Because perennials need to be divided every few years, now they have over 75 hostas that grace their rocky, sandy, shady back half acre. He's partial to the variegated leaf varieties. Since then, he's added around 30 more varieties from the giant Sum and Substance to the tiny Tiara series.
I can locate my plants in the sunniest spot, and I don't have to bend down so far to tend them."ĭoug has always been a landscape person preferring to plant mainly hostas due to their very sandy, rocky soil and lots of trees, making for very shady conditions.Ī year after they built their house in 1965, he bought his first hosta, Francis Williams. "We have very spotty sun in our yard, so containers work for us.
The back deck is replete with containers of herbs and flowers like rosemary, thyme, and basil. In these raised beds, she's growing several varieties of tomatoes and peppers along with the marigolds she plants yearly as a companion plant for the tomatoes. He prefers to plant a wide variety of hostas, and she plants her entire garden in containers. Spooner's Ginger and Doug Strunk each have their own gardens. We've under-planted a small amount of basil and spinach with the tomatoes in their containers, hoping for a small second crop. This is a great advantage of container gardening you can pull it into the shade if necessary.Īnother nice thing about second planting is the seeds come up quickly because the soil is nice and warm. It often pays to put these second plantings in a cooler spot due to the long, hot, and sunny days still ahead. The thing to remember about second crops is to re-evaluate their location. They are usually only available at the farmers or Asian markets. Not only can these green be harvested as babies, but they can also stand a few light touches of frost. Raw or cooked with bacon and onions, we didn't care for kale and were not willing to wait for a frost when it 'sweetened.' Out they came, fodder for the compost pile, and in went 3 rows of bok choy. I've never grown kale before, and I scatter-planted a 4 x 4-foot bed this year. Some people even sow pea pods and Swiss chard again. The Autumnal Equinox is September 22, and then the cooler temperatures with frosts follow.īok Choy, Chinese cabbage, radishes, table onions, spinach, basil, and lettuce are all candidates for a second planting. You're safe with anything that has 50 days as its time until harvest. Not all vegetables can be planted at this time of year, and the back of the seed package is your best friend to see which ones are doable. These are called mid-season crops, and they are a sneaky way to use up the rest of the seeds in the package. By now, you've harvested your early crops of radishes, lettuce, and spinach, so it's time to plant them again if you're not worn out. WASHBURN COUNTY - It's hard to believe it's nearly August, and we are halfway through the growing season already. Second Cropping, Seed Saving, a Garden Visit, and a Few Summer Recipes No, They're Not Lawyers, But Just As Intrusive
Note: Small Space Gardening by Diane Dryden is a series of garden articles that will run the entire summer with information for both new and experienced gardeners.