“I never bend over to pick bush beans,” John Page says. He explains that, since most of the beans come at once, particularly in determinate varieties, there’s no sense in courting a backache simply because you hope to get the few beans that will appear after the main picking. “Just pull out the bean plant, take off all the beans while you’re standing up, and throw the plant in the compost.” Have a second planting under way for another harvest. Read the rest of this entry »

“The best solution to tedious harvesting chores,” says a lazy gardener, “is to have lots of kids! Corral them to shell the peas, cut the beans, husk the corn, and skin the beets.” Family bees can be fun.

But, alas, the kids grow up. Lacking a crew of children, plan a social occasion to mesh with the height of raspberry, pea, or bean season. Bill it as a harvesting party, and have a gay time with picking, shelling, and freezing in the same way that folks had with husking bees in times past. It works best with friends who have no garden. Read the rest of this entry »

A successful landscape needs a garden style which appeals to you, and this is often linked to the house design. It can also be influenced by the kind of plants you like, or by your garden site and its climate.

Garden styles

There is a variety of garden styles, from formal to cottage garden, each with its own atmosphere and character. A predominantly natural or wild garden might look best in the country, or, alternatively, it could turn a town garden into a green oasis and bird sanctuary. A Mediterranean courtyard style would suit a small garden or echo Spanish-style architecture. You may like a formal garden for its symmetry, or an oriental garden for its serenity. Read the rest of this entry »

The best way to grow an asparagus bed is to plant 2-year-old roots which you can order from a seed catalog or pick up at a garden store. One-year-old roots may be cheaper, but the savings are not worth waiting an extra year for your first harvest. I think the 2-year-old roots are more reliable in transplanting.

If you live in the North, set out asparagus roots in the early spring. In the South, set them out in the fall because it can be so dry and hot in the summer that the plants may not make it through.

Asparagus will grow in most types of soil, but since it must have dry feet, it does best in soil that drains well. Place the plants about 2 feet apart with 5 feet between rows. Twenty-five to 30 crowns will produce enough asparagus for a family of four once the bed is established, which takes three seasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Nitrogen is a nutrient that plants require in great amounts. Commercial nitrogen fertilizer is an energy-intensive product, and it accounts for about 32 percent of the energy budget for Midwestern corn. At Rodale, efforts are being directed toward using natural, less energy-intensive sources of nitrogen. Legume plants like soybeans, alfalfa, and clovers are well known for their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. But what about such strange- sounding plants as azolla and anabaena? Azolla is a water fern and anabaena is a blue-green algae. Both are found in the rice paddies of Vietnam. Their association seems to be synergistic—that is, when they are planted together, nitrogen fixation is greatly enhanced, thus benefiting the associated rice crop. Rodale hopes to grow these plants in the greenhouse and use them for fertilizer. Read the rest of this entry »

Five ways to cultivate the soil

Digging is usually necessary to incorporate bulky organic materials, relieve compaction, improve drainage, improve soil texture and control growth of weeds.

• Single digging Type of digging in which the soil is cultivated to the depth of the spade blade. The most widely practised form of digging, adequate for most ordinary soils of reasonable depth which do not overlay an intractable subsoil. First, take out a trench one blade deep, then fill this in using adjacent soil, turning each spadeful upsidedown as you do. As you move in this way across the areas of ground, the trench moves with you. Soil from the first trench is used to fill the final one at the other end of the plot.
• Double digging Digging soil to two depths of the spade. Especially useful on land which has not been cultivated before or where a hard subsoil layer is impeding drainage and the penetration of plant roots. Read the rest of this entry »

Success with this method depends upon providing the right conditions. Warmth and humidity are essential for good results in every case.

• Alpines Take small cuttings as soon as ready in spring. Best rooted in greenhouse.
• Chrysanthemum Outdoor and greenhouse kinds. Remove 5cm/2in-long cuttings from as close as possible to crown of plant. Root in greenhouse.
• Dahlia Start tubers into growth in heated greenhouse early in year. Take 8cm/3in-long cuttings from the tubers and root in warmth and humidity.
• Delphinium Remove 8cm/3in-long shoots from as close as possible to crown of plant in spring. Root in greenhouse. Read the rest of this entry »

Three pruning methods for roses

Pruning roses will not reward you with more flowers nextyear. However, it will control shape and maintain health. Wild (species) roses and hybrid shrub roses need no pruning — just the removal of dead wood.

• Bush types Large-flowered (hybrid tea) and cluster-flowered (floribunda) roses are pruned annually in early spring. Remove all weak growth and reduce remaining strong stems to 15-20cm/6-8in above ground level. Cut to outward-facing buds. Make sure centre of each bush is free from growth: shape bush like a vase.
• ClimbersAllow a framework of permanent stems which are trained to their supports. From these stems side shoots grow, which produce the flowers. To prune, cut back old side shoots to within one or two buds of their base in early spring. Tips of main stems can also be cut back, if becoming too tall. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are many lovely plants for soil which does not dryout and receives dappled shade — in other words, shade cast by trees with a light canopy of foliage. Typical areas are light woodland or parts of a shrub border. Work plenty of peat or well-rotted organic matter into the soil for these plants.

• Candelabra primulas (Primula species) Whorls of flowers up the stems in early summer. Various colours, such as red Primula japonica. 60-90cm/2-3ft.

• Drumstick primrose (Primula denticulata) This has large globular heads of mauve, pink or white flowers over a long period in spring. 30cm/12in. Easy and reliable. Read the rest of this entry »

Exotics — from warm or tropical regions of the world — have luxurious associations for inhabitants of cooler dimes. Most have to be nurtured under glass in temperate climates.A warm greenhouse or conservatory (minimum temperature 15^°C/59°F), or an intermediate one (at least 8^°C/50°F), allows you to grow some highly colourful tropical plants. Even a cool greenhouse or conservatory (at least 5-7^°C/40-45°F) can be colourful all year round.

Five flowering exotics for the warm greenhouse

These plants offer long-lasting, spectacular flowers. They are easy to grow provided that they have plenty of warmth at all times, and moist or humid air. Read the rest of this entry »

Birds usually create the biggest problem, but you should look out too for mites and weevils.

• Apple blossom weevil The small white grubs of this tiny brown beetle eat the central parts of apple flowers. Infested blossoms fail to open. Spray with permethrin as the buds are forming or fenitrothion as the buds burst open.
• Big bud mites Tiny mites that live in large numbers inside the buds of blackcurrants. Infected buds are swollen and round, and usually fail to come into growth. Pick off and burn; spray with benomyl fungicide in spring and early summer. Read the rest of this entry »

Flower patterns

Fabric designs over the centuries have mostly derived their inspiration from nature and in particular from plants and flowers. It is no different today: the largest choice in wallpapers and fabrics is still in the floral ranges. Even the occasional abstract design is more often than not based on natural forms. We all love flowers and therefore use them as decoration wherever possible. The choice is immense now and there is every style of design available from very smart, small- scale, all-over flower patterns to great splashy chintzes smothered with full-blown summer garden flowers, ideal for curtains. Read the rest of this entry »

Yellows and creams

Yellow means warmth and sunshine, light and brightness. Golden yellow is not commonly used on large areas in interiors but toned down with white or cream the softer shades of sand and butter yellow are very popular. As in nature large patches of bright yellow need the contrast of plenty of green to cool them down. Imagine a bed ofdaffodils in strong sunlight then imagine the same flowers planted in grass. The first is overpowering, the second is calmer and much more pleasing. Yellow and green is one of the freshest combinations you can use. To make it sparkle even more add lots of white too. Creamy-yellow rooms need a highlight or two of brighter yellow and there are plenty of flowering houseplants which come in all shades of yellow from pale primrose to chrysanthemum gold to fill the bill. Read the rest of this entry »

Dull Corners

Every room however carefully planned usually ends up with a dull corner or two. Most furniture has straight sides and squarish shapes and simply doesn’t fill corners perfectly so empty gaps happen whether we like it or not. Low seating units are often placed at right angles to each other with a coffee table put where the two meet. Behind it there is an inevitable blank. Pictures and prints are generally hung on walls in central positions so that they can be seen at their best leaving the corners bare. A corner by its nature may only receive a small amount of light but in a room with a good source of natural light to start with there should be enough to grow quite a few types of plant.

The choice of how to display a plant or group of plants in a corner is wide. You could use a hanging basket fixed either from the ceiling or from a wall bracket, a specially made corner shelf unit or a container standing on the floor for a tall plant. Small plants can be placed on a low piece of furniture or plant stand. One of the prettiest shapes of plant to grow in a corner is the standard form, that is a tall bare stem with all the growth branching out from the top. Read the rest of this entry »

Although for much of the time we choose a houseplant because we like the look of it, we sometimes pick one to fill a special position, where we know from experience it will be highly successful. As well as the obvious places there are dozens of other less obvious ones throughout the house which, with a little thought, can be transformed by the right choice of plant. Most houses have alcoves and recesses, dull corners or redundant fireplaces, all of which could do with being brightened up and put to good use. Even the most unlikely spaces can make a home for some ‘kind of plant. Here are ideas for plants to fit any odd empty corner you might have. Read the rest of this entry »

Back to simplicity and the simple country feel of wood and brick and lots of fresh air. If you prefer Indian rugs, or dhurries, on faxed floors or deep-pile carpet and crisp cotton sheets to satin ones then your plants should look countrified too. Pelargoniums look right whether indoors or out and at one time few cottages didn’t have their pot or two of cheerful flowers on a window-sill. Busy lizzies are another good old-fashioned sort of plant, often badly grown and allowed to get leggy and sparse. They do like plenty of light indoors but not direct sunlight and as they are really very easy to propagate from seed or cuttings there is no reason why you shouldn‘t have a regular supply to fill your window-sills. Read the rest of this entry »

Tranquility

Tranquility is perhaps one of the most difficult atmospheres to create_; it is very much in the mind and the eye of the beholder. In any room, though, greenery will go a long way to making a soothing and tranquil effect. The colour simply cools and quietens its surroundings. Simply filling a room with foliage plants will not necessarily make for a gentle and soothing atmosphere.

Plants can have bold and exciting shapesand dramatic forms of growth. Spiky upward- shooting leaves and branches tend to excite the eye rather than calm it and many plants have confused and busy leaf shapes and patterns to which one’s eye is drawn. Read the rest of this entry »

Dry Atmosphere

However hard you try some rooms just don’t suit houseplants., They are either too dark, and no plants can do without light, or they are too warm and this is a problem when it goes hand in hand with low humidity. Some of the problem can be eliminated by using electric humidifiers or the water-filled variety that is attached to a radiator. Grouping plants together improves their chances of prospering and maturing. Also standing the pots on a base of pebbles or plunging into peat, which is then kept damp, helps immensely. Alternatively you can give up the struggle with the fine mist sprayer and grow plants which naturally come from arid regions of the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Finding a plant to suit every situation in the house might sound impossible; so few rooms have the perfect environment. If we have a few failures we tend to become discouraged. However there are dozens of plants which are quite happy in extreme conditions from hot and dry to dark and humid and there are many easy plants which are not in the least bit fussy about where they live. Sort out your problem areas and you will find there are plants which will make the most of them.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms seem to be the perfect environment for plants. All that warmth and water splashing about makes us feel that anything growing there will thrive. Also, from the point of view of appearance, foliage plants, in particular, are most effective. Their leaf shapes and textures produce a strong contrast with the smooth monochrome forms of bathroom fittings. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting with rooms which have great atmosphere, the trick is to use plants which work with existing features and not against them. A low-ceilinged, Elizabethan timber-framed house looks entirely wrong filled with palms, monsteras or other tropical plants. Simpler, softer subjects such as pelargoniums, cyclamen, begonias and ivies have much more the right feel and don’t clash with the traditional atmosphere. Similarly a cool high-tech city interior might look very strange with small fussy plants; the scale and simplicity would demand plants which are large and dramatic and make bold statements themselves. This is a case for a beaucarnia or a big Dracaena marginata or an aphelandra, whose marvellous graphic markings remove any chance of it being ignored. Read the rest of this entry »