Vertical Gardens

by OCMGA blog editor Vicki Schilleman

If you’re limited in space, or space that’s sunny enough for a garden, cheer up! And I do mean UP. Vertical gardens are gaining in popularity all over the world. I’ve seen gardens covering the entire side of apartment buildings in Europe. Not only does it provide food, beauty, and temperate climate in the building, it also helps to replace the oxygen that might be lost to automobile exhaust. For our purposes, though, let’s focus on the fact that growing your vegetables vertically allows you to have a bigger yield with less space.

Example of vertical gardening at the Rotary Gardens in Janesville, WI

There are a few things to keep in mind when planning your vertical garden:

1. For the best yield, find a location that enjoys full sun and is sheltered from high winds
2. If planting on a balcony, consider anchoring or weighing your vertical structures down so they don’t topple over during inclement weather
3. Plant along the north side your garden bed so you don’t shade other plants
4. Anything not directly planted into the ground dries out quicker. Check the soil moisture of your raised beds and containers regularly, especially in warmer months. Make frequent watering easier by planting near a water source, whether it’s a spot your hose reaches or a place where you can carry a watering can.

The choice in vertical garden containers is limitless. You can use buckets, planters, planting bags — anything that will hold soil and has drainage. DON’T FORGET THE DRAINAGE! Supports are also in unlimited quantity from ladders to wire cages to trellises to netting. Always remember the weight of the intended plant when choosing your support structure.

My sister moved from the country, where she had huge garden beds, into town where she has only a modest back yard. An avid vegetable gardener, though, she built raised beds with an arched arbor connecting the beds so her beans and peas have vertical space to grow. This required a little research into plants that are vining rather than those that grow best in clumps in the garden, but her space is beautiful and allows her to grow enough vegetables to preserve some of them in the fall.

One of the best aspects of a vertical garden is the ease of harvesting. Some heavier edibles, like melons, may need slings to keep them from slipping off the vine. One innovative idea is to use old pantyhose to make hammocks that you attach to the support and keep your produce safe.

Another good use of space is to plant salad greens, such as spinach, arugula, and lettuce at the foot of your vertical vegetable garden. Leafy greens generally tolerate more shade from the plants above, and the cooler surroundings may allow you to grow them well into the hot summer months.

Top 10 vegetables to grow vertically:

1. Pole Beans
2. Sugar snap and snow peas (vining varieties)
3. Squash (summer and dwarf winter varieties)
4. Tomatoes (vining varieties)
5. Melons like cantaloupes or mini watermelons
6. Cucumbers (vining varieties)
7. Climbing spinach
8. Grapes
9. Climbing nasturtiums (both leaves and flowers are edible)
10. Kiwi

Trees and Shrubs

by Sharon Morrisey, horticulture agent in Milwaukee County

Fall is a great time to plant trees and shrubs. Warm soil encourages root growth and the cool air reduces the demand for water. It is said that the planting is the most important 10 minutes of a tree’s life. Years of scientific study have produced improved techniques, so follow these instructions closely.

1. Find the root flare first. It’s that place at the base of the trunk where it widens before going into the soil.
2. Remove soil from the top of the root ball, if necessary, until the flare can be seen.
3. Measure the depth of the root ball after finding the flare.
4. Dig the hole no deeper than this, trying not to disturb the dirt at the bottom, so the tree will not settle later and become too deep. Make the hole two to four times wider than the ball and gently sloping.
5. Cut off the container, if there is one. Cut away the wire basket if it’s a balled-and-burlapped plant.
6. Gently roll it into the hole without holding it by the trunk. Now, cut away as much burlap as possible without letting the root ball fall apart.
7. Fill the hole halfway with the same soil that came out of the hole. Do not amend that soil. Otherwise, the roots will stay in that soil, growing around and around, instead of moving out into the surrounding soil.
8. Do not stomp on the soil. Instead, fill the hole with water and allow it to settle before continuing to fill the hole.
9. Water again.
10. Form a rim of soil around the outside edge of the hole to hold the water.
11. Cover the rim and root ball with 2 inches of shredded bark or wood chips. Do not allow the mulch to touch the trunk or the bark will rot and kill the tree.
12. On slopes or windy sites, use one or two stakes pounded into the undisturbed soil beyond the root ball. Loosely secure the tree trunk to the stakes using webbing with grommets made especially for this purpose. Do not use wire or rubber hose, since these will damage the bark. The tree should be able to sway back and forth because this actually strengthens the trunk.

 

Rhubarb Season is here

by OCMGA Master Gardener Tom Wentzel

This is my first rhubarb harvest this year. There was one more, but I ate it. We all have bunches of recipes for using rhubarb so I won’t go there.

Chinese records from 2700 BC record its medicinal use. Marco Polo documented its use, but I’m not sure if he introduced it to Europe. A while ago, I visited Old World Wisconsin. In one of the Germany heritage houses there was a string of, what I thought, were chicken bones. It was dried rhubarb! Many of the historical uses that I have read seem to be medicinal, rather that culinary.

My first picking didn’t have that lip puckering sourness of later season harvests. The sourness is due to the pH (acidity) which is in the range of 3.1 – 3.2. For reference, fresh lemon juice has a pH of about 2. Adding sugar doesn’t “neutralize” the acidity, it simply covers it up.

Rhubarb leaves have a reputation as being toxic. This is due to the relatively high concentration of oxalic acid. Oxalic acid’s primary effects can be stomach irritation and kidney problems. Ten pounds of leaves would be required to deliver a lethal dose. Kitchen pot cleaners such as Bar Keepers Friend and ZUD use oxalic acid as the primary active ingredient.

Uses for Rhubarb leaves:

• Use them as a mulch.
• They can be composted in limited quantities.
• GREAT for leaf castings
• I have seen recipes for rhubarb leaf concoctions as insecticides and repellents. These have been anecdotal, their effectiveness has not been verified.

I will break my promise not to talk recipes. Here’s mine: Peel, then eat.

Plant now for a long Tulip season

Tulip lovers stretch the season by planting lots of different species and cultivars. Though each only blooms for a short time, the tulip parade can last two full months if you plan it carefully.

Tulipa fosteriana ‘Purissima’

Early: The first tulips are low to the ground, including the wide-leafed Kaufmannianas, sometimes called water-lily tulips because of the shape of the flowers, and Gregii’s, known for their mottled leaves. Soon after them come Emperor, aka Fosteriana, tulips, the earliest of the long-stemmed types; Single Early, which is usually slightly taller than Emporor; and Double Early, ditto.

Mid Season: Once the days lengthen and weather warms up, you’ll get Triumphs, first of the truly long-stemmed florist’s types, which come in a wider range of colors than the early birds. Also Peony-flowered tulips, known for their lush doubleness; and Giant Darwin, the florist’s tulip on steroids.

Viridiflora tulipan (Viridiflora tulip)

Late: This is the season for Darwin tulips, also known as Single Late, the classic tall-stemmed cups of color that first come to mind when you hear the word tulip. It’s also the time for exotica: huge Parrot tulips, with their twisted and ruffled petals; urn-shaped Lily-flowered tulips; Viridifloras, with flames of green rising up the outside of the brightly colored flowers; and Fringed tulips, sometimes listed as Tulipa crispa, their petal edges frilled with narrow teeth that glow when the light shines through.

Species: There are dozens of species tulips available, primarily through mail order. Smaller and more delicate than garden tulips, they are mostly mid-season bloomers, with a few earlies, such as the tiny white T. biflora, and a few members of the late show, such as the bright red T. wilsoniana (T. montana). The available array keeps growing, so it is best to buy from a purveyor who is clear about blooming time in the catalog.

Lucy’s Corner

 

Our friend and Master Gardener Lucy Valitchka has been successfully growing vegetables longer than many of our members have been gardening. Each year, we ask Lucy to teach our new class the section on Vegetables, and she also graciously supplies an article for our Summer Newsletter. Because that information is too valuable to keep to ourselves, we’re reprinting it here.

“During the growing season gardeners know that timing of jobs in the garden impact the final produce harvested. That is the reason behind these calendar jobs listed in each newsletter. Maybe some people remember it easily, but I need a reminder just to make sure the job gets done in time. For new readers of this column, I try to include a calendar of garden tips for each month. This is taken from Madison Area Master Gardener’s Association garden journal no longer published.

June Week 1

• Control anthracnose and other disease problems by staking plants, maintaining optimal plant spacing and using mulches.
• Tie tall crops, such as tomatoes, or cage them, to support as they grow.
• Before setting out tomato cages, disinfect them with a 10% bleach solution or spray cages with rubbing alcohol. (I do that before I store them for the winter.)
• Start seedlings of brussels sprouts to transplant in mid July.
• Plant peppers, eggplants, sweet potatoes and late potatoes.

June Week 2

• Plant successive crops of beans, beets, carrots, kohlrabi, corn, turnips, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.
• As soil warms apply a mulch after deep watering or heavy rain.
• Control leaf blight on tomatoes by disposing of diseased foliage or plants immediately or planting disease-resistant varieties.
• Control cabbage worm and cabbage looper on cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.

June Week 4

• Thin vegetables for proper spacing.
• Plant rutabagas, late cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.
• Mulch tomatoes and water them, if necessary.
• Stop harvesting asparagus. Weed asparagus bed carefully after harvesting to avoid damage to roots.

July

• Renew mulch if it starts to decompose.
• Make daily inspections for pests, and treat, if necessary.
• Control garden weeds to prevent them going to seed.
• Harvest onions, garlic, and early potatoes when tops begin to shrivel.

July Week 1

• Plant lettuce and spinach for fall crop. Pre-germinate seeds on moist towel, or plant deeper than spring planting. Mulch thinly.
• Watch for squash vine borer. Remove floating row covers from cucumbers and melons as soon as they begin to bloom so that they can be pollinated. Use a reflective mulch such as aluminum foil to repel squash vine borers.
• Plant collards, kale, bunching onions and cucumbers for fall harvest.

July Week 2

• Plant beets, Chinese cabbage, rutabagas and turnips for fall harvest.
• Fertilize asparagus beds. Mulch with straw.
• Keep tomatoes mulched and watered to prevent blossom end rot.

July Week 3

• Transplant broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower seedlings for fall crop.
• Plant chard for fall crop.

July Week 4

• Plant fall crop of peas. Keep plants picked to maintain productivity.

August

• Sow cover crops in garden areas not in use.
• Pick herbs just before blossoms open for best flavor.
• Inspect corn regularly. Corn pests become abundant in mid-August.

August Week 1

• Keep eggplant and peppers picked so younger fruit develops.
• Plant late crops of radishes, lettuce, spinach and beets.

Some parting wisdom taken from an article about Gardening in Grandfather’s Time by Jerry Minnich in the 2012 Wisconsin Garden Journal: Connections Through Time “Sometimes it’s true: The more things change, the more they stay the same. And despite all the new wrinkles in gardening, our greatgreatgrandchildren will probably be planting potatoes just as we do, hill by hill, row by row, eyes always up. Through the generations, gardeners will always be connected.” Jerry Minnich is the author of several gardening books, including The Wisconsin Garden Guide, published in 2010. “