor rainfall with a rain gauge, or you can check the soil for dryness by digging down a few inches. If you find dry soil below three or four inches, water!
Water the garden thoroughly to a depth of five or six inches to encourage deeper root growth and to spread nutrients throughout the soil.
Evaluate your own garden and use every drop of water wisely; your plants will be healthier for it.
Mulch
Mulch is a protective layer of material such as straw, hay, leaves or grass clippings. Placing four to eight inches of mulch around your garden vegetables prevents weeds, keeps the soil cool and helps retain moisture in the ground around your plants. Mulch is practically a must in the South.
Cole crops don't need to be mulched when the weather and soil are cool. But you can use mulch to provide the cool, moist growing conditions they need if it's hot.
Brussels sprouts have to be in the garden for a number of months before they mature, so it's likely they'll be subjected to some hot, sunny days. Mulching them will help them endure the heat with fewer problems.
One of the benefits of mulch is that it cuts down on weeds by shutting out light to the ground it covers. If you really hate to weed, you can mulch the walkways between your garden rows as well as the vegetables themselves. Try to use a mulching material such as straw that contains few, if any, weed seeds, so you aren't planting more weeds than you prevent.
Black plastic is another type of mulch, but it is used mostly to warm up the soil for heat-loving plants, such as melons and tomatoes. Don't use it on cole crops. Organic mulches are best, as they tend to keep the soil cool.
Side-Dress Fertilizer
Some plants need extra nutrients during their growing period. They either use the initial fertilizer completely or they take such a long time to reach maturity that the fertilizer has been washed away. Giving plants a second dose of nutrients is known as side-dressing.
You usually will want to sidedress broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage. The best time to sidedress cabbage is just before it starts to head. The plants will use this boost to produce a second crop once you've harvested the first. Brussels sprouts are in the ground a long time and the foliage is quite dense, so they really respond to a second dose of fertilizer just before they start budding.
To sidedress, simply draw a circle in the soil around the base of the plant, about four inches from the stem. Sprinkle a handful of 5-10-10 or dehydrated manure in the ring and cover it with an inch of soil.
The tender foliage can be burned by the nitrogen in the mixture, so place the plant food a few inches away from the base of the plant. This will also ensure that the nutrients will seep gradually into the soil, reaching the roots a little at a time rather than all at once.
If there's no rain soon after side-dressing, water around the base of the plant to send the nutrients to the roots.
It's Harvest Time
By: the Editors of National Gardening
You can enjoy a rich harvest of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts -- if you use your head at harvest time.
Harvesting Broccoli
Broccoli is like a trick candle you can't blow out. Once you pick the first head, the plant responds by producing more side shoots for you to eat. The first head is prime for cutting when its buds are packed close together without any sign of blossoming. Cut it off then, even if the head is smaller than you'd like. If you wait until the small yellow flower blossoms appear, the head will become bitter and the plant won't produce side shoots; it's already gone to seed (bolted). If you spot any yellow blossoms, cut the broccoli. You may stop the bolting process in time, and side shoots may form.
Leave 2 to 3 inches of stem on the plant; the second, lateral heads will branch out from there. Harvest these smaller spears on a daily basis, breaking or cutting them off the plant close to the main stem. Most of the broccoli stem is tender enough to eat, although the most tender part is at the top, nearest the newest growth. Again, if you harvest before these side shoots blossom, you should be able to keep the plant producing for weeks!
Brussels sprouts are easy to harvest. Starting when they're marble-sized, pick off sprouts from the bottom of the plant, moving up the stalk as you go. Also pick off any loose or soft buds, even if you aren't going to eat them, so the plant will keep producing new sprouts.
In the far North, you may be able to harvest Brussels sprouts into December or January, brushing aside snow to reach the plants. In more temperate climates, these extra-hardy plants will produce throughout the winter months.
Cutting Cabbage
Cabbage can be a challenge at midsummer harvest time because you can coax each plant into producing two, three or up to six heads for a fall harvest. To do it, you must harvest the first spring-planted cabbage when the heads are fairly small, about softball size. These small heads make terrific coleslaw for two. Leave four to five lower leaves on the plant, and from each leaf or two another small head may appear.
Of course, you can settle for just one cabbage from each plant. You have no choice in the fall, because your second crop of cabbage only has time to make single heads. Harvest the largest heads in the row; the larger and firmer they are, the better they'll keep.
Harvesting Cauliflower and Friends
Cauliflower heads are ready to harvest as soon as they are blanched pure white and have grown to be 6 to 12 inches across. Each plant produces only one head, so make the most of your growing efforts and keep harvesting any heads that are ready. Simply cut off the head, leaving about 3 inches of stem to keep the florets intact.
Chinese cabbage is best harvested fully grown, although the leaves are edible right from the start. When the loose heads are 12 to 15 inches tall, cut them off at the base with a sharp knife. Harvest the largest heads first to make room for the rest to develop.
Kohlrabi should be pulled when it's 2 to 3 inches across. Don't let it grow any bigger or the bulb will become tough, bitter and woody tasting.
Storage
Although all of the cole crops are easy to freeze, cabbages will also keep in a root cellar or other winter storage facility.
To store cabbages, harvest only fully mature heads, handling them carefully to prevent bruising. Don't wash the heads or trim off any outer leaves; these will help protect the heads.
Cabbages can be tricky to store for extended periods. They need cool, moist, dark surroundings, such as a root cellar with an even temperature. To prolong preservation, wrap each head in several thicknesses of newspaper. Check your stored cabbages often -- even slight rot can send out a three-alarm smell.
If you don't have a root cellar, you can make cabbage storage mounds outdoors with very little effort. Dig a deep hole, and line the bottom with a heavy layer of straw for insulation. Place the heads upside-down in the hole, cover them with more thick straw, shovel 4 to 5 inches of soil around the straw and leave an opening on top. Cover the opening with a board. Whenever you need a cabbage, dig down into the straw pit and repack the straw around the remaining vegetables when you're finished.
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