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By Hilda, on July 22nd, 2011
 A cucumber vine reaches for the sky on natural lattice panels Among vegetable gardeners who have limited growing space, tomatoes definitely seem to be a favorite crop – you can find room for a tomato plant or two just about anywhere, even if you have to tuck it into a flower bed or grow it in a container on a sunny terrace.
But what about veggies that like to sprawl out over a large area, like cucumbers? Look up the spacing requirements for them, and you’ll find a single cucumber plant can spread out over 12 to 20 square feet when grown in traditional rows.
One way to make better use of space and maximize yields is to grow vertically – that is, to let your vining plants expand upward instead of outward, by supporting them on a raised structure. It’s a perfect solution for anyone growing in containers, raised beds, or other small plots of land (like a narrow side yard).
The best and easiest candidates for vertical growing are beans, cucumbers, and all kinds of summer squash (like zucchini and the common yellow crookneck varieties).
Winter squash varieties (acorn, butternut, Hubbard) can also be grown vertically, but you’ll have to find a way to support the heavy fruits as they ripen. The same goes for pumpkins and melons — these extra-large fruits can present their own challenges when they don’t have a spot on the ground to rest on.
There are other benefits to vertical growing as well. When plants are raised off the ground, leaves are less susceptible to slug damage. Since foliage dries off faster after a rain, fungal problems are reduced. And, your vertically-grown plants may have more leaf surface area exposed to the sun, resulting in better growth.
The most important way to ensure success with vertical growing is this: Know the difference between vining and bush varieties of the same crop – not all varieties have been bred to grow upward!
Some specific tips to keep in mind for climbing vegetables:
- Beans. There is a huge difference between bush beans and pole beans. Bush beans are relatively short, self-supporting plants that don’t climb. They have been bred specifically for commercial farmers; their lower height makes harvesting by machine easier. Pole beans, however, can climb to ten feet or more – and the added height means you can harvest twice as many beans, from the same amount of space.
 Pole beans grow on a simple, home-made support
- Cucumbers. Choose seeds or seedlings carefully, and don’t end up with a “bush”variety. While bush varieties are still sprawling plants, they’re not really climbers. Instead, they put out vines that radiate only three feet out from the plant’s center – meaning they require only 9 square feet of space, about a third of what a vining cucumber needs when grown flat. In this way they’re considered “space-saving” types. But choose a vining cucumber variety to grow vertically, and you can grow one to two plants in just one square foot of space. For more specific tips on growing cucumbers vertically, see BluestoneGarden’s post on Urban Organic Gardener.
- Zucchini and crookneck squash. There are a few heirloom varieties of zucchini and other kinds of summer squash that are prolific, vining climbers. Most types, however, tend to be sprawling, bushy plants that want to grow flat but can be coaxed into growing vertically with a little bit of effort (you’ll have to tie the stems to your trellis). Just be sure to avoid those that are labeled as “space-spacing” varieties; they’ve been bred specifically to grow horizontally. And if you don’t have immediate success growing summer squash vertically, try a different variety next year, till you find one that works for you.
 Zucchini fruit and flower
In general, you’ll need plant supports of at least six to eight feet tall for cucumbers and squash; taller for pole beans. It’s best to start out with your growing structure already in place, and then set out plants at its base – you’re less likely to damage roots this way than if you try to anchor a support into place once the plants are already established and growing.
As you experiment with vertical growing, you can create your own plant supports from materials you have on hand — dowels, bamboo poles, wire, twine, etc. You can also grow vertically on a chain link fence, or on a trellis mounted to the side of a shed or garage. If you have an arch or arbor framing a walkway or gate, consider using it to support scarlet runner beans, which are both edible and decorative, with their bright red flowers. And if you’d rather purchase your growing supports, there’s a wide range of functional and decorative products on the market. For very narrow spaces (against a fence, in planter boxes, etc.), a fan trellis allows you to grow straight up and flat. In raised beds or large containers, a tall obelisk is both functional and decorative.
By Hilda, on January 8th, 2011
During the winter months, one of my main chores as a gardener is to keep the grass growing tall and healthy. I’m not talking about the lawn outside, I’m referring to the little pots of oat grass that my cat depends on for her fix of greenery. Serena is nearly 15 years old and limps from arthritis, so I don’t let her go outside anymore. The only thing she really seems to miss about the great outdoors is the time she used to spend grazing on the lawn, so I’ve come up with the oat grass solution to keep her happy. (She’d chew on the houseplants if I made it easy for her, but I don’t.)
Seeds of the common oat (Avena sativa) are readily available online not only from seed companies, but from pet supply sites – a testament to how popular this little grain is with the kitties. I usually order a one-pound bag, rather than buying lots of little packets. (You could also try wheat grass or rye grass seed, if that’s easier to find in your area.)
Oats are incredibly easy to grow. I fill a pot with potting soil, sprinkle a thick layer of seeds on top, cover them with another very thin layer of soil, and then water well – and in a few days, Voila!
During spring, summer, and fall I can set the pot outside on my kitchen porch to germinate, and I usually cover it with a garden cloche to keep the brown thrashers from snacking on my oat seed before it sprouts. The greenhouse effect of the bell jar is also useful when nights are cool, which can slow down the growing process considerably. And when it’s really cold out, like now, I sow the oat grass inside under a fluorescent grow light and it grows so fast it’s almost like factory farm production.
 Here’s a shot I took of oat grass growing luxuriously in a pretty ceramic container. It’s basking in the sun alongside several other houseplants, and it looks so lush and cheerful that I’m happy to have it in my kitchen.
I like to wait until the grass is two to three inches tall before giving it Serena – the roots have a better toe-hold by then and she can graze on the tips without ripping so much of it right out of the soil. (And sometimes, if I don’t want her to make a mess, I’ll trim the grass myself with scissors and simply serve her the clippings on a saucer.)
I don’t know why Serena goes nuts over this stuff – she’s completely uninterested in catnip – but if I’m carrying a pot of oat grass she’ll follow me all around the house, meowing incessantly until I set it down for her. Often I have to limit her grazing time, unless I want to find a mess of regurgitated greens on the carpet later. 
I understand that some health food aficionados grow wheat grass and oat grass indoors so they can juice it and add it to smoothies and such. And others grow it because it’s an easy houseplant, or because they’re in need of a little reminder that springtime will eventually be here.
By Hilda, on October 17th, 2010
 image: gilintx, via Flickr
Since my last post was about plants with names made to order for Halloween, I decided to write about ghost plant today.
I can’t remember exactly when, or from where, I acquired ghost plant, but I’ve had it for many years. And I can never be sure I’m spelling its proper name correctly, so I’m always double-checking myself on it – Graptopetalum paraguayense.
At one point during an impromptu search I performed to check the Latin name, I also turned up the information that ghost plant is only winter hardy in zones 9 and 10 (meaning it survives temperatures no lower than 20 to 25 degrees). Really? Hmmm…I’ve been growing it in containers in Atlanta (zone 7) for maybe ten years now. And I know we’ve had plenty of clear, cold nights when the mercury has plunged into the low teens during that time, so I think the conventional wisdom about this plant is wrong.
In fact, this past winter we had an extended cold snap, during which time the temperature never made it above 32 degrees even during the daytime, which is rather unusual for this area. I didn’t know if my ghost plant would survive or not, but it did, although it suffered quite a bit of cold damage and got a little scraggly — the only time I can remember when the plant didn’t look absolutely great all winter long.
Here’s a shot I took two Februarys ago. Ghost plant is cascading down the side of a strawberry pot that’s planted with blue pansies and some miscellaneous sedum. It sits on my kitchen porch in the western sun. In the summer I replace the pansies with a coral colored portulaca, or sometimes purple gomphrena (both of these are drought-tolerant plants that have roughly the same watering needs as the ghost plant).
 Photo: H. Brucker I personally think ghost plant is one beautiful succulent. It forms grayish-green rosettes that shimmer with subtle highlights of pink and aqua, almost like a mother-of-pearl finish. As a desert native, it’s heat and drought tolerant. And it’s prolific. It multiplies much more fruitfully than hen-and-chicks ever has for me. A single rosette will put out long stems that form ever more rosettes, spilling over the sides of pots to make a nice display. (I’ve never grown ghost plant in the ground, but it probably works well in a dry climate and well drained soil.)
 a tiny rosette forms at the tip of a ghost plant 'petal' If you jostle ghost plant or bump into it, you’re very likely to knock off a petal or two. This is a plant that comes undone easily. Just pick up the fallen bits and lay them against the potting soil in your container. Each petal will form a tiny rosette at one end, just like in the photo to the right, and that rosette will grow to full size and put down roots – ensuring you’ll have plenty of passalong plants to spread around the neighborhood.
So what to make of the conflicting hardiness information I’m throwing at you? Here’s what I think: If you live in zone 7 or 8, maybe ghost plant will turn out to be as reliably perennial for you as it has been for me. And if you live in a colder climate, why not grow ghost plant as a three-season annual? Whether it turns out to be hardy to temperatures in the teens or the 20s is irrelevant, as long as you overwinter a few rosettes indoors. Then, you can use ghost plant as “bookends” to your growing season, the same way you use pansies during the cold days of early spring and late fall. The only difference is that ghost plant won’t melt away for you when the warm weather arrives!
Planting Tip
If you happen to see ghost plant in a friend’s garden, just ask for a piece or two to start your own plants with. Pinch off several petals and lay them on the surface of a pot of soil. Soon each one will develop a new plantlet at the tip, and roots will follow.
Otherwise, here are some mail order sources, though you most likely will have to order ghost plant in the spring.
By Hilda, on August 8th, 2010
If you’ve ever doubted that gardeners are the most innovative people under the sun, just look at the photos below. . .
I took this shot at the home of Atlanta landscape designer Paula Refi — that’s the side of her garage you’re looking at! A salvaged mantel piece was painted, outfitted with mirrors, and bolted to the outside wall. A stone “hearth” completes the illusion.
This next idea is also clever:
I’ve actually seen this chair-as-planter idea before, and once I even successfully duplicated the look at home.
Here’s how I did it: I paid a few dollars at the flea market for an old wooden chair that was missing its caned seat. Then I stapled black landscape fabric to the underside, to form a shallow planting area — I used the porous kind that’s meant to allow water to run through while it suppresses weeds. I filled it with a lightweight potting soil, added shade loving plants like ferns and impatiens, and placed my chair-planter on my front porch… until I got tired of keeping my creation watered during the hot Atlanta summer.
By Hilda, on June 20th, 2010
It’s garden tour season! I went on one last weekend, and it was kind of a whirlwind tour (11 gardens in six hours) but I did end up with some snapshots of beautiful container gardens. There’s just something about a flowerpot overflowing with plants that says “summertime!” to me. I love really scrumptious container plantings, the ones that intermingle so many colors, textures, and shapes that you feel like the plants are having a flower party right in front of you.
I’ve experimented with all different kinds of color schemes in my container plantings, but when it comes to choosing plants, there’s one formula I always stick with, and it involves these three elements:
- A tall, spiky, bold leaved, or otherwise dramatic plant for the center of the container (although sometimes it can be off-center for an asymmetrical effect)
- Lots of mounding plants to fill in most of the space – can either be flowers or interesting foliage
- Trailing plants that will cascade over the edge of the pot and soften the edges
These photos from the garden tour show me that other people have the same idea about combining plants in containers using the three-element formula.
I also saw these gorgeous containers designed for shade: no flowers, just plenty of contrast between the foliage plants in terms of their shape, texture, and color. I love both of these compositions and would like to recreate them at home. Each of them only uses two kinds of plant material, but they look stunning.
For more ideas on creating container plantings, take a look at this article on Fine Gardening’s website. The author also recommends the three-ingredient approach, though he’s rather creatively described the three distinct types of plants as “thrillers, fillers, and spillers.”
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About
The Author
Hilda Brucker
 Hilda combines her
love of gardening
and passion for writing
in her blog entries.
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