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Designing a raised garden bed will look different for everyone based on your garden, the types of plants you want to grow, and your accessibility. This guide shows how you can determine how deep a raised garden bedshould be.
In this post, we will cover:
How Deep Should a Raised Garden Bed Be?
The deeper the bed, the better. At a minimum, you should have a bed that is 12-18 inches deep. This will allow enough air circulation for the roots, better water retention, and allow soil organisms to thrive.
When you have deeper soil, you will have a happy plant. It’s getting the space it needs to grow and get all the water and nutrients you need. You’ll be rewarded with a highly productive plant and a better harvest.
However, you may not need a deep bed if you aren’t growing many deep-rooted plants.
Soil can get pricey, so you also want to consider your budget. Alternatively, you can fill your raised beds with other materials (many ideas in this post!).
What’s below the raised bed may also be a factor in how deep it is. If it’s wood or concrete below, the roots won’t be able to go through and will only have the soil in the bed to count on. Meanwhile, a raised bed with soil underneath can help, though the soil may not be as good of quality.
When building or selecting raised garden beds, make sure to take accessibility into account.
How Deep Should a Garden Bed Be for Vegetables?
What you want to grow greatly affects how deep you make your beds. Since materials and soil can be expensive, you only want to make it as large as you need to.
Your raised bed only needs to be 10-12 inches for shallow root systems. This works great for:
Medium root systems will need 1-2 feet of soil. This includes:
For large root systems, you will need considerably deep beds that are 18-36 inches deep. This works for
Make sure you always plan for the vegetables when they reach full size.
Accessibility and Garden Depth
Another big question you will want to ask yourself is, who uses the garden? For me, I have this amazing unique vertical garden bed.
I designed it not only to give me more space to grow vegetables but also so I could easily access them. This way, even when my disability affects my mobility, I can still easily harvest vegetables when needed.
For instance, if you have trouble bending over, you may want taller beds that allow you to tend to your plants easily. Meanwhile, a garden that a child helps tend to might need to be shorter to allow them to reach it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Raised Garden Beds
How deep does a raised garden be for tomatoes?
Tomatoes have large root systems, so they need to be in beds that are 18-36 inches deep.
Tomatoes need lots of stability, especially when they’re heavy with fruit. By allowing your tomato to have a large root system, you increase the plant’s stability during wind and other weather.
Can vegetables grow in 8″ deep of soil?
Vegetables with shallow root systems can grow in soil that is 8” deep, although 10” is a preferred minimum to provide better airflow and water retention.
Some plants that might do well in 8” include mustard greens, arugula, Bok choy, cabbage, short carrots, celery, collard greens, chives, kale, lettuce, green onions, radishes, and spinach.
Pole beans provide a delicious and bountiful harvest when planted in the summer vegetable garden.
Grown up trellises or stakes, this vertical crop is fun to sow, easy to pick, and can help maximize valuable garden real estate!
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Whether you’re interested in growing this crop because you’ve heard of some tasty pole cultivars, or you want to extend your garden with trellises or teepees, pole beans add both visual interest and culinary excitement to the summer veggie patch.
So that you get the most out of your crop, we’re going to cover everything you’ll need to know about growing this legume, and we’ll even provide some ideas for how to transform your harvest in the kitchen!
Ready to get the lowdown on planting and growing this lofty legume? Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Are Pole Beans?
Call it a wild guess, but I have a pretty strong suspicion that you know what a bean is.
Perhaps it would be helpful to scrutinize the term “pole bean” before we get started though, so we’re all on the same page?
Pole beans are legumes that have a vining growth habit and are trained to climb up trellises, stakes, or some other sort of support to keep their foliage growing skywards instead of creeping across the ground, or smothering the other plants in their path.
While there are actually many different species of legumes that have this type of growth habit, for the purposes of this article, we’re going to focus on just one member of the Fabaceae family.
That’s the common bean, botanically classified as Phaseolus vulgaris.
However, if you’re like me, you have an inquiring mind and want to know which other types of beans might be grown vertically too.
Because the plants are vining, they do best and are more easily cared for when grown on supports of some sort, such as poles, stakes, trellises, or even on tall, upright bean companion plants, like corn or sunflowers.
Let’s say you suddenly inherit a veggie patch, aren’t sure what’s what, and want help identifying pole bean varieties of P. vulgaris.
As we’ve established, these plants are vining, and they generally climb to five feet tall or more.
They have divided leaves with three leaflets, and their foliage and stems are usually green, but some have a purplish tinge.
Flowers are white, pink, or purple, giving way to pods that can range in size from three inches to upwards of eight inches long.
Pods are most often green in color, but can also be yellow, pink, or purple. Most pods are solid colored, but some varieties are known for their mottled patterns.
‘Rattlesnake’ pole beans, a colorful variety.
Inside these pods are kidney-shaped seeds which, when allowed to fully mature, can be dried and saved to sow new crops in subsequent years – or cooked up and enjoyed as a hearty kitchen staple.
These seeds can come in a wide range of hues and patterns depending on the variety, one of the things about growing pole beans which makes them so much fun!
Dry bean varieties are especially known for their fabulous patterns and colorations – make sure to check out our article on the best dry bean cultivars to learn more. (coming soon!)
Cultivation and History
The pole beans we grow in our gardens these days were domesticated from a wild plant that hails from Latin America.
One of the historical uses of this vining legume was in the companion planting combination known as “The Three Sisters,” composed of pole beans, pumpkins or other types of squash, and corn.
Three Sisters style planting. Photo by Spencer Nagy, Wikimedia Commons, via CC BY-SA.
Archeological evidence shows that this combination was first grown together in North America over 950 years ago.
This gardening technique has been practiced by at least 15 different Native American peoples, including the Haudenosaunee, Seneca, and Cherokee.
There are different variations on how these crops are grown together, but one method is that corn is planted first, allowed to get a head start for two to three weeks.
Once the corn is a few inches tall, then the bean seeds are sown around the corn.
After about one more week when the bean seeds emerge, squash seeds are sown at least 12 inches away from the corn and pole beans.
In North America, pole beans are grown in gardens as an annual summer crop since they are susceptible to damage by frost.
These legumes make an excellent choice for a first vegetable garden, a child’s garden, or for those wishing to maximize their space with vertical gardening – in fact, pole cultivars produce two or three times the yield of bush varieties.
When planning the best layout for your garden, just make sure to plant this crop to the north of shorter crops so they don’t shade out the other members of your garden.
You might want to sketch your design out in a gardening journal before you get sowing!
Because of their large size and attractive colorings and patterns, these seeds can be one of the most satisfying garden crops to sow.
Once you have chosen a planting location, prepared your beds, and set up your climbing supports, you’ll want to make sure the timing is right – wait until after your last spring frost to sow.
Also, keep in mind that the seeds of these legumes will germinate best when the soil temperature is between 70 and 80°F, so if you want conditions to be ideal, test the temperature first with a soil thermometer.
If you live in a drier climate you may be able to safely plant them about two inches apart, while those in humid climates should sow seeds with a wider gap of four inches to permit more airflow.
And if you’re using square foot gardening as a guide, you may wish to plant up to nine seeds per square foot.
When the time is right and you’re ready to sow, grab your seed packet and a pencil or dibbler for poking holes in the soil – you’ll find a graduated wooden dibblet from Burgon and Ball for purchase via Botanical Interests.
If using a pencil, use the pointy end. I like to poke holes one inch deep in the soil first, then once they are all ready, I drop in the seeds one by one.
Once each hole contains a seed, squish the soil closed over each seed. Then pat down the soil to ensure good contact between the soil and the seeds.
Next, water the seeds in.
Keep the soil moist until the seedlings come up, which should occur in eight to 15 days.
If you aren’t receiving regular rainfall, you may need to irrigate. While the seeds are germinating, I recommend doing so with a gentle spray from a watering wand.
Bean sprouts are large and easy to recognize, and the sight of them is a thrill to new gardeners – as well as those of us who just never get tired of witnessing tiny miracles in the garden!
How to Grow
Now that you know how delightful and easy it is to sow bean seeds, you’ll also want to make sure you know how to care for this crop during the growing season.
Before you sow, select a location that receives full sun, or between six and eight hours of direct sunlight per day.
As for garden soil, it should be well-draining with a loose texture and a pH of 6.0 to 8.0. If you aren’t sure what the pH of your soil is, consider doing a pH test.
Add well-rotted manure or compost to your soil to increase organic matter.
When it comes to water, this crop needs about one inch of water a week. If drought is a problem, or rainfall is scant, you will need to irrigate.
If you aren’t sure how much rainfall you are receiving, a handy rain gauge can help clear up any uncertainty!
Another important part of growing this crop that I would recommend is to create some sort of support for the pole bean vines before you even sow the seeds.
You can allow the vines to climb up poles or stakes, or you might even construct a trellis or teepee.
Feel free to get creative and make your own bean supports or trellises.
On my farm, we have a permanent teepee trellis made from juniper branches and twine, as well as a mobile trellis made from hog paneling attached to metal stakes.
In many locations there are stands of invasive bamboo which are considered weeds in need of removing.
Bamboo poles can be harvested from these stands to use for stakes, or to create a trellis or teepee lashed together with twine.
If you want to harvest some local bamboo, just ask the owner of the land first – they’ll probably be thrilled to let you take as much as you can use!
On the other hand, if DIY isn’t really your thing, there are a wide assortment of readymade options available to purchase, such as the Annabel Tipi Trellis.
The Annabel Tipi Trellis is ninety six inches tall, hand crafted from powder coated steel, and available in a wide range of colors from Gardener’s Supply.
Growing Tips
Grow in full sun.
Provide climbing supports.
Make sure soil is well draining.
Provide one inch of water per week.
Maintenance
One of the reasons I love growing pole beans – besides the pleasure of sowing such beautiful seeds – is that they are such a low-maintenance crop.
Weeding
Weeding around this crop is important, especially as young plants are getting established.
Weeds can take nutrients and water from establishing plants, and even block light if they are allowed to get out of hand.
If you find yourself frowning at this recommendation, think of it as time you get to spend soaking up some sun or breathing in some fresh air.
On that note, one way to spend less time pulling up lamb’s-quarters, pigweed, and bindweed is to mulch around your plants.
The caveat here is not to pile the mulch up too close around the plants – excess moisture around the bases of the vines can provide fungal pathogens a bridge to your crop.
Instead, make sure there’s a mulch free circle a few inches wide around each plant.
Fertilizing legumes, which are nitrogen fixers, is a little different than what you might do for other garden crops.
In fact, the authors of a growing guide published as part of Cornell University’s garden-based learning program recommend against using nitrogen fertilizers for these legumes.
When it comes to fertilizing this crop, there are two steps and you’re going to want to take both of them – before you even sow your seeds.
First, mix some compost into your planting beds ,before you even plant your seeds, as discussed above in the How to Grow section of this guide.
The next step is to inoculate your seeds with rhizobium bacteria, which will help your crop in its nitrogen-fixing endeavors.
Just make sure you pick one that is recommended for beans, such as Exceed Legume Inoculant, and apply it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
You can purchase Exceed Legume Inoculant in a one-and-a-half-ounce bag, enough to treat eight pounds of seeds, via High Mowing Organic Seeds.
Learn more about using legume inoculants in your garden in our article. (coming soon!)
Pinching
Once all your hard work has helped your plants grow to great heights, now you might want to encourage them to restrain themselves a bit – I’m talking about pinching back the vines.
Get more guidance on pinching pole beans in our article. (coming soon!)
Rotating Crops
Finally, once the growing season is over and you start planning next year’s garden, make sure to rotate your legume crops.
A good rule of thumb is to create a three-year rotation, so you grow pole beans in a bed one year, and non-leguminous crops for the next two years.
Just like you might do when rotating cover crops, rotation helps to prevent disease, pest problems, and soil depletion.
This is another instance where a garden journal is handy – so you can track which crops were planted in which bed or row in which year!
Cultivars to Select
I’ve already told you about one of my favorite parts of growing pole beans – sowing them. Here’s another of my favorites – choosing seed cultivars.
If you don’t yet have seeds of your own to sow, here’s a selection of four of my favorite cultivars for your consideration:
Northeaster
‘Northeaster,’ an open pollinated, early producer with long, flat beans, is a favorite variety in my household. Possibly even thefavorite.
Also known as ‘Nor’easter,’ ‘Early Riser’ and ‘Kwintus,’ this is an excellent, high-yielding selection for gardeners with short growing seasons.
These Romano-style pole beans are green, measure an inch wide, and they’re stringless when picked at seven to eight inches long.
‘Northeaster’ has an excellent, buttery taste and tender texture.
I kid you not, when I first served these to my husband, he looked at me quizzically and asked, “Did you put something on them, like butter?”
It’s not my style to slather food in butter, so the answer was a merry “Nope!” That flavor was just coming from the pole beans themselves.
With medium-green colored pods and white seeds, ‘Northeaster’ has vigorous vines and will need a sturdy trellis.
This variety tolerates cooler weather, and matures in just 56 days.
If pods are picked regularly, plants will enjoy a long growing season and continue producing until the first frost. This is also a great variety to choose for a late summer sowing since it develops quickly.
Ready for some buttery beany goodness that you won’t have to wait all summer for?
You’ll find certified organic ‘Northeaster’ seeds available for purchase in package sizes ranging from one ounce to 40 pounds at High Mowing Organic Seeds.
Rattlesnake
Because of its names, this cultivar, also known as ‘Preacher Bean,’ makes me think it might have been around at Appalachian tent revival meetings – though I’ve found no proof of that, it’s just a hunch.
‘Rattlesnake,’ is an open-pollinated heirloom that can be enjoyed in multiple ways – for fresh eating, shelling, or drying.
Ten-foot vines produce round pods that are green in color and mottled with purple. They turn solid green when cooked.
For fresh eating, pods are picked at eight inches or less and have a flavorful, strong umami taste with a juicy and tender texture.
This is a great variety for freezing, but if you let them mature fully, you can save the dry seeds. These are light brown, mottled with dark brown.
Tolerant of hot, humid weather and drought, this cultivar is better suited for Southern climates than Northern ones, and matures in 65 days.
Handling these rattlesnakes may not make you feel as daring as the preachers in the tents, but these are guaranteed not to pack a bite.
You’ll find seeds in an assortment of package sizes from one ounce up to 40 pounds, available for purchase at High Mowing Organic Seeds.
Seychelles
We’ve already encountered a couple of interesting varieties – one with wide flat pods, another with colorful pods. How about something a little more classic now?
‘Seychelles’ is a 2017 All-America Selections winner that has mostly straight, dark green, tender, stringless pods that are picked at four to six inches long.
This open pollinated and high yielding variety produces richly flavored pods in clusters of six, making harvesting easy.
The small seeds of ‘Seychelles’ are white to light green, small, and slow to develop, extending the harvest window.
Pods grow on dark green vines that are vigorous, reaching seven to nine feet long, but nonetheless they grow well in containers.
‘Seychelles’ is an early maturing variety, ready to harvest in 55 to 60 days, and is resistant to anthracnose and bean common mosaic virus.
To start your own crop of purple heirloom pole beans, you’ll find ‘Trionfo Violetto’ in packs of 24 seeds available from Botanical Interests.
Did you really think I was going to tempt you with just four varieties of delicious pole beans?
Of course not!
There are hundreds of delightful, exciting, and enticing pole beans to choose from. Discover even more fabulous types of pole beans in our roundup. (coming soon!)
Managing Pests and Disease
It’s time now for everyone’s least favorite part of learning how to grow a new kind of tasty vegetable – the part where we warn you about how things might end up going badly for your plantings.
You sow your seeds, watch them come up and… all is not well.
Well, rest assured, it’s quite possible you might not encounter any serious pest or disease problems with your pole bean crop. But let’s talk about them anyway, just in case.
Forewarned is forearmed, after all! (Alas, that does not make us four-armed, which could really come in handy sometimes. But I digress.)
Herbivores
Fresh pole beans are quite a treat, and we humans aren’t the only ones to think so – with some of our four-legged (or perhaps, four-armed?) neighbors enjoying the foliage as well.
Some of the usual suspects when it comes to garden marauders include deer, rabbits, voles, raccoons, skunks, and groundhogs.
If you are observant, you may be able to find animal tracks in your garden to cue you in as to who the guilty party is, which can help you decide your best course of action.
And sinking fencing six inches under the soil will help keep rodents out.
Insects
Insects can also treat your crop as theirs. To be honest, most times there’s enough to share and you won’t even notice a few leaf bites missing here and there.
But in some situations, things can get out of hand and your crop may be at risk of being damaged.
Let’s consider some of the most likely pest problems.
Aphids
Aphids are a common presence in vegetable gardens, and spotting a few on your Phaseolus vines doesn’t necessarily mean your crop is doomed.
However, you may notice the damage they do before you notice the actual bugs – keep an eye out for curling leaves and trails of sticky, shiny honeydew on foliage.
These small insects tend to congregate on the bottom sides of leaves, where they spend their short lives sucking nutrients from foliage.
Their honeydew trails can allow fungal pathogens to gain a foothold, and to make matters worse, these insects can also spread disease as they munch.
If you find a population of aphids in your veggie patch you may be able to remove them with just a hard spray of water from your garden hose.
Also, if you are cultivating a landscape where pollinators and beneficial insects are welcomed, look for aphid enemies hanging out nearby, such as green lacewing larvae and ladybug larvae. These predators will help keep aphid pest populations under control.
You’ll also want to keep an eye out for any aphids that are bloated and a different color than the others – these have been parasitized by aphid predators like wasps, so you’ll want to leave them be!
If you see these signs of pest populations being balanced in your garden, you can refrain from further efforts and let nature sort things out for you.
Any pesticides you spray will likely harm beneficial insects as well as your pest targets, which can throw off the delicate balance in your garden ecosystem.
Cutworms are a threat to sprouting seedlings. These pests are caterpillars, not actual worms, which tend to spend their days hiding under the soil and then come out at night to feed.
Unless you accidentally dig one up while preparing your garden beds, your first clue to their presence may be a seedling that looks like it got its head lopped off.
The reason for this strange sight is that these annoying little critters like to chew through tender seedling stems.
If you find any cutworms in your soil while preparing your beds, they make lovely gifts to foraging robins hanging out in your garden during the spring!
You don’t have to go digging all the cutworms up though, or wait for the robins to do the job for you.
Have you noticed skeletonized foliage on your Phaseolus vines? The Mexican bean beetle might be the culprit.
This friendly-looking insect that is actually a gardener’s foe. You may mistake this garden pest species, Epilachna varivestis, for a harmless ladybug, and for good reason!
Though orangish colored with black spots instead of red, this beetle is actually a type of ladybug – one that feasts on plants.
Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestis). Photo by Stephen Ausmus, Agricultural Research Service, Wikimedia Commons, via Public Domain.
Mexican bean beetles are more active later in the summer, so it can help if you sow your seeds as early as possible, giving the plants time to get established before these pests are on the prowl.
The larvae usually cause more damage in gardens than the ladybug-esque adults, so look for larvae on the undersides of leaves.
Luckily, it’s easy to tell the beneficial ladybug larvae apart from that of the Mexican bean beetles – while our friendly ladybug larvae look somewhat like tiny dark alligators decorated with bands of bright orange, Mexican bean beetle larvae are yellow and spiky.
Once again, garden pests are also food for friendly beneficials so look for their predators among your veggie patch, such as spined soldier bugs.
A spined soldier bug feasts on Mexican bean beetle larvae. Photo via Agricultural Resource Service, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
As with pests, when it comes to disease, you may have some fungal or viral “guests” take up residency on your plants without your crop suffering.
Hey, it’s nature, there’s a lot of stuff going on at all times, so don’t expect a garden to be a sterile environment. That would just be sad.
On the other hand, it’s also sad to lose a crop to an undetected plant disease, so here’s what you’ll want to look for:
Anthracnose
Are you noticing reddish-brown spots or streaks on your plants’ stems and foliage? If so, anthracnose may be the problem.
You may also see oval-shaped lesions on foliage, stems, pods, and seeds, and darkening leaf veins – though there are some varieties that have purple leaf veins in healthy conditions, so this isn’t the most conclusive sign.
This plant disease is caused by fungi, specifically Colletotrichum species.
If your crop is infected with this disease, it’s best to remove infected plants and destroy them – don’t put them into your compost pile.
Wash your hands and gloves after handling infected plants and disinfect any tools.
Prevention is imperative – and crop rotation is an important step towards prevention since these organisms can overwinter in the soil.
Another means of preventing this disease is to choose resistant varieties, such as ‘Fortex’ and ‘Seychelles.’
Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV)
As its name implies, this viral disease causes mosaic-like patterns on foliage. Other symptoms include stunted plants, distorted leaves, and yellow spots.
This virus can be spread by aphids, but often shows up via infected seed, so make sure to obtain seeds from a trustworthy source.
As with anthracnose, the best treatment if this disease shows up in your garden patch is to remove and destroy infected plants.
You can also prevent this problem by planting virus-free seeds and choosing resistant cultivars, such as ‘Blue Lake Pole,’ ‘Helda,’ ‘Kentucky Blue,’ ‘Kentucky Wonder,’ ‘Rattlesnake,’ and ‘Seychelles.’
Powdery Mildew
If you notice a powdery, grayish substance on the foliage of your plants, you may be dealing with powdery mildew.
This fungal disease is extremely prevalent in gardens, with many different types of fungal organisms targeting different plants, such as roses, apples, and cucurbits such as pumpkins.
There are many things you can do to reduce the risk of this disease, such as ensuring adequate airflow between plants, watering at the ground level, and washing your hands and sterilizing tools in between handling different plants.
After your hard work sowing, trellising, and maintaining your Phaseolus vines, suddenly you’ll notice flowers blooming, and not long after that, you’ll start seeing adorable little pods forming.
In no time at all, these pods will be ready to pick!
But before you slip on your gardening gloves and pull out your harvesting basket, let’s discuss our options, shall we?
Pole beans can be harvested at three different stages:
At the first stage, fresh pods are picked young to be used as snaps, before the seeds inside the pods begin to bulge.
The length of the pods at this stage depends on the cultivar, with some being picked at four or five inches, while others can be harvested as long as eight inches, or even more.
Pick pods continuously throughout the growing season to keep vines producing.
Once the seeds inside the pods have gotten plump, the pods will start to get stringy and fibrous, and they won’t be as pleasant for eating.
This brings us to the second stage, in which the seeds (not yet dry) are removed from the pods before eating, and can be enjoyed fresh or preserved for later use. These are often called “shellies.”
Shellies.
Finally, once the pods dry, we come to the last harvesting stage. The mature seeds inside the dry pods are either dry as well at this stage, or they have started to dry.
To harvest dry pole beans, if possible, collect pods or entire plants when the pods are dry and the seeds rattle inside them.
I say, “if possible” because sometimes weather events might require us to hurry and harvest the dry seeds before all of them are fully dry. But no worries, you can finish them off indoors.
However, do make sure to collect seeds or plants when they aren’t damp – preferably not first thing in the morning when they’re covered with dew, or directly after rainfall.
Some pods will split open during the process, so it can help to hold your bag or basket under the pods as you harvest.
If harvesting entire plants, they can be hung upside down in a dry, dark location to finish drying out.
For those seeds removed from the pods at harvest, spread them out in a single layer in a dry, dark location.
Seeds can be pressed with a fingernail to test for full dryness – any that still have some moisture in them will give, dry ones won’t.
Once the seeds are dry, store them in an airtight container. These can be used dry for cooking or they can be sown to grow future crops.
There you have it, three stages for harvesting pole beans!
Fresh snaps and shellies will keep in the fridge for up to a week, while properly stored dry pole beans will be at their best for one to two years, but they will keep indefinitely.
Preserving
If you aren’t going to eat all of your fresh harvest in the amount of time it’ll keep in the fridge, there are many different ways to preserve fresh pole beans.
Fresh snap pole beans (as well as fresh shelled pole beans) can be frozen, dehydrated, fermented, or canned.
Let’s start with freezing.
If you’d like to freeze a bountiful harvest, first you’ll want to prepare the pods by cleaning, trimming, and cutting them into one- or two-inch pieces.
Writing for the University of Missouri Extension, Barbara Willenberg, Master Gardener and Nutritionist, and Susan Mills-Gray, State Nutrition Specialist, recommend blanching them in boiling water for three minutes, or steam blanching for five minutes.
Blanching slows or stops the action of enzymes in the vegetables and helps preserve flavor, color, and texture in the frozen food.
As soon as the blanching time is up, quickly plunge the beans into an ice cold water bath to halt the cooking process.
Drain the cooled pods, then store them in a freezer-safe container.
Make sure to mark the freeze date on the container – these will keep for six to 12 months in the freezer.
You might also try dehydrating the fresh pods. They can be dehydrated plain, or jazz them up with spices, herbs, or salt before drying, to create a savory and crunchy homegrown snack food.
The last preservation method you might want to consider is fermentation.
This ancient method of prolonging the life of food is much easier than canning since it harnesses the preserving power of lactic-acid-producing bacteria. It’s like pickling, but without the need for a heat source or vinegar.
To make lacto-fermented pole beans, place trimmed and cleaned beans in a jar, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt per quart-size mason jar, fill it with water, and use a pickle weight to keep the ingredients submerged.
There’s no need to make a brine first – the brine will make itself inside the jar!
Place the lid on the jar, but keep it loose in order to allow gasses to escape during the fermentation process.
Speaking of gasses – you’ll also want to place the jar on a plate since the activity of those gasses will cause liquid to spill out.
If water spills out during fermentation, be sure to top off the liquid in the jar to keep the ferment submerged.
Fermentation times will vary depending on how much salt you use and how warm your kitchen is, so do a taste test after a few days. In the meantime, it’s a good idea to stir the surface of the brine once a day to prevent yeasts from growing.
The fermented pole beans should have a tart flavor – when they taste good to you, place the jar in the fridge to slow the fermentation process.
These will keep potentially indefinitely in the fridge as long as you practice good hygiene practices – that means no fingers or used utensils in the jar!
However, the fermented vegetables will lose their crispness over time, so enjoy your lacto-fermented green beans within a few months for best results.
Recipes and Cooking Ideas
Preserving a harvest certainly is fun, but you may just want to devour your crop as soon as it’s picked – so here are a few ideas to get your culinary juices flowing.
Why not start simple? It’s hard to beat the taste of green beans cooked fresh from the garden – and you may find you enjoy them best au naturel!
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a complete meal idea, why not incorporate your garden bounty into a delicious Sriracha tofu vegetable stir fry? You’ll find this recipe at Foodal too.
Alternaria leaf spot, anthracnose, bacterial blight, bacterial brown spot, bean common mosaic virus, bean rust, black root rot, damping off, fusarium root rot, halo blight, timber rot
Love for Lofty Legumes
I hope you now feel confident and ready to grow a bountiful crop of pole beans, but that you also have an even deeper appreciation for these wonderful garden veggies!
Is this your first experience growing this legume? Need help troubleshooting your bean grow setup? Want to show off your creative trellis work? Feel free to post comments, questions, and photos in the comments section below.
Growing spring greens is an easy, satisfying project that takes very little time and very little garden space—you can even grow greens in containers! Homegrown spring greens will be fresher than any you can find at the grocery store or farmer’s market, and you can try varieties that aren’t commonly available, like ‘Red Streaked’ arugula, or ‘Tokyo Bekana’ Chinese cabbage. If this episode inspires you to start some seedlings of your own, check out this article from Ira Wallace about options that will extend your options beyond the basic greens, and this article on growing your own salad mix.
Expert guest: Lucas Holman is director and lead horticulturist at the University of Tennessee’s Wilson County Agriculture Extension office in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Danielle’s Plants
‘Danyelle’ red oakleaf lettuce (credit: New England Seed)
‘Danyelle’ red oakleaf lettuce
Pea shoots
Pea shoots
‘Red Streaked’ arugula (credit: courtesy of Sandy Merrill)
As parents, we all want the best for our children. One of the best ways to encourage your child’s development is by creating an environment that allows for physical and mental growth. Here are five fun activities and ideas you can do at home with your children to do just that.
TP Challenger® 10ft Trampoline
Outdoor play
Outdoor play on a trampoline or on climbing frames can provide an engaging way for a child to develop their physical, sensory, and cognitive skills while having fun. Not only are these activities physically beneficial by helping build strength, co-ordination, and balance, but they also stimulate the senses through movement and tactile sensations from gripping the frame.
Additionally, these activities help with problem-solving as children learn to move through obstacles and improve. For example, climbing frames with different types of puzzles such as vertical bars or hanging rings require them to think creatively about their movements.
At home, this play can help encourage your child’s development by providing an interactive way for parents to engage with their children. It’s also a great way for siblings to bond as they work together on new challenges and discover different routes around a climbing frame.
Allowing children access to outdoor play is an important part of early childhood development. It helps foster essential social skills such as communication, collaboration and problem-solving that will benefit them later in life.
Puzzles & memory games
Puzzles and memory games are great ways to promote children’s development at home. Children can practice problem-solving, critical thinking, and abstract reasoning skills by engaging in these activities. Puzzles can also help kids learn to recognise shapes and patterns, and gain analytical skills. Memory games are beneficial for developing verbal memory, concentration and working memory.
Additionally, such activities can help to strengthen interpersonal relationships between parent and child while providing a fun bonding experience. As they play together in an interactive environment, children learn how to take turns, share ideas and collaborate towards a common goal – all of which can have long-term benefits on their social and emotional development.
Arts & crafts
Arts and crafts have been proven to be highly beneficial for a child’s development. Activities such as drawing, painting, sculpting, and crafting help to promote cognitive development, creativity, fine motor skills, and problem-solving skills.
Additionally, the natural sensory stimulation provided by arts and crafts activities can be calming for children of all ages. Crafting opens the door for creative expression, helping to build children’s self-esteem and confidence.
Participating in arts and crafts can also help to foster positive relationships between children and their families, as parents can join in with these activities at home. Investing in art supplies is an excellent way to encourage creativity among children and contribute to their at-home learning experience.
Reading time
Reading time is a great way to help your child develop at home. Not only does it provide quality bonding time, but it also helps foster reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.
Reading out loud together encourages conversation and creative problem-solving. Additionally, it helps build vocabulary and language skills, which are vital building blocks for success in the classroom.
Furthermore, research has demonstrated that when parents read with their children regularly, they increase the likelihood that their children will become avid readers. Taking time out of busy schedules to make reading a priority sets a positive example for children and helps create a culture of literacy in the home.
Cooking together
Cooking with your child is a lovely way to nurture their development in the comfort of your own home. Studies have shown that cooking with their parents develops a child’s cognitive, social and emotional skills. It encourages healthy eating by introducing them to different foods and flavour combinations, allowing them to explore different tastes and textures.
Cooking together also helps develop a child’s motor skills as they learn how to measure ingredients, mix and stir items, use kitchen utensils properly, and safely handle hot items. In addition, it teaches sequencing skills through following recipes, and problem-solving abilities by making sure all necessary ingredients are available before starting the meal prep. Not only does it promote physical development, but it also fosters creativity through setting the table or decorating dishes.
Moreover, cooking together builds on parent-child relationships by providing an opportunity for conversation while sharing stories about food experiences or family traditions.
TP Explorer Metal Climbing Frame Set with Monkey Bridge Black Edition
Finding ways to encourage your child’s development – both physical and mental – doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. Some of the best activities can be done right in your home. From outdoor playtime and art projects to cooking dinner together or playing puzzles, these simple activities provide excellent opportunities for kids to learn while having fun at the same time.
As it’s gardening season, I’m not going to post tomorrow; however, I want to get through reviewing the books I read in 2022 before the end of 2023!
Let’s roll.
I greatly enjoyed this book. It is beautiful, yet melancholy. Dr. Leo Sharashkin translated this book and adapted it to the US, based on the word of Russian beekeeper Fedor Lazutin, who died tragically young, leaving his wife and children behind.
I met Leo in person at the 2022 Homesteading Life Conference in Missouri. In fact, I bought a second copy of this book from him just so I could have him sign it. Of course, I can’t find it now because I lost it somewhere in our move, but I do own it.
Keeping Bees with a Smile explains the value of bee genetics and raising the proper races for your climate, as well as how to keep bees in hives that fit the way they live and overwinter. It’s fascinating, and an excellent read for any prospective or expert beekeeper.
5/5
I bought three of Philip Chandler’s books before discovering I didn’t particularly like Philip Chandler. He has an anti-Christian bent that is off-putting, and there is an edge to his writing that goes along with that rejection of truth.
That said, he is quite knowledgeable about bees and has forged his own path focused on top bar beekeeping. The information is good, but I couldn’t connect with Chandler as a presenter.
4/5
This is a truly bizarre novel focused on a middle-aged man from a crazy Southern family who is reconnecting with his history and his estranged father while taking a wild goose chase in search of Confederate gold.
It’s an interesting read with a very true-to-life caricature of Southern family life, from obesity to diabetes to secret affairs, plus exuberant love for family even when it’s a wreck. The author is irreverent and somewhat irreligious, with a bent towards social justice while managing to write highly entertaining characters and scenarios.
4/5
If you are a fan of Justin Rhode’s YouTube channel, you will enjoy this book. It has his folksy, jokey style with some useful information on homesteading as a family, plus absolutely lovely photos. It’s rather more personality driven than I prefer, but he’s all about personality.
The tips and ideas inside for raising chickens and growing food should prove useful to newer gardeners and for those who wish to take control of their entire food supply, from meat to vegetables.
You’re getting impatient for spring to arrive. You’ve had enough of winter. Time to move on! Time for spring to arrive.
Mother Nature, however, is on her own schedule. It varies from year to year and she won’t tell you if she decides to change things up with a late season cold snap. Because she can and she will. Don’t mess with Mother Nature. But you can go behind her back—you can jump-start spring by forcing flowering branches to bloom indoors.
Here’s how.
Forcing Branches Indoors
Above: Here’s what a cut cherry blossom branch looks like ten days after it was first brought indoors. Photograph by Justine Hand for Gardenista, from Test Drive: Which Cut Flowers Last Longest?
Cut flowering branches are long-lasting statement makers, suitable for any room of the house. A huge spray of apple blossoms in a large vase can be a focal point on your dining table, and a single magnolia bloom in a hand-me down porcelain cup and saucer on the kitchen counter can transport you back to your childhood.
To force branches indoors, make sure your pruning clippers are clean and sharp. Remember, you are not just picking a few branches for forcing, you are pruning the tree or shrub. If you only want a few branches, take them from inconspicuous areas and stay away from the larger main branches.
Above: If you’re using a bowl-shaped vessel for your flowering branches (pictured are sweet almond branches), insert floral netting, chicken wire, or even a plastic berry box turned upside down for stability. Photograph by Leslie Santarina for Gardenista, from Flower Arrangements 101: A Crash Course for Easy and Elegant Florals.
Once inside, place them in a clean vase filled with fresh water. Try not to place any blooms below the water level if possible and keep the vase out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources. Slicing or scoring the base of the branches will help the branches to take up more water and make them last longer. Change the water every few days.
Above: Sunny forsythia. Photograph by The_Moog via Flickr.
One of the easiest flowers to force is forsythia. It’s as easy as cutting a few branches off the bush, bringing them inside and placing them in water. That’s it. Within a week, you’ll have happy sunny yellow flowers perking up your kitchen table.
If you’re lucky enough to have a pussy willow, you can do the same and have those furry little pussy toes and their delicate tiny yellow flowers in about two weeks.
Today we’re revisiting John Blair’s beautiful garden in Michigan.
I thought Garden Photo of the Day might enjoy seeing some updates on the progress of my pollinator gardens since my previous submissions (John’s Butterfly Garden in Michigan and More From John’s Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden in Michigan). After filling all available sunny space in my original southeastern Michigan gardens, my wife and I decided to move to a beautiful rural area with nine acres in the middle part of southern Michigan in early 2019 with lots of room for new gardens. Since then, we have created three large pollinator gardens focused on blending native plants with our favorite nonnative (and noninvasive) nectar plants. The first garden we made in 2019, the Back garden, is outside of our walkout basement. In 2020, we made the Front garden inside of our driveway circle, and in 2021, we created what we call the “Monolith” garden. There is a sandstone mine about 10 miles away, where we picked out a 10-foot-tall monolithic stone and had our landscaper erect it on our property to be the centerpiece of the new third garden. It has been fun seeing the gardens get more beautiful as they mature each year and thought folks here might like to see.
There is a wide variety of plants used in the three gardens. Here are some of the highlights: Native plants include Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium dubium, Zones 3–9), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, Zones 3–6), butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa, Zones 5–9),Rudbeckiaand goldenrods (Solidagospp.) of several kinds, purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea, Zones 4–8), liatris (Liatris spicata, Zones 3–8), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis, Zones 3–9),Monarda, asters (Symphyotrichum spp.), garden phlox (Phlox paniculata, Zones 4–8), and others. Nonnative favorites used areZinnia(California Giant, State Fair, Profusion, and Zowie Yellow Flame), Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia, annual),Verbena bonariensis (Zones 7–10 or as an annual), ‘Victoria Blue’ salvia (Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’, Zones 8–10 or as an annual), cleome (Cleome hassleriana, annual), Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum × superbum, Zones 5–9), Sedum, black and blue salvia (Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’, Zones 7–11 or as an annual),Veronica, and others.
We are pleased to see numerous pollinators visiting throughout the season, including butterflies, moths, bees of all sorts, and also hummingbirds! We look forward to increasing and expanding the gardens more each year as we are able. We have included a selection of photos from each of the three gardens for you to see. We hope you enjoy!
The monolith in the new front garden makes a dramatic statement, surrounded by clouds of flowers.
The dramatic light at the beginning and end of a day turns any garden in a magical space.
A hummingbird comes in to nectar at a zinnia bloom.
A burbling water feature takes center stage, surrounded by low-growing zinnia hybrids and tall black and blue sage.
A tidy mulched path leads through the lush displays of flowers.
No wonder pollinators love this garden. Look at all the blooms!
It’s hard to beat good-old zinnias for their ease of growth, beautiful colors, and popularity with pollinators.
This section is all shades of blue, purple, and mauve flowers, anchored by Verbenabonariensis, Salvia ‘Victoria Blue’, and cleome.
A rainbow over the garden
A swallowtail butterfly nectars on the flowers of Verbenabonariensis.
A four-legged garden resident sips at the water feature in front of a blazingly bright clump of butterfly weed.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
Mistakes are often the best teacher, but learn from others’ raised bed garden mistakes instead of making your own. Starting a raised bed garden can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Still, there are common mistakes even experienced gardeners can make. Before planting, here are five raised bed garden mistakes to avoid so your gardening journey is successful.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy for more information.
Raised bed garden mistake #1: Not having an overall plan for your space
I’m a big fan of starting small when you start a garden. However, it’s essential to consider the entire space before you install the first raised bed. You don’t need to install all the raised beds at once, but do have a plan for where they will be placed. Raised beds are difficult, if not impossible, to move.
Use the guidelines for designing a raised bed garden and map out where each bed will be before you put the first one in place. Beginning with the end in mind will help ensure your space is as productive and efficient as possible.
Thinking about adding a raised bed? I love my metal garden bed (it comes with watering grids!) from Garden in Minutes.
If you aren’t sure where you want to put your garden beds, consider gardening in grow bags for the first season. Grow bags are an inexpensive way to begin gardening as you determine the best location for your raised bed garden.
Raised bed garden mistake #2: Not making a plan for how you will water your garden
Many problems in the garden can be traced back to incorrect watering: too much, too little, or inconsistent watering. Irregular watering causes seeds and seedlings to dry out, and it stresses established plants inviting pests and diseases.
Inconsistent watering often causes splitting and other problems in fruits and vegetables.
Consider how you will water the garden beds as part of your raised bed garden plan.
Some type of automatic watering system is the best way to water raised beds. Timers can be adjusted to water daily during the warmest months or less often, depending on rain and other weather conditions.
Holes in the tubing ensure each square is watered evenly and effectively.
My favorite drip-line irrigation system is the Garden Grid from Garden In Minutes. I’ve used them since 2017 and added them to all my garden’s raised beds.
Raised bed garden mistake #3: Not making beds deep enough or not using all of the space in the beds
Raised beds should be at least 12 inches deep; 18 inches is even better. The amount of soil in the raised beds limits plant roots. Fill the beds all the way up with the best soil possible (see mistake #4).
For beds deeper than 18 inches, filling up the bottom part of the bed with dried leaves, compost, or other organic matter (Hügelkultur style) is okay, but ensure at least the top 12″-18” is soil.
Filling beds up only halfway causes more temperature fluctuations, which is also stressful for plants.
Raised bed garden mistake #4: Not focusing on your soil
Soil is the most crucial factor in your garden’s success. Healthy soil is rich with oxygen, light, fluffy, friable, and porous.
Soil that is full of life (fungi, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, and earthworms) provides the nutrients that feed the roots of the plants in your garden. As you care for it, good soil will improve over time.
Regularly adding compost to your garden beds makes any soil better. Compost is loaded with vital nutrients that are released slowly into the soil. Other benefits of compost include stimulating growth, moderating soil pH, disease protection, improved soil structure, and water retention.
Using in-bed vermicomposting buckets is another way to improve your soil dramatically. The worms break down scraps and make castings right in the beds. Worm castings are a powerhouse of nutrients with minerals and good microorganisms that improve plant growth as well as pest and disease resistance.
Raised bed garden mistake #5: Planting at the wrong time
Part of learning to garden is learning the characteristics of the plants you want to grow. Vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers have preferred growing temperatures.
Plants are happiest and grow best when planted at the ideal soil temperature and growing conditions.
The best time to plant varies significantly by region. Therefore, a big part of gardening success is learning the unique growing conditions of your area.
Understand your current climate’s challenges and maximize your climate’s benefits.
To learn the best time to plant, ask experienced gardeners in your area, or contact your local extension office. In addition, local nurseries can be an excellent resource for planting dates and information.
If you live in the low desert of Arizona, my blog (you’re reading it right now) is full of resources to help you determine the best time to plant.
PLANTING GUIDE: Each month lists vegetables, fruit & herbs to plant outside & seeds to start indoors.
HARVEST GUIDE: Photos show what may be ready to harvest that month.
Planting dates are for the low desert of Arizona (zone 9b).
Flowers to Plant Outside & Seeds to Start Indoors Each Month in the Low Desert of Arizona. • PLANTING GUIDE: Each month lists annual flowers and bulbs to plant outside & seeds to start indoors. • BLOOMING GUIDE: Photos show what may be in bloom that month.
Seed Box Labels with planting dates for vegetables and flowers
Starting a raised bed garden doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process. If you take the time to plan, you can avoid costly mistakes. Ensure that your beds are deep enough and use the space available. Focus on soil health and learn the best planting times. Now is the perfect time to begin. You’ve got this!
If this post about the raised garden bed mistakes to avoid was helpful, please share it:
Moving furniture is no easy feat. It often involves long days of heavy lifting and plenty of sweat equity. But with the right tips and tricks, you can make your move go much smoother. In this article, we’ll share eight essential moving furniture tips to help ensure that your next big move goes off without a hitch. From packing checklists to how to wrap furniture for moving, these helpful hints will save you time and energy and help you focus on getting settled into your new home. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
Before you even start loading up the truck, it’s important to make a list of all the pieces that will be going in it. This includes big items such as dressers and couches, as well as smaller pieces such as end tables and nightstands. Not only will this list help you keep track of what needs to be moved, but it will also make loading and unloading easier and safer.
Prepare Necessary Packing Supplies
Once you have your list prepared, it’s time to stock up on all the necessary packing supplies. This includes things such as bubble wrap and boxes. Don’t forget about other important items on the list:
Moving blankets
Sofa covers
Furniture straps
Tape
Labels.
All of these are usually available in your local household store, as well as most home improvement stores. But some moving companies may offer them as part of their services. Having these items on hand before moving day will make the process much easier and protect your furniture from getting scratched and damaged.
Clean the Furniture
Before you wrap and pack furniture for moving, it’s important to give it a thorough cleaning. After all, you don’t want to be bringing dirt, debris, or dust into your new home. Make sure to vacuum upholstered pieces and wipe down any hard surfaces.
Dismantle the Furniture When Possible
Whenever possible, you should take apart large pieces before attempting to move them. Not only will this make the pieces lighter and easier to move, but it can also save you from running into tight spots. Despite this step often turning out to be the most time-consuming, it can make a huge difference when relocating. Here are several things you can consider:
Remove the legs from beds and tables
Take the drawers out of dressers and armoires
Unscrew mirrors from your vanity
Unassemble other large items such as entertainment centers
Wrap the Furniture for Protection
Once all the furniture has been cleaned and dismantled, it’s time to wrap each piece for protection. This will help keep them safe from scratches and dents during the moving process. For most pieces, blankets or plastic wrap will do the trick. But you can also use other items such as sofa covers for additional protection. Don’t forget that you can even use newspapers, towels, and other resources that are always at hand.
Hire Movers to Move Furniture
If moving furniture is too much for you, then it may be best to hire movers in Irvine or any other location to do it for you. They’ll handle all the heavy lifting, as well as packing and transporting your pieces safely and efficiently. Plus, they’ll also be experienced in working with large pieces to ensure you don’t have to worry about any of the damage that could possibly occur during a DIY relocation job.
Pack and Wrap Furniture Properly
When loading the truck, make sure to pack and wrap every piece properly. This means placing heavier items on the bottom, as well as securing pieces with moving straps. Plus, be sure to place some blankets between the pieces so they don’t rub and scratch each other.
Measure the Width of Doorways
Before moving a large piece, measure the width of all the doorways. This will help you determine which ones can fit through the doorways and what needs to be disassembled to get them through. Besides, you can also take this time to measure furniture pieces to make sure they’ll fit into the room in your new home.
Clear Doorways and Hallways
Regardless of whether you’re moving furniture yourself or hiring moving professionals, it’s important to make sure the doorways and hallways are clear. This is the best way to ensure that you don’t accidentally damage your walls or any of the furniture while moving them.
Conclusion
Moving furniture can be a daunting task, but following these steps can make the process much easier. From cleaning and dismantling to wrapping and transporting, these tips should help you get the job done right. But if the process is too much for you, then it may be best to leave it to professionals. They’ll be more than happy to help you pack and move your furniture safely and efficiently to make sure that it arrives at your new home in one piece. Follow this moving furniture checklist and your moving process will go as smoothly and safely as possible. Good luck!
Moving furniture is no easy feat. It often involves long days of heavy lifting and plenty of sweat equity. But with the right tips and tricks, you can make your move go much smoother. In this article, we’ll share eight essential moving furniture tips to help ensure that your next big move goes off without a hitch. From packing checklists to how to wrap furniture for moving, these helpful hints will save you time and energy and help you focus on getting settled into your new home. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
Before you even start loading up the truck, it’s important to make a list of all the pieces that will be going in it. This includes big items such as dressers and couches, as well as smaller pieces such as end tables and nightstands. Not only will this list help you keep track of what needs to be moved, but it will also make loading and unloading easier and safer.
Prepare Necessary Packing Supplies
Once you have your list prepared, it’s time to stock up on all the necessary packing supplies. This includes things such as bubble wrap and boxes. Don’t forget about other important items on the list:
Moving blankets
Sofa covers
Furniture straps
Tape
Labels.
All of these are usually available in your local household store, as well as most home improvement stores. But some moving companies may offer them as part of their services. Having these items on hand before moving day will make the process much easier and protect your furniture from getting scratched and damaged.
Clean the Furniture
Before you wrap and pack furniture for moving, it’s important to give it a thorough cleaning. After all, you don’t want to be bringing dirt, debris, or dust into your new home. Make sure to vacuum upholstered pieces and wipe down any hard surfaces.
Dismantle the Furniture When Possible
Whenever possible, you should take apart large pieces before attempting to move them. Not only will this make the pieces lighter and easier to move, but it can also save you from running into tight spots. Despite this step often turning out to be the most time-consuming, it can make a huge difference when relocating. Here are several things you can consider:
Remove the legs from beds and tables
Take the drawers out of dressers and armoires
Unscrew mirrors from your vanity
Unassemble other large items such as entertainment centers
Wrap the Furniture for Protection
Once all the furniture has been cleaned and dismantled, it’s time to wrap each piece for protection. This will help keep them safe from scratches and dents during the moving process. For most pieces, blankets or plastic wrap will do the trick. But you can also use other items such as sofa covers for additional protection. Don’t forget that you can even use newspapers, towels, and other resources that are always at hand.
Hire Movers to Move Furniture
If moving furniture is too much for you, then it may be best to hire movers in Irvine or any other location to do it for you. They’ll handle all the heavy lifting, as well as packing and transporting your pieces safely and efficiently. Plus, they’ll also be experienced in working with large pieces to ensure you don’t have to worry about any of the damage that could possibly occur during a DIY relocation job.
Pack and Wrap Furniture Properly
When loading the truck, make sure to pack and wrap every piece properly. This means placing heavier items on the bottom, as well as securing pieces with moving straps. Plus, be sure to place some blankets between the pieces so they don’t rub and scratch each other.
Measure the Width of Doorways
Before moving a large piece, measure the width of all the doorways. This will help you determine which ones can fit through the doorways and what needs to be disassembled to get them through. Besides, you can also take this time to measure furniture pieces to make sure they’ll fit into the room in your new home.
Clear Doorways and Hallways
Regardless of whether you’re moving furniture yourself or hiring moving professionals, it’s important to make sure the doorways and hallways are clear. This is the best way to ensure that you don’t accidentally damage your walls or any of the furniture while moving them.
Conclusion
Moving furniture can be a daunting task, but following these steps can make the process much easier. From cleaning and dismantling to wrapping and transporting, these tips should help you get the job done right. But if the process is too much for you, then it may be best to leave it to professionals. They’ll be more than happy to help you pack and move your furniture safely and efficiently to make sure that it arrives at your new home in one piece. Follow this moving furniture checklist and your moving process will go as smoothly and safely as possible. Good luck!
The cottage garden tradition is one that is peculiarly English in character. The old-world charm of the cottager’s plot owed little or nothing to any of the major developments in garden design or landscape architecture. The English cottage garden just ‘happened’ and its chief attraction lies in the effect of ordered chaos that it produces.
Like the wild gardens and herbaceous borders of William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, the cottage garden is, to a great extent ‘natural’ but, as in the former instances, nature needed a good deal of taming and direction before the desired effect of studied carelessness could be achieved.
The heyday of the cottage garden covered a period that roughly coincided with the Victorian era, give or take a decade or so at either end. Its main characteristics were color and fragrance coupled with a joyous abandon that suggested nature running riot.
It had few permanent features of real importance—no stone figures or towering conifers, no exotic trees and shrubs, while for hedges, the quickthorn, beech or hornbeam of adjacent fields and farmland could normally be used.
From sheer economic necessity, most cottagers had to be self-supporting in fruit and vegetables. Families were large so that it is not surprising that a major part of the available garden was devoted to these food crops.
But this did not prevent the cottager or his wife from creating the traditional mass of color with what remained. He would often grow, as well, flowers for picking and herbs for the kitchen in the vegetable plot. Many of our favorite present-day flowers achieved their initial popularity in the cottagers’ gardens. Pinks, wallflowers, sweet williams, stocks, pot marigolds, and love-in-a-mist are a few that come first to mind. There are countless others.
Today, the true cottagers are rapidly disappearing. They move out of their cottages as soon as they can into more easily-run flats and houses. Their place is being taken by a new kind of cottage-dweller, the week-end countrymen and country commuters, for whom the peace of the countryside holds great attractions.
We cannot put the clock back, but there is no reason why the contemporary cottage garden should not reflect the old-world charm of its predecessors while making use, at the same time, of the new and improved varieties of older plants as well as some of those plants that have become more recently available.
Simplicity must always be the keynote of the well-designed cottage garden. This can be best achieved by a well‑ chosen mixture of suitable plants, by unpretentious design and accessories and by the use of old-fashioned climbing plants to cover walls and fences.
Spring
Spring is a season of major interest in the cottage garden, beginning with the emergence of the snowdrops and winter aconites. The yellow buttercup-like flowers of the latter, with their attractive green ruffs, start to open during the first mild spells in January. Snowdrops, which come a little later, look best naturalized in grass. A position under old fruit trees—often to be found in the cottage garden—suits them best. Both aconites and snowdrops seed freely if left undisturbed.
These will be closely followed by the early daffodils and many kinds of primula. Although few species of the latter were known to the cottagers by their proper names, surviving specimens of many present-day gems were found growing in cottage gardens by plant-lovers interested in their survival.
`Kinlough Beauty’, a bright pink hybrid of Primula juliana, is one of these. It was formerly known as ‘Irish Polly’. Its polyanthus-type blooms would never win prizes for size, but are attractive and have a central blotch of white surrounding a yellow eye.
`Cottage Maid’, with more restrained coloring, is somewhat similar. There are also a number of lavender and pink colored primroses, formerly widely grown and including `Refine des Violettes’, ‘Sweet Lavender’ and ‘Rosy Morn’ that are becoming increasingly rare in cultivation.
Even more typical, perhaps, of the cottage garden are the richly-colored, gold-faced polyanthus. Fortunately, it is still comparatively easy to obtain seed of these which can be sown in a cool greenhouse in February to produce full-sized flowering plants for putting out in autumn, or sown out of doors in May. The plants from the later sowing will be a good deal smaller and only a proportion will produce flowers the following spring. The true gold-laced polyanthus or primrose is a deep mahogany-red with petals narrowly margined with gold.
One early-flowering spring shrub that was widely grown in cottage gardens was our native mezereon, Daphne mezereum. It still retains its former popularity and although sometimes short-lived, provides one of the most welcome sights and scents of winter with its bright carmine flowers, smelling of hyacinths, that cluster the bare twigs and branches in February. Less often seen is the white form, alba.
Daphne mezereum is easily raised from seed, if you can rescue the red fruits—which, incidentally are poisonous to humans—from the birds. It is a good idea to have a few seedling plants
1 coming along, to act as replacements
2 when the older plants die off.
There is a whole group of tulips that have earned the suffix ‘cottage’. These cottage tulips, which are tall-stemmed with pointed petals, flower in May a little in advance of the Darwins. They have, however, no more special claim to be grown on the cottage plot than any of the others, especially the early-flowering species such as the lady tulip, Tulipa clusiana, the brilliant scarlet T. fosteriana ‘Red Emperor’ or the beautifully-formed waterlily tulip, T. kaufmanniana.
Crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) is a spring bulb formerly closely associated with the cottage garden that has been elevated out of its former humble station by its present-day scarcity value. Crown imperials seem to thrive on neglect and some of the finest clumps are found in untidy corners of old gardens in places where the fork and hoe seldom penetrate.
They are certainly neither as common, nor as varied in color as they were when they formed a major component of almost every seventeenth century flower arrangement, if paintings of the period are anything to go by. Today, our choice is restricted to yellow, and orange, although there were once also white, bluish-purple and spotted varieties.
So many of these former cottage garden flowers have won universal esteem that we are apt to overlook their humble origins until their popular names bring them to mind. This is true of the lungworts or pulmonarias, that cottagers grew and delighted in under a variety of titles that included boys and girls, soldiers and sailors, spotted dog and hundreds and thousands.
These are all different names for Pulmonaria officinalis whose spotted leaves and pink-and-blue flowers make their appearance towards the middle or end of March. Today, we have the choice of several garden species: P. angustifolia with its sky-blue flowers and narrow green leaves; P. rubra which, in favored situations will open its coral blooms as early as January and P. saccharata which, with its white-marbled green leaves and rose-pink to blue flowers comes closest to the older species. All the lungworts make first-class ground cover. They thrive equally well in sun or partial shade.
Summer
As spring progresses towards summer, the cottage garden provides a continuous succession of color and fragrance. Wallflowers, often assuming their true perennial character and coming up year after year are followed by the sweet clove-scented dianthus—the cottage pinks and clove carnations.
Here again the present-day gardener has a much wider choice where the latter plants are concerned. Interest in the old laced pinks has revived and forms are now obtainable that flower continuously throughout the summer. `London Poppet’ is white, tinged with pink and laced with ruby-red; `Laced Hero’ has large white flowers laced with purple and a central eye of chocolate-brown.
The old garden pinks have a shorter flowering season, but give a generous display of scented blossom. `Mrs Sinkins’, a favorite white of long standing is still among the most widely-grown of these; there is now a pink ‘Mrs Sinkins’ as well. Other good whites include ‘Iceberg’ and ‘White Ladies’ ; `Inchmery’ is a delicate shell pink of outstanding quality while ‘Priory Pink’ has a distinctive mauve tinge to its flowers.
The name of Allwood Brothers and pinks are practically synonymous and the modern gardener can call upon the great number of hardy hybrid pinks (allwoodii) for whose development and introduction Allwoods were responsible. These combine all the virtues (including fragrance) of the older forms with great vigor and a flowering season that lasts from spring to early autumn.
Herbs
Among the major attractions of the cottage garden in summer are the fragrant herbs that provide material for sachets and potpourris, as well as for use in the kitchen. Lavender, of course, is the most widely-grown of these. Lavandula silica is the old English or Mitcham lavender, distinguished for its fresh, strong fragrance. Today, there is a wide choice of cultivars of differing habit and color but none of these can quite compare with the old-fashioned kind where perfume is concerned. `Munstead Dwarf’ and `Twickel Purple’ are compact in habit with spikes of a really intense blue; L. s. rosea is an unusual lilac-pink variety, while the dwarf form Hidcote’ is the deepest purple-blue of all the lavenders.
Rosemary, as well as being a useful seasoning for roast chicken or veal makes a decorative small garden shrub. Very old plants can still be found growing by cottage doors; planted originally for convenience of picking and now serving in a more ornamental capacity. Rosmarinus officinalis is the common culinary kind but for more decorative effects, there are a number of others, including that unusual erect form, ‘Miss Jessup’s Variety’ which makes a slender grey-green column that is studded with pale blue flowers in April and May. `Benenden Blue’, from Corsica with very narrow leaves and deep blue flowers has an interesting, compact, white-flowered form.
Artemisia abrotanum, known variously as lad’s love, southernwood and old man, is a herb that must have found a place in almost every cottage garden. Its aromatic foliage has always been enjoyed by country folk and we find it planted in strategic positions, at the junction of paths or by the kitchen door, where a sprig can be plucked in passing and crushed to release its unmistakable aroma. For the modern cottage garden there are several other species of artemisia that now share in the popularity engendered by the current vogue for grey and silver-leaved plants
A. arborescens is noteworthy for the delicate filigree of its silvered leaves; A. nutans is a compact and elegant shrub with finely divided foliage silver-white color. Good for associating with them are some of the perennial forms, such as the lacy-leaved `Lambrook Silver’ and ‘Silver Queen’ with its narrow willow-like foliage.
All the culinary and medicinal herbs, including mint, thyme, chervil, borage, sage, bergamot and angelica are very suited to the cottage garden and the plantsman can enjoy them even more by growing decorative garden forms in the beds and borders or, where thyme and some of the mints are concerned, in crevices in paths and paving.
There are several mints deserving of a place in the ornamental garden. The variegated apple mint and the prostrate peppermint-scented Mentha requienii, whose dense mat of dark green foliage comes to no harm when trodden underfoot, can both be used in this manner.
Thymes are obtainable in great variety. The soft lavender flowers of the lemon thyme, Thymus citriodorus `Silver Queen’ make an attractive contrast to the silver-variegated foliage. For planting in paving the prostrate forms of T. serpyllum are useful. One of the most interesting of these is T. s. lanuginosus, which quickly forms a dense carpet of grey woolly foliage.
It would seem that almost any plant with the suffix ‘sweet’ has affiliations with the cottage garden. Sweet peas, sweet williams, sweet sultan and sweet rocket are just a few of the cottage flowers that have earned this name, probably because fragrance plays so important a part in determining the cottager’s choice of plants.
Roses
It is doubtful whether he would have had much time for many of the modern, practically scentless roses in spite of their great size and exquisite form. Sweet briar, moss and cabbage roses would have been more to his liking and it is not surprising that many of the old roses that are today enjoying such a welcome renaissance, should have been rescued from oblivion by their discovery in these surroundings.
On the walls the cottager’s choice might well have been the great maiden’s blush, with its grey-green foliage and quilted pink blooms, or another old favorite ‘Caroline Testout’, with its loose-petalled deep pink cabbage flowers. Climbers On the walls of a cottage, there is no need for formality. Climbing plants can be permitted to run riot and intertwine one with the other. This will particularly suit clematis such as Clematis montana rubens and many of the vigorous jackmanii types. The yellow stars of Jasminum nudiflorum will brighten the walls in winter and in summer the more rampant and sweetly-scented J. officinale, the sweet jessamine, will take over.
Other typical cottage climbers are the sweetly perfumed honeysuckles, whose modern garden forms are in striking contrast to our native woodbine, and Lathyrus latifolius, the everlasting pea which lacks the fragrance of the annual varieties, but which puts on a magnificent show each year.
Upkeep of the typical cottage garden should not entail a great deal of work. Normally, the plants are so closely packed together that weeds get little opportunity to take hold. For the contemporary cottage, grass is almost certain to play a more important part than formerly but generally speaking, the lawns will be relatively small and it should be possible to maintain it in first-rate condition at all times.
As a long term member of our maintenance team Larry has been serving Farmside’s clients for 15 years. He shared with us that his proudest moment with our company is the work that our team does every year to clean up the Veteran’s Day memorial at Woodbourne park.
“It reminds us that our freedom came with a price and we honor that by keeping their memories with us.”
He likes getting to spend time with family on the weekends and the way his team at Farmside keeps each other in check on the job site to provide the client with the best services we can. We are so grateful to have Larry as a part of the Farmside family.
C. alba ‘Elegantissima’ is a shrub for Zones 3 to 8. It is a cultivated variety of the Siberian or Tatarian species and has the classic bright red stems one would expect, but that’s not all!
The foliage is variegated and consists of green leaves with cream margins. Clusters of small, fragrant white blossoms are an elegant complement.
See our guide to growing Tatarian dogwoods for more details. (coming soon!)
7. Elizabeth Lustgarten
C. kousa ‘Elizabeth Lustgarten’ is a cultivated variety of the Asian kousa dogwood for Zones 5 to 9.
Kousas bloom late in the spring, are exceptionally hardy, and have showy petal-like bracts that are more pointed than rounded, making them appear almost star-like.
This cultivated variety is a weeping tree with artfully cascading branches and white flowers.
Bright reddish-pink blossoms precede the emergence of the tri-color green, pink, and white foliage of Firebird™, C. florida ‘Fircomz,’ a tree for Zones 5 to 9.
Fall brings white drupes and leaves that bronze to burgundy, purple, and red hues. And in winter, the classic red stems catch the eye across snowy landscapes.
Mature dimensions are five to six feet tall and wide.
Muskingum®, C. racemosa‘Muszam,’ is a cultivated variety of native gray dogwood with a compact, ground-covering stature. It grows in Zones 4 to 7.
This shrub’s emergent spring foliage is red. It turns gray-green by summer. Starlike, white blossoms appear in clusters, and the bark is gray instead of brown.
Neon Burst™, C. alba ‘Byboughen,’ is a shrub for Zones 2 to 7 with vivid yellow summer foliage.
It’s a cultivated variety of the Tatarian or Siberian dogwood known for its bright red stems. To keep them looking their best, prune out the oldest and showcase the youngest.
The Pacific dogwood, C. nuttallii, is also known as mountain or Canadian dogwood.
It’s a western native species suited to cultivation in Zones 7 to 9 that offers what flowering dogwood (C. florida) does for the country’s eastern side.
This species grows as a tree with horizontal, tiered branches and upturned tips.
The spring foliage is green. Showy flowers have white petal-like bracts and provide the classic layered look of an eastern C. floridaspecies or cultivated variety.
Bright red or orange drupes complement the fall foliage’s orange, red, and yellow tones.
This species tolerates black walnut juglone toxicity and clay soil. Mature dimensions are 15 to 40 feet tall with a spread of 10 to 25 feet.
15. Pagoda
The native pagoda dogwood, C. alternifolia, grows as a shrub or tree in Zones 4 to 8.
It has the classic horizontal, tiered branches with upturned tips we’ve come to identify with native varieties.
Clusters of small, starry white blossoms adorn the branches atop the green foliage in spring.
Unlike most dogwoods, which have leaves opposite one another, pagoda has alternating leaves, hence the Latin species name, “alternifolia.”
See our guide to growing pagoda dogwoodsfor more details. (coming soon!)
16. Red Osier
Native red osier, C. sericea, formerly C. stolonifera, is a stunning red-stemmed shrub from which many cultivars are derived. It grows in Zones 2 to 8.
In the spring, clusters of small, starlike, white blossoms and green leaves decorate the landscape.
And in winter, the young stems are brilliant red and create a sensation in a snowy landscape. Trimming out older branches to promote new growth ensures a colorful display.
Tolerant of wet conditions and clay soil, this species grows to heights of eight to 12 feet and widths of eight to 10 feet.
Roughleaf dogwood, C. drummondii, is a native tree for Zones 5 to 8 with rough textured gray-brown bark that shows exceptionally well in snowy winter scenes.
In spring, it boasts clusters of small, starry white flowers and green leaves. Fall deepens the foliage to burgundy, purple, and red. White drupes accent the rich hues.
C. kousa ‘Satomi’ is a cultivated variety of Asian kousa dogwood with outstanding features for every season. It grows in Zones 5 to 9.
Late spring flowers blush with showy pink, pointed bracts atop lush dark green foliage, adorning the graceful, horizontal branches with layers of cheerful color.
Scarlet Fire® akaC. kousa ‘Rutpink,’ is a kousa cultivar for Zones 5 to 9 developed at Rutgers University. Its richly saturated spring and fall color is fabulous.
The late spring display consists of pointed bracts in a show-stopping shade of fuchsia-pink.
When the foliage sprouts, it has a purplish cast before maturing to dark green.
Pinkish-red bumpy drupes follow the blossoms, along with red and orange autumn leaves. And in winter, the grayish-brown exfoliating bark continues to command attention.
Exceptionally tolerant of cold, heat, pests, and disease, this cultivar is a stand-out specimen that achieves mature dimensions of 20 to 25 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide.
Venus® (Cornus ‘Kn30 8’) is a remarkable cultivated variety for Zones 6 to 9. It’s a hybrid of three cultivars: C. kousa ’Chinensis’ x C. nuttalii ’Goldspot’ x C. kousa ’Rosea.’
This cultivar is part of the Jersey Star® series produced at Rutgers University. It is exceptionally hardy, highly resistant to anthracnose and powdery mildew, and drought tolerant.
This robust shrub or tree has showy, white flowers (bracts) six inches across, lush dark green foliage, and tiered, horizontal branching for a spectacular late spring display.
Drupes are kousa-style, red, round, and bumpy.
This variety reaches a mature height of 14 to 18 feet, and a width of 18 to 24 feet.
23. Yellow Twig
Yellow or golden twig, C. sericea Flaviramea,’ is a cultivated variety of red osier with bright yellow stems instead of red ones that delivers year-round ornamental value in Zones 3 to 8.
Pruning out old branches helps to maintain optimal color.
In the spring, enjoy clusters of starry, white blossoms against a backdrop of dark green leaves. By fall, white berries appear, and the foliage deepens to burgundy, purple, and red tones.
These shrubs tolerate clay and wet soil. Mature heights are six to eight feet tall with an equal spread.
Whether you prefer trees, shrubs, or subshrubs, you’re sure to find new favorites in this list of 23 best dogwood varieties.
For best results, choose species and cultivars suited to your growing zone.
Plant them in locations with full sun to part shade and well-draining soil, and allow ample room to achieve mature dimensions without overcrowding.
In addition to their decorative qualities, like lighting up springtime gardens with blossoms, summer with lush leaves, fall with drupes and bronzed foliage, and winter with striking bare stems, dogwoods are a dependable source of food and shelter for wildlife.
Do you grow dogwoods? Which are your favorites? Share your answers in the comments section below.
“One of the major problems with salesbros is that they think “always be closing” is a mantra to live by because they didn’t understand the point of Glengarry Glen Ross, which is that salespeople are nightmares. That’s why there’s always some silly pop-up chat at the bottom of every website now. No, Pamela — if that is your real name — I don’t want live assistance booking my yoga class. You are hogging valuable screen real estate.
This is some real tragedy of the commons s—. The web is becoming a miserable experience because some salesbro who is trying to meet his KPIs is doing stuff to marginally increase the number of paying customers. (And you know, the h— with the rest of us!) The more each site tries to create its own little walled garden, the less valuable the open web becomes.
I suspect this has gotten more common lately because of privacy concerns. See, a change to EU privacy laws means it’s not as easy to track users around the web; Apple’s privacy initiatives on its phone similarly make this harder. In the case of publishers, I assume the company is trying to create a richer ad profile for me to better compete with Facebook and Google. Plus, you know, maybe they can sell my email as part of a targeted marketing list. So what we’re looking at here is creating a worse user experience in order to pursue a variety of scummy money-making schemes.
There are no real public spaces on the internet
And that sucks because there are no real public spaces on the internet. Here in reality, I can f— off to a park and hug a tree and sit on a bench and do stuff without ads, without anyone trying to track me, and without having to pay a dime. There was a time within my memory when people tried to make websites feel like semipublic places — you could hang out on someone’s cool blog and enjoy yourself. Sure, there might be a banner ad, but that’s like paying a buck for coffee and then just sitting in a diner all day with free refills.
The semipermeable paywall? I understand that. S—, if I’m reading more than 10 of your articles a month, I probably should subscribe. Fair’s fair, and writers have to eat just like everyone else. But I’m starting to feel like I’m being strip-mined for data, and for what? Google already has access to my email. Why on earth does it need more of my information? How much more of my life does this behemoth want to surveil?
I don’t know, man. I was on the internet in the 1990s, and I remember when people just made stuff for fun — as a gift to other people. It seems like there’s less and less of that spirit remaining, and it’s why the internet sucks now. It’s why I have to append “reddit” to my Google searches to avoid getting SEO glurge — the for-profit stuff drowns out everything else. It’s why people are using DALL-E for newsletter header images to make sure their newsletter gets a bigger card in a social media feed — because it doesn’t matter what the image looks like as long as it exists. It’s why people intentionally put errors in their TikToks to juice engagement — because all the people commenting to tell you you’re wrong boost you in the algorithm. This is the bad place!”
This is something I’ve noticed. You used to be able to find lots of great information by doing a simple web search. Now most of the articles that come up are SEO-based garbage with little new or useful information.
Many of the good blogs are dead and gone and many of the new ones are just things like “Andrew’s Garden” or something like that, that is just a big mess of third-world created articles about electric lawnmowers with Amazon links.
Pinterest used to be a good-looking site where you could gather ideas onto boards. Now it’s loaded with third-world garbage. Great photos that then link to spammy sites.
There’s a definite balance between trying to make stuff because you love it, and trying to make some money. It’s a tension. I don’t take sponsorships on my YouTube channel because I don’t want to spam it up. Instead, I sell my books as a way to monetize what I do. If you love my videos, maybe you’ll send me a few bucks by buying a book.
I still get some AdSense revenue, which I am ambivalent about, but I don’t advertise Chinese LED lights, garden apparel, VPN companies or electric bicycle manufacturers, no matte how many requests they send my way.
On this site, I do have Mediavine ads running, though I have often considered ditching them. If my book sales get high enough to make me now need the extra few hundred bucks a month, I probably will get rid of them one day.
Mostly, I write and share videos about gardening for free, and trust that I will get enough book sales to keep us afloat. Thus far, it’s worked just fine. I’ll also sell tickets to the occasional event for those who want to meet up in person.
I hate advertising in general, and I hate most companies. Yet I love people and love gardening, and I love to encourage people to grow food for their families.
We could make a lot more money if we went hard-core on marketing. There are a few schemes I have considered, which might free us up financially, but haven’t pulled the trigger on.
Maybe I’ll do a crazy marketing blitz at some point to pay the house off – I’m not immune to the draw – but my favorite thing is to just share our gardening with a like-minded community of people.
Chasing every penny has wrecked the internet – if we can avoid being part of the problem, that would be the best.
Heck, I turned off pop-ups on this site, even though I got a ton more newsletter signups back when I had them.
Still… if I went full-tilt, I could buy a Mustang. Or, even better, a Kubota!
Can you imagine how easy it would be to move mulch around with a tractor? I could even put a wood chipper on the power takeoff and make my own mulch!
PLEASE BUY WHATEVER I AM SELLING ON THIS SEO-OPTIMIZED WEBSITE OKAY THX
Heheh.
I’m headed to the garden. Thank you all for being here.
I am lucky. Gardening has always been a slightly guilty pleasure for me. I used to think that it was because I never had enough time in the garden. Now I am positive that I would feel the same way even if I had all the time in the world.
As a little more light and a bit more warmth creep into the days, I steal bits and pieces of time to sneak outside with Arthur the cat and do garden chores. The earth is cold and the garden is a mess, and I can just see the tops of the crocus and daffodil shoots emerging from the ground. The sins of last October have come back to haunt me—I never finished fall clean up. Fortunately, hat gives me a good excuse to go out now. While I work, Arthur supervises, chases squirrels and dreams about the glorious day last summer when he faced down the giant groundhog that passes daily through the yard. Both of us are in the rejuvenation mode
Late winter is a good time for pruning. My perpetually overgrown wisteria has been infiltrated by the equally rambunctious tendrils of Japanese honeysuckle. The wisteria vines are naked while the honeysuckle remains evergreen, so this is a perfect opportunity to pull out the latter. Of course it doesn’t really matter how much honeysuckle I pull out, because it always comes back. At least this way it won’t engulf the garage. The wisteria will take care of that function on its own.
I have never liked ordinary Rose of Sharon shrubs. The double white form is lovely, and I have many friends who dote on their garden variety Roses of Sharon. My friends will never convert me. Sad to say, I inherited several healthy Roses of Sharon from the previous owner of my house. I am sure that I owe this legacy to the fact that I committed some unspeakable crime in a previous life. At any rate, the only way to render my Roses of Sharon halfway attractive is to keep them from getting leggy. I prune them with relish.
The hedgerow between my property and my northern neighbor’s lot was completely overgrown when we arrived here two years ago. Each spring it has gotten better and I have achieved more control. The battle is not yet won, however. There is still a bumper crop of bittersweet wending its way through the privet. With no green leaves to hamper my efforts, I can seize this pernicious vine and pull it down.
Last summer a number of Tiger Swallowtails made it their business to beat a path to my yellow butterfly bush. If I cut the bush back now, chances are I will have a bumper crop of blossoms next summer. That in turn should make my yard into a virtual butterfly sanctuary.
When I am not pruning I turn my attention to the pressing problems of mulch and debris. The winter mulch should remain on the beds awhile longer, but it can be tidied up with a rake. Debris, including the skeletons of last year’s annuals and perennials, the sordid little piles of unraked leaves and the array of twigs, seedpods, etc. scattered over the property, are in the process of being consigned to the composter. Eventually this too will become mulch.
Now is also the perfect time to actually create the new beds that I failed to establish last fall. Ridding myself of recycling at a furious pace, I alternate layers of newspaper with layers of compost in the designated spaces. Eight weeks from now the process of decomposition will have started. After the last frost I will plant perennials through this cover. By next fall the soil should be friable enough to allow bulb planting.
I have been looking at rose catalogs since right after Christmas. Now it is time to actually look at my existing rose bushes. All appear to have survived the winter, though one looks questionable. There are many canes on all the roses that are obviously dead. It’s a good idea to clip them off now before the plants even think of breaking dormancy. As I inspect and clip, I take stock of the shapes of my bushes. Those that are too gangly or misshapen or have too many crossed canes get a more thorough pruning. This year I vow to buy a few elegant metal tuteurs for the gangliest of the roses. You can certainly get three pieces of a bamboo for next to nothing at the garden center and tie them into a tripod for the same purpose, but somehow a tuteur is much better for personal self-esteem. The roses don’t care, but some days I do.
So I have begun the annual ritual of setting things to rights. I come in from outside with my nose running, my hands dirty, and my cheeks ruddy. Arthur comes rocketing through the door and settles into an upholstered chair, warming his fur in the light of the nearby lamp. The calendar still says winter, but we have marked the beginning of spring.
When it comes to decorating your home in a contemporary style, you may have considered a number of design elements for your room – but have you thought about the impact that can be made by choosing more modern skirting boards?
The right installation can help you to finish your room and create a cohesive, stunning look that will attract attention and tie everything together.
Hands fitting the baseboard to a bright wall
Choosing the right skirting board design
As skirting boards are designed to finish rooms, there will be specific design elements that will suit modern interiors over more traditional ones. This means you need to choose the right ones to meet the needs of your home. It’s a good idea to take some time to look at the different options on offer, and consider multiple designs before making a decision.
With this in mind, here are three characteristics to look out for when browsing skirting board designs.
1. Profile
Skirting boards are available in an array of materials, including medium-density fibreboard (MDF), timber, finger-jointed pine hardwood, oak and more. MDF is the most popular choice, as it can be expertly finished in a wide range of moulded styles with little fuss. The right manufacturer may even be able to custom-finish your skirting if you have something specific in mind.
Right now, grooved profiles are particularly on trend for modern homes. Skirting board designs that feature more squared grooves are the ones to watch. Ogee skirting profiles are the most commonly used in UK homes, but other modern options include:
Pencil round (or bullnose)
Lamb’s tongue
Chamfer
Torus
Ovolo
Working with a skirting board manufacturer like Skirting King can help you to get the exact profile you are looking for.
2. Skirting board size
A key feature of modern skirting boards is the size, as these tend to be significantly smaller than traditional alternatives.
This is typically because newer buildings have smaller rooms in both dimension and height. This means that modern skirting boards will need to promote a more minimalistic design, while also showing character to make them visually appealing.
The standard size of a skirting is 120 mm high and 18 mm thick, and this is the perfect size for many modern UK homes.
3. Colour
Of course, the style and design of the room that you are upgrading will dictate the right option for the colour of your skirting boards, but modern installations are no longer restricted to the traditional white paint finish.
While white is still classic and the go-to option for many modern interiors, there has been an increase in popularity for shades of grey and even darker tones for modern skirting boards. In addition, it’s not easy to find natural wood alternatives unless they are finished in darker colours.
Your home, your way
You may want your home to look stunning and have a cohesive contemporary style, but it’s no secret that design rules are made to be broken. No one can design your room for you, but companies like Metres Direct skirting boards can certainly help you make the right decision and find the best modern skirting boards for your needs.
There are people who voluntarily spend most of their lives indoors, shut away from sunlight, fresh air and anything greener than the occasional potted plant. Those people probably do not feel the rhythm of the seasons, but I do. In the fall, as the days shorten, I find myself turning inward. By the winter solstice, it is hard to get out of bed in the morning. The whole world, at least from my perspective, gets logy and a bit cranky.
Now the seasonal polarity has been reversed, and I feel myself being pulled from the relative gloom of my house out into the sunlight. One of the neighbors, who is an absolute seasonal bellwether, has begun setting out multiple pots of daffodils, tulips and cyclamen. My eye is drawn to her front garden, hungry for the sight of something colorful.
This seasonal pull has led me to think about sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus). Now is the perfect time to contemplate these wonderfully fragrant plants, because they thrive under cool spring conditions. Many of the catalogs and reference books note that they should be sown directly into the ground. I am conventional in many ways, but I have flouted this conventional wisdom for several years now with good results. I start my sweet peas indoors in individual pots around April Fool’s Day, and set the seedlings out as soon as the soil becomes workable. That way I can be assured of getting my sweet peas, even in years when spring only lasts a few days.
As a child the only sweet peas I knew of were the garden refugees that grew semi-wild on the edges of fields near our summer cottage. They were pink and virtually unscented, but they added great interest to my bouquets of Queen Anne’s Lace and wild chicory. I know now that those sprawling sweet peas were probably Lathyrus latifolius. I have seen lots of it in the country, but never in anyone’s garden.
Every thirty or forty years there is a renewal of interest in “old fashioned” gardens or “cottage gardens.” When this happens, annual sweet peas also enjoy renewed popularity. If the catalogs are any indication, gardeners have fallen under their spell of sweet peas once again.
The ancestors of modern sweet peas flourished in southern Italy. They arrived in England about 1699, courtesy of Brother Franciscus Cupani, a Sicilian monk who sent seeds of a fragrant purple/maroon bi-colored variety to Dr. Robert Uvedale, an English schoolmaster of his acquaintance. At a time when sweet smells were in short supply, sweet peas caught on, despite their relatively weak stems and small flowers.
The Lathyrus saga took a big bold turn in the nineteenth century when Henry Eckford, a Scot living in England bred a large-flowered or grandiflora strain. These Eckford hybrids had it all–color, fragrance and a tendency to produce interesting “sports” or spontaneous genetic mutations. One of those sports, with attractive wavy petals, occurred in 1899 at Althorp, hereditary estate of the Earls of Spencer and childhood home of the late Princess Diana. The Althorp sport, ‘Countess Spencer’, was, like the Princess, beautiful and celebrated. Eventually the Countess was crossed with other grandifloras to produce the ‘Spencer’ strain of sweet peas, which remains popular one hundred years later.
One of my favorite seed suppliers, Select Seeds (860-684-9310 or www.selectseeds.com) carries a Spencer mix that includes red, pink, purple, mauve and blue blossoms. The flowers are large (2-inches across), with the characteristic wavy-edged petals. If the Spencer sweet peas have any downside, it is that they flower somewhat later than other varieties. Those who live in areas with brief springs and long sticky summers may not be successful with the Spencers.
I like the sound of the ‘Winter Elegance’ hybrids. They are not as big and flashy as the Spencers, but they bloom earlier, which may work better in my suburban microclimate. I plan to stake them, or train them on a small trellis, or on teepees of bamboo canes, and enjoy them in the weeks before high humidity makes both sweet peas and humans lethargic and unproductive.
Henry Eckford’s firm produced many fine hybrids around the turn of the nineteenth century, and some are still in commerce. This year I am trying Eckford’s ‘Black Knight’. Its flowers, like most “black” blossoms, are actually darkest maroon, and its scent has been intoxicating people since 1898. For drama I am going to place ‘Black Knight’ cheek-by-jowl with ‘Mrs. Collier’, a white non-Eckford variety that goes back to the first decade of the twentieth century.
If you have limited space and want to grow sweet peas in pots, try one of the bush-type hybrids, such as ‘Cupid’ (sometimes sold as ‘Heirloom Cupid’), that has pink and white flowers. These might make lovely, fragrant window box subjects as well.
If you find yourself developing a fondness for sweet peas, get in touch with The Fragrant Garden, a mail order nursery that specializes in them. Contact the nursery at www.fragrantgarden.com or by fax at 503/266-2804.
Modern flower hybridizers constantly strive for plants that will “bloom from April until frost”. Sweet peas will never do that, and that is part of their charm. They are as ephemeral as spring and just as romantic.
SPRING PRUNING of established roses is always a gamble. If you prune too early, late spring frosts can kill all the canes. If you prune too late, some of the plants’ strength will be lost in the growth of the top shoots (spinach).
You and you alone must be the judge of when to prune your roses. All roses must be pruned in the spring–don’t think you can skip this job.
Here are some suggestions:
1. A green cane does not necessarily mean the cane is alive. Cane color can vary from green to red.
The only way to check on cane life is to lightly knick the bark to see if the green cambium layer of cells is alive. Start at the top of the cane and knick off chips of bark. Continue down the cane until you see the green cambium layer just beneath the bark layer.
Cut off the cane portion which does not show the cambium coloration this pruning height may or may not be the proper spring pruning height -but it’s a start in the right direction.
If the entire rose cane fails to show green beneath the bark down to the soil level-and your rose bush was properly planted with the graft union two inches below the soil line, don’t despair as the wood beneath the soil is alive and will send up new shoots soon.
However, if the canes are “dead” down to an exposed graft union, the entire plant is worthless. Rather than wait for any possible future life (which usually shows up as nine-leaved wild shoots from the under stock) dig up the plant and discard it.
2. Use a sharp pruning tool. If you know how to handle a knife, use it. Pruning shears are the next best tool and kitchen or sewing shears should be avoided.
3. Treat all pruning cuts with commercial plant wound paint. For temporary protection, use fingernail polish-any color. Wound treatment is necessary to prevent cane borer damage and possible disease attacks.
4. Prune canes to keep the center of the plant open to receive sunlight and air. Make slanting cuts directly above a cane node. Try to select a node which faces the “outside” of the plant.
5. Burn all cut off cane portions immediately do not use them as compost material.
6. Stagger pruning cuts at different heights.
7. To reduce the spread of “die-back” or canker, a dreaded fungus disease, disinfect pruning tool blades after each cut. Dip blades in strong solution of either potassium permanganate or 10 per cent hydrogen peroxide (both are available from your druggist).
PRUNING HEIGHTS
For the most part, these suggested pruning heights for each type of rose are elastic. The natural growth of many rose varieties must be considered. Some varieties produce a “horizontal” or sprawling growth and these should be pruned back more severely than those types which normally send up extra-strong or lengthy canes.
Most of the pruning heights listed are higher than you may previously have followed. Higher pruning leaves more plant “food” in healthy canes to supply necessary energy for the first flush of spring growth.
Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, Polyanthas and Grandifloras
Cut back extra-strong canes to a 12 to 18 inch height. Other canes ( as large in diameter as a lead pencil) should be cut back to within ten to 15 inches of the soil line.
It is seldom wise to leave more than six canes on any rose plant.
Remove completely any canes which rub each other by crossing.
All twiggy or weak growth should be cut back flush to a strong shoot.
Hybrid Perpetuals and Landscape Roses
Thin out old canes and keep only the largest. Prune these back to within two or three feet of the soil line.
Climbing Roses
(Read this section carefully as there are several different classifications, each with pertinent suggestions.)
1. Ramblers-Do not prune back any canes which are unbranched, smooth-barked or arise from the plant base-some of these shoots could arise from old canes very low on the plant. These canes just described will bear rose blossoms in 1958. If removed or even tipped, flower production will be reduced.
Dark-colored canes, usually well branched and constituting most of the plant mass, bloomed last summer and will never bear flowers again. All of these canes and branches should be removed completely.
Better plan to untie all canes from trellis or fence before pruning and I lay the canes on the ground. This action will make the pruning easier.
Once all the old wood is removed, tie up the remaining canes. Note the word “tie”-do not try to twist, twine or interlace rose canes into a trellis or fence partitions.
2. Climbing hybrid teas, floribundas and other everblooming pillar types Prune as described for bush types of these same rose varieties; but leave about one foot more of cane length than listed under previous suggestions.
Do remove all twiggy and excess growth.
Make pruning cut just above a bud.
To reduce height of fast growing rambling rose on an upright trellis, try looping and tyinge the flowering canes as shown.
When pruning is completed, before new growth has started, apply a dormant spray to canes and soil, to kill some of the overwintering spores of black spot.
