Category Archives: Gardening Basics

Radishes – The Perfect “Prepper” Plant

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Yesterday I harvested a big bunch of radishes.  My wife usually gets excited when I bring things in from the garden.  However, radishes are an exception.  You see, she is a radish hater.  I have found that she is not alone.  If I ever have anything left over from the garden I generally have a list of people that are ready to take it.  Not so with radishes.  Seems like the world is full of two types of people:  those that love radishes and those that don’t.

A very lovely bunch of radishes from the fall potager. Photo by my lovely wife

I am proud to say that I am a radish lover.  I love how easy they are to grow and I love the way they taste.  I love the way their crispy texture and pungent flesh add a spicy little surprise to my salad.  I love to pour a mound of salt into the palm of my hand and dip raw radishes directly into it just like I did with my dad when I was little.  Heck, I even like radishes for breakfast!  One of my favorite breakfasts consists of a boiled egg, a big slice of sharp cheddar cheese and a handful of French Breakfast radishes.

As much as I love radishes, I will be the first to admit their uses are somewhat limited.  Google up radish recipes and you will not get too many interesting results.  I discovered this fact while trying to figure out what do with my latest harvest.  This lack of results got me to thinking.  What could I come up with to elevate the status of the lowly radish?  Something that is this easy to grow, tasty and good for you should be more celebrated.  Then it hit me.  Radishes posses a ton of traits that make them the perfect plant for “preppers”.

 

Every part of the radish is edible, even the greens. Photo by Sally White

Are you familiar with the “prepper” movement?  “Preppers are people that believe there is a very high probability that something really bad is going to happen to the U.S.  in the near future.  Whatever this really bad thing is (asteroid, nuclear attack, economic collapse), it is going to be bad enough that it will force all of us that want to survive to be a whole lot more self reliant.  In order to be prepared for “the undefined really bad thing that is most likely going to happen sometime”, preppers do things like stock pile food, water and seeds to ensure their families can survive the rough times. 

If you are a “prepper”, I believe radish seeds should be a pretty important part of your initial survival kit.  Below are three really good reasons why I believe radishes are the perfect “prepper” plant:

1.  Easy to Grow – Radishes are so fool proof that I truly believe their seeds have a 100% germination rate regardless of variety.  To grow radishes simply place the seeds about 2” apart in a sunny location and cover with about ¼” of soil.  Water in and keep moist until germination.  After germination, continue to apply about 1” of water per week.  The plants will go from seed to plate in as few as 30 days. 

One quick note, radishes are generally a cool season crop.  Most of the short cycle radishes will not grow during the hottest times of the year.

2. Nutritious – Every part of the radish is edible and every part is good for you.  Radishes can go from seed to seedling in 10 to 15 days and then to full grown root with edible top in two more weeks.  The “greens” and roots are high in Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), folic acid, potassium, vitamin B6 and calcium.   With their high germination rates, rapid growth rates and high nutritional content, radishes will allow you to quickly supplement your food stores with fresh greens and veggies.

3. Storage – Since radishes are root crops they can be stored in root cellars for very long periods of time.  The ascorbic acid in them is not depleted in storage and will fend off scurvy just as well as citrus.  Radishes can also be pickled to further extend their shelf life.

So there you go!  Radishes are tasty, healthy and versatile.  Their ease of cultivation and rapid growth rate make them a great plant to have with you if you need to quickly be able to start feeding yourself and your family.  I hope preppers every where take my advice and finally give the lowly radish some much deserved respect!

A mature radish next to radish foliage ten days after planting. These young sprouts are very tasty and very nutritious

 

 

Growing Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis )

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Asparagus is an extremely long lived perennial.  A friend of a friend has a bed that has been producing for 36 years!  Now that is an extremely long time but it is not uncommon to find beds that have been in production for over 20 years.  Asparagus is tough, reliable, attractive and a joy to eat. So, if I am going to grow it, I am going to have to make a long term commitment to it.

I have never grown asparagus before.  But since my wife and I love it so, we have decided now is the time to get started.  Like most of you, if I don’t know how to grow something I do research.  I have been reading about how to grow asparagus for over year.  However, all of the research in the world is no substitute for having an actual expert to talk with.  I am lucky enough to be very close friends with an outstanding asparagus expert and grower.

(WARNING!  The next three paragraphs contain EXTREME nostalgia. If you are not interested in tales of high school romance and rebellion, feel free to skip to the growing section )

Bobby Mitchell and I have been friends for more years than either of us thought we would live.  We became friends in Junior High and have stayed in touch ever since.  In high school, I had a 1955 Chevy Pick Up.  Every time Bobby got in that truck, something broke.  When we were 15, Bobby convinced the head varsity cheerleader (she was a senior and he was a sophomore) to go “parking” with him.   The problem was, he had neither car nor license.  Somehow he talked me into driving them out in the country and then sitting on the tail gate while he and the cheerleader “made out” in the cab.  For some reason, this sounded like really big fun so I agreed.

The quarterback and the cheerleader did a great job of steaming up the windows of my 55.  I enjoyed my first “dip” of Copenhagen snuff (which turned out to be a really bad thing in hindsight) while they enjoyed each other.  Since my dad worked the 3 to 11 shift I knew that if we got home before 11:30 no one would be the wiser.  So at about 11:00 I broke them up. Once we defogged the windows we headed home.  Everything was going great.  We had won the football game, Bobby had “scored” and I picked up a really bad habit.  The night could not have been better.

When you are 15 you don’t yet have the maturity to understand that when things are going this good, something has to go wrong.  After dropping the cheerleader off we headed home.  It was about 11:15 and we were only five minutes from home when the drive shaft literally fell out of the bottom of my truck!  Needless to say the rest of the night was almost as memorable as the first part of the evening had been.  My dad was not the least bit impressed with our performance that evening.  In fact, he was so unimpressed that I didn’t get to drive my truck for a month.  However, it was worth it.  This was the first of many, many memorable experiences that Bobby and I shared in that old pick up.

 

Growing Asparagus – I visited Bobby last summer and was very impressed with his 70’ row of asparagus.  When I told him I wanted to grow my own he was happy to share his experience with me.

Bobby recommends planting year old crowns.  Since it takes three years to get asparagus from seed, these older roots allow you to enjoy asparagus in year two.  To plant them, dig an 8″ to 12″ round hole (or trench) that is about 8” to 10” deep in full sun.  Place your plants about a foot apart.  Put two or three inches of high grade compost in the bottom of the hole.  The compost should be slightly mounded in the center.  Spread the roots of the crown out over the mound like an octopus.  Once the roots are in place, cover lightly with compost and gently water in.  Research has shown that if you plant asparagus too deep, your yields will be reduced so try and keep the crowns no more than 6″ below the soil level.

Keep the roots damp and in a few days the first little shoot will appear.  As that sprout grows, slowly add soil and compost to the hole.  Be careful not to completely cover it up.  In the first year you can expect each crown to produce 2 to 5 sprouts.  These early sprouts are small and delicate.  Bobby recommends letting 3 sprouts grow above soil level before completely filling in around them. You may also want to stake these young shoots to make sure the wind doesn’t break them off.  Once these three sprouts are a few inches above the soil line you can finish back filling the hole with a soil/compost mixture.  Asparagus is a heavy feeder so do not scrimp on the compost.  Tamp the soil in firmly to support your young sprouts.

 

A great picture that clearly shows how I prepared my beds and planted the crowns.

The first year the stalks will be pretty puny looking.  Continuously weed your beds and apply about an inch of water per week.  By the second year you will get a 3′ to 4′ tall plant with very attractive fern like foliage.  Asparagus foliage is so thick that it shades out most of the weeds in the second year.  In the first year, you can expect your roots to produce two to five shoots.  In the second year that number will double.  This is when you can begin to do a light harvest.  By year three you can expect to have 25 to 30 sprouts per root system.  After year two  let the first couple of sprouts of the season grow up and grow foliage.  You can start picking shoots after that. Once the mature plants start producing, the spears come pretty quickly.  If you wait too long to cut don’t worry.  Just let the stalk produce foliage.  There will still be plenty of stalks to pick

The first spears of the year in Bobby’s garden. Photo by Bobby Mitchell

Asparagus start producing in early spring and can be harvested for four to six weeks.  Do not over harvest.  Make sure and leave enough canes to make a large, healthy plant.  The foliage will feed the roots, which will in turn, store the food to put into shoot development next year.  Once you stop harvesting, “mulch” or top dress your plants with three to six inches of compost.  Top dress again in the fall.  The foliage will last until first frost.  You can prune throughout the year to control height.  Once a frost hits them, cut the foliage off at the ground and apply more compost.

A mature asparagus plant produces about ½ pound of asparagus per year.  If you like it as much as we do, four to five plants per person should be adequate.  There are several varieties of asparagus that do very well for us here.  I am planting some New Jersey sterile (all male hybrids) and Mary Washington (a popular heirloom variety).  The Jersey hybrids produce large, flavorful spears and will not spread.  Mary Washington produces yellow flowers and red berries.  The spears are very tasty.  However, it spreads so you will have to do more “weeding” with this variety than you will with the all male hybrids.

The $70 Vegetable Garden

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I recently read the 2009 survey results of the gardening world by the National Gardening Association (http://www.garden.org/).  One of the stats that I found very interesting was the amount of money the average person reportedly spends on their food garden.  According to the NGA survey, the average vegetable gardener only spends $70 per year on their garden.  Now I realize that I am not the average gardener, but $70?  Really?  I spend an average of $30 per month on just compost.  So this got me thinking.  Could I create a vegetable garden (on paper) with just $70 worth of supplies?

There really is nothing better than home grown tomatoes

To do this, I had to make some assumptions.  Using the NGA data, I decided to be average.  According to their report the average vegetable garden in the US is 600 square feet.  Using this I decided to have a 21’ X 30’ (I know that is 630 square feet, but go with me) virtual garden.  This garden would contain 4-30 foot rows.  Each row would be 3 feet wide and there would be 3 feet wide walk paths between the rows.  In this space I would plant the Top Ten vegetables grown in US gardens (based on results from the same survey).  Those vegetables are tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, beans, carrots, summer squash, onions, hot peppers, lettuce and peas.  I also assume that this $70 experiment only covers the spring garden.  Finally, since I garden organically, my $70 garden will use organic principals as well.

Below are the four rows that I have designed.

Row 1 –English peas the 10th most grown veggie in the American garden.  Normally I plant them in January.  For this garden, I am going to recommend putting them on Feb. 1.  A little late here, but this is just an experiment and they will probably still produce when planted this late (especially if you live north of Dallas).  Carrots can go in at the same time.  Beans are a little less cold hardy so I am going to virtually plant them Feb. 15.

All of these veggies will be planted by seeds.  The beans and peas will be spaced at 6” and I will get three rows in each three foot bed.  To plant this many beans and peas, you will need to buy two packs of seed for each.  I selected “Contender” bush beans from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They were $2 per pack so the beans will cost $4.  I found 100 “Green Arrow Peas” from Seed Savers Exchange for $2.75. The carrots will be planted in a staggered grid plan at 4” spacing.  You will need 2 packs of seed for this many carrots.  Since the seeds are so tiny it is difficult to get just one seed per hole.  I chose “Danver” from Seed Savers Exchange.  The two packs were $5.50.

Row 2 –Around here, we plant our onion sets in November or December.  For this garden, we are going to assume that we planted 300 10-15Y onions in November.  They are stagger planted 6” apart in three rows that are 20’ long.  This would require two bunches of sets and would have set us back about $6.  Now 300 is a lot of onions.  However, I love them and they keep well so I also plant a lot.  I planted the onions in the middle of the row.  This leaves two 5’ beds on either side.

In both of these beds I am planting lettuce from seed.  I love lettuce and there are a ton of varieties.  All do well in the cool season so you can plant whatever variety you choose.  I always plant two different varieties of leaf lettuce.  To plant beds this size, you will need about four packs of seeds.  At $1.50 each, that is another $6.

Row 3 – This whole row is dedicated to cucurbits.  30 feet is a lot of room for our squash and cucumbers,  especially since they are both so productive.  Each of these plants need about 3’ of space.  I will plant six  hills of squash (2-yellow crook neck, 2 zucchini, and two patty pan).  I will then plant four trellises of Poinsett cucumbers.  I grow these every year and they are awesome!  They are very productive and are great as slicers and for pickling.  I build thee-legged trellises for them out of cedar limbs.  Four trellises will allow us to have 12 vines.  This will be more than enough.  For this row we will be using 4 packets of seeds at $2.50 each so the whole row will cost just $5.

Row 4 –Tomatoes are the stars of most summer gardens.  They are the number one grown vegetable in the home garden. For the last row of our gardenwe will buy and plant six tomatoes, two Jalepenos and two Bell pepper plants.   I usually buy plants because it is much easier than planting from seed in January and then nursing to April.  I always plant my tomatoes and peppers the first week in April.  I usually make sure and plant at least two plants of each tomato variety that I select.  My favorite for slicing tomato is an heirloom called “Black From Tulia”.  I also usually plant a cherry variety and a grape variety.  We also love Romas so we grow a yellow variety called appropriately “Yellow Roma”.  I do not have a favorite Bell or Jalepeno variety.  I typically plant whatever they have at the nursery.  I buy well established tomatoes in quart containers.  Each of these usually cost about $4 a piece so you are going to have to part with $24 for this row.  I buy peppers in 4’ pots and they are usually about $1.5 a piece.

My little experiment has proven that you can have an average garden with the ten most common plants for under $70.  Including the 8.25% Texas sales tax, my total came out to $64.13.  That leaves enough for 5 bags of compost (which I highly recommend).  I know this doesn’t account for water or mulch or about a million others things you can spend your gardening dollars on, but it does prove that if you have decent soil you can have a very nice garden for a small amount of money.  According to the NGA survey, this $70 garden will produce $600 dollars worth of food.  So, this garden is good for both your health and your pocket book!  February in Central Texas means it is time again to go outside and get dirty!  Happy gardening y’all!

P.S.  If gardening stats fire you up then you can read my full analysis of the results of the NGA survey in next issue of Texas Gardener.

RAIN!!!

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Something I haven't seen in a long time; 3.5" of rain in the gauge!

Well, it finally happened.  After previous rain storms passed us by, we finally got one of our own.  In the past 24 hours it has rained about 3 1/2 inches at my house.  That is very exciting on its own.  However, this rain came in with a storm that spun confirmed tornadoes in Brenham and the Lake Sommerville area.  This storm was also accompanied by lots of thunder and lightening.  If you believe old wives tales, thunder in January means a freeze in March.  We will see.  This year has been so strange I would not be surprised at all if a late freeze comes as soon as the spring plantings are up.

Something else that I haven't see in a long time; a puddle of standing water in my yard.

Speaking of weird things that have happened this year, here are a few that I have noticed on my own little piece of heaven.  First, my peach trees are in bloom!  And the funny thing is, this is the second time they have bloomed.  Not sure what this will mean for our summer peaches but I can’t imagine it is good.  Also, my Cherokee rose has bloomed twice.  This rose doesn’t usually bloom until March.  I also have a “found” crinum that is about to bloom.  This variety usually blooms in May.

The "found" crinum that is blooming about four months too early

In spite of the bad storms that that brought it, I am so thankful for the rain.  The tornadoes were a little scarey but at least no one was hurt.  This rain was substantial enough that most people’s stock tanks caught water.  This is very good news for all of the people that are trying to keep their livestock.  Plus, with just a couple of more rains in the next few weeks, they should be assured of a pretty good early hay crop.

Mushrooms that have popped up in all of my freshly mulched beds

Yes, this is a very strange year so far.  Everyone seems to have a theory as to why; climate change, La Ninya, the Mayans.  I am not sure what is going on, but I am certain I will be able to find some things that will grow for me in spite of it all.

Ellen Bosanquet and the CobraHead Hoe

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Yesterday, while returning from lunch, I found what I believe to be an Ellen Bosanquet crinum bulb laying on top of the ground.  Now I am not certain it is an Ellen Bosanquet but it was laying in a place where a large clump of them had once stood. 

Ellen Bosanquet from SouthernBulb.com

I found this bulb while walking through a garden that I go through quite regularly.  While strolling through it, I discovered that a large bed had been dug up and all of the plant material had been removed.  While surveying this, I noticed the bulb.  It was laying on top of the soil and had just a few roots still in the ground.  I decided that it had been left there to die so I rescued it.

I love crinums and I have several varieties in my beds.  Since Ellen Bosanquet is one I do not have, I was very glad to find this bulb.  In my opinion, Ellen Bosanquet is one of the prettiest.  It rosey pink flowers and slightly rippled foliage makes it an attractive plant whether it is blooming or not.

What I hope is a healthy Ellen Bosanquet bulb

Since I didn’t know how long the bulb had been out of the soil, I planted it as quickly as possible.  This gave me the opportunity to try out a new garden gadget that my wife gave me for Christmas.  The CobraHead Hand Hoe is a marvelous little garden tool that is produced right here in the USA by a small family owned business.  My wife ordered it for me from another family owned business that we often shop with; Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

  I am not a big buyer of garden gadgets.  However, when I saw the CobraHead in the Baker Creek magazine I knew it was something worth having.  The CobraHead is a 13″ long, curved weeder, cultivator, planter, etc.  It has a thin, curved, football shaped head that allows it to work in even the heaviest clays.  In my own garden, the tools I most often use are an old 12′ long Craftsman screwdriver and the claws of an old 20 ounce framing hammer.  The thin and gracefully curving shape of this tool, combined with the overall length and large handle made me realize that I could finally put my hammer and screwdriver back in the tool box.

After using it to plant my new crinum in a fairly heavy clay, I give the tool two big green thumbs up!  The tool performed just as advertised.  I was able to quickly dig a hole with out wearing myself out.  I was very pleased.  (I make this next statement in a very light hearted manner)  Thanks to my new CobraHead, I am actually looking forward to all of those weeds that will soon be popping up in my beds!

Succession Planting of Fava (Broad Beans) in the Potager

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The only way to get your small garden to continuosly produce is to practice succession planting.  Succession planting is nothing more than putting something in the ground as soon as something else comes out.  Since my potager is so small, and I love a steady supply of fresh veggies, I have to be fairly deligent in the way I manage my plantings. 

This past weekend, I harvested all but one of my cauliflower plants.  This freed up the middle of my four triangular beds for something else.  I decided to replace the cauliflower with fava beans (or Broad Beans for my English readers).  I also took this opportunity to plant a few more radishes, some round Paris Market carrots and Green Arrow English Peas.

I have never eaten or grown fava beans before.  However, the seeds were a gift from my dear friend and gardening mentor, Cythia Mueller.  So, in honor of my friend, and in keeping with my tradition of trying new things, I decided to plant them where my cauliflower had been. 

Fava beans (Vicia Fava) are a cool season crop that have been grown for millenia.    While native to North Africa and Southwest Asia, they are widely cultivated around the world.  It is believed that along with lentils, peas and chickpeas, fava has been in production for over 6000 years.  It is also interesting to note that they are not true beans.  Fava beens are legumes; but they are more closely related to vetch than they are to green or lima beans.

Fava beans are a great choice for the fall Texas garden.  They love a nice loamy soil, but will grow well in less perfect soils.  They will also tolerate soils with high salinity so that makes them a great choice for the Bryan-College Station area.  Fava are a true cold weather crop and they can take just about anything our winter can throw at them.  They will survive freezes into the the twenties.  Even though I planted mine on December 31, most people in our area plant them around Thanksgiving.  They grow best at temperatures between 40 and 70 degrees F and they will not set beans once the night time temps go above 75 degrees.

Here you can see how I use the end of my hand rake to make holes for large sized seeds

Fava beans produce a thick, square stalk and can grow to heights of three feet or more.  The leaves of these tall plants can be harvested and used like spinach.  Their white flowers are streaked with black.  Since black is a very unusual color in the plant world I can’t wiat for these plants to bloom so I can see it for myself.   Also, those lovely white and black flowers are edible.

Here you can see me placing the beans in their holes. And yes, that is a Baylor hat on my head. I did my undergraduate in Waco so I can wear that hat with as much pride as I have when I wear my maroon hats. BTW, did you see the Alamo Bowl? Awesome! Sic 'em Bears!

Fava beans should be planted about an inch deep.  You can plant them every four inches or so but they need to be thinned to about 8″ apart.  I used the end of a hand rake to make holes in my soil about 1″ deep and about 9″ apart.  Next, I placed the beans in the hole, covered them with soil and watered them in.   Now, if eveything goes right, I should be picking my favas by mid-March.  What do you think the odds are that the temps will stay below 75 until then?

 

Merry Christmas Everyone, Happy Holidays You All!!!!

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Well, Christmas has now officially past.  I hope you all had a good time.  According to the Mayans, this was the last time any of us will get to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour.  If this was to be out last Christmas together at least it was great!  For the first time in a long time all of our little chickens were at the nest for Christmas day.  This was the best Christmas gift that Sally and I could have recieved.  For three joyous days we cooked, ate and visited.  The nights were filled with libations, laughter and board games. 

Below are a few pics from our most joyous of celebrations:

 

Broccoli harvest that we shared with all of our neighbors

 

Chris, Sassy and Midas prepare the flank steak for Christmas Eve fajitas.

 

 

Red solo cup, we lift you up!

 

Jessie, Katie, Moose and Gran are ready for presents!

Sally set a lovely table and Whitney made a beautiful center piece

BTW, this year’s wine turned out awesomely!  We bought new bottles, a corking machine and had labels made.  Very pleased with the results!

This year’s celebration was almost Rockwellian.  Family gathered together enjoying each other’s company and taking time to be thankful for all that we have been blessed with.  Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope your celebrations were wonderful and I really hope the Mayans are wrong!

The Fall Potager

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Even though it is the middle of December, my little potager has never looked better.  This is one of the reasons I love living in Texas.  Because of the mild winters, I can literally garden year round.  Everyone loves to complain about our hot summers.  However, in my opinion, our winters more than make up for it.  I heard last night that Houston averages 16 days per year below freezing.  We are about 90 miles north of Houston but I am willing to bet we only have 20 to 24 days that are that cold.  Due to this, with proper crop selection, some rotational planting and the willingness to occasionally cover things up, your fall garden can last right up to the spring planting.  Below are several pics of the things that are currently growing in my potager:

I have three different varieties of broccoli growing in my garden.

I have 12 cauliflower growing.  I planted the cauliflower in blocks of three two weeks apart.  This way I don’t have to worry about eating 12 cauliflower in one week!

My wife and I love spinach.  Because of this, two of our triangular beds are lined with it.  In classic gardening form, one bed had a bout a 100% germination rate.  In the other bed, the germination was very spotty.  These little set backs are the things that keep me interested.  I will spend hours trying to figure out why one bed performed perfectly and the other, identical bed, was somewhat of a disappointment.

I always grow lettuce in the fall.  We eat a ton of it and it is so easy.  I only grow leaf lettuce.  Nothing against head lettuce, but once you harvest a head you have to replant and wait.  With leaf lettuce you can continuously clip the leaves through out the season.

I love shallots.  Their form is lovely in many applications in the potager.  I grow these things year round.  I never harvest them all.  Many people call them dividing onions and there is a good reason.  I recently left a clump in the ground for a year and there were almost 50 off shots on it.  I have about a dozen heads of cabbage scattered around the potager.  We are going to try our hand at homemade sauerkraut when the harvest comes in.

I don’t just have veggies growing in the potager.  I have tons of flowers.  These are baby larkspur.  I also have lots of Victoria Salvia, poppies, calendula, mums, two different roses and hollyhocks.  There are also a few byzantine glads and dianthus scattered around as well.

Pansey’s, vi0las (Johhny Jump Ups), carrots and shallots in the center bed.

A very dedicated little bee is gathering nectar on a 40 degree day.

Calendula are often called pot marigolds.  Their petals are edible and they will bloom until it gets about 90 degrees.

Terrariums-A Great (and Cheap) Horticultural Gift Idea for the Holidays

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This post marks a first at the Masters of Horticulture.  Today, I bring you my first ever guest author.  Today’s author is an incredibly intelligent, beautiful and charming museum professional.  She is also my daughter.  Heather is the Tour Programs Coordinator for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH).  Heather is a young professional that shares my love of writing, gardening and saving money.  When I saw what she had I done with these terrariums, I wanted to do a post about them.  I was thrilled that she volunteered to write it.  So, without furhter ado, here is Heather:

Terrariums-A Great (and Cheap) Horticultural Gift Idea for the Holidays

While browsing through a magazine article about gift giving, I came across a description of terrariums that contain tiny vignettes (see examples here: http://twigterrariums.com/photos).   I thought they were very cute.  As a frugal shopper, and the daughter of a DIY gardener, I was inspired to create my own glass container gardens, with just as much character as those in the magazine, but without the big costs. With just $30 and a few hours of time, I put together 8 terrariums that will make great holiday gifts.

Here’s how I did it:  After some research, I made my shopping list of the few key ingredients that I would need to create my terrariums:

  1. Glass Containers with or without lids
  2. River rocks or gravel
  3. Spanish Moss
  4. Plants
  5. Character additives

To find my terrarium containers, I hit my favorite local thrift store, St. Vincent DePaul’s Resale Shop. Most thrift stores are full of unwanted glassware, and I found perfect vessels priced from $0.25 to a whopping $2.50. As usual, signs in St. Vincent’s remind you that “If you steal from St. Vincent DePaul’s, you’re stealing from Jesus.” Since I paid my bill of $7.50 in full, all was well with the Lord.

My terrarium that I call "A stranger in Strange Land". This glass container was purchased for $2.50 at the thrift store.

Next I went to a home and garden store and bought a few plants. For some of my terrariums, I purchased small succulents, choosing varieties that included multiple plants in single pots so that I could split them into multiple containers later. I also grabbed a few easy to care for ivies, like Fig Ivy and Devil’s Ivy. You really don’t need a lot of plants per terrarium and I had more than enough plant material from just 6 single 4” containers. I also picked up a bag of dry Spanish moss. Finally, I needed river rocks. I found them in the potted plant area. A small, one pound bag of beautifully packaged “decorative” river rocks was listed at $5. I then visited the gravel and mulch area, where I found a 40 pound bag of the exact same river rocks, in less attractive packaging, for the same price. The large bag provided more than enough rocks, and I’ve used the leftovers for other garden projects. If you have decent gravel or pebbles around your house, you wouldn’t need to buy rocks at all.

The last item on my list, character additives, were mainly things I had around the house. I did find one small Asian-warrior-with-a-sword sculpture at St. Vincent’s for $2. I also used a small robot bought in Chinatown during a trip to NYC, some sculpty sculptures that I has made previously, and two small ceramic chickens inherited from family. You can use any small sculpture that will bring a little story or personality to your terrarium. For example, in my robot terrarium, dubbed “Stranger in a Strange Land,” a small lonely robot has wandered into a rocky alien wilderness of ornamental cabbage and Aloe Vera.

A double decker with chickens

To assemble the terrariums, I created a bottom layer of river rocks. Not only do the rocks provide a decorative element to the terrarium, they also help with drainage. Next I added a layer of Spanish moss. The moss ensures that the soil in the next level up, does not filter down into the rock layer. The terrarium doesn’t require much soil. An inch or two will be more than enough for the third level. It is this third level in which the plants are arranged. In your own terrariums, you can make infinite plant combinations. Plants with different textures will be most interesting when used together; just make sure that they all have room to grow. In some of my terrariums, I added a final layer or moss or rocks for visual interest, and then placed my robot/chickens/sculptures where they fit best in the final “landscape.”

I am a beginner terrarium creator, and my 8 new terrariums are only about a week old, but they seem to be doing really well so far. I plan to continue experimenting as I make more terrariums for the holidays. There are lots of great websites that can provide more information. I’m sure some of my open air “terrariums” aren’t quiet self-sustaining, but nevertheless, they are attractive and fun to make and give as a gift.

So this Christmas, if your list is long and pockets are shallow, why not head out to local thrift shop and nursery? With a little effort and creativity you can make a very creative, gift that will continue to brighten someone’s home for as long as they continue to add water.

Another great terrarium in a great and inexpensive glass container

Nut Sedge-The Worst Weed in the World!

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Nut Sedge (Cyperus rotundus), or nut grass as it is often called around here, is one of the most invasive weeds in the entire world.   I am not making that up.  It is currently listed as invasive in over 90 countries across the globe.  Since there are only about 196 countries out there, that means that nut sedge is a major problem for 46% of the entire world.

The origins of nut sedge are most commonly attributed to Africa.  However, there are varieties that are native to southern and central Europe and southern Asia.  Where ever it came from, everyone that I know wishes it would have stayed home.

In my mind, nut sedge is the quintessential weed.  It grows where it is not wanted, it spreads incredibly quickly and it is almost impossible to control.  In fact, it is one of the very few weeds that will not be stopped by rubber mulch or plastic sheating.  My botanical brother Morgan McBride loves to tell the story of his above ground pool.  Before installing it, he stripped the site of vegetation, sprayed with round up and brought in sand to level the site.  He worked all of two days to get it all assembled and then he left it alone until the next weekend.  When he went out to fill it, 5 DAYS LATER, the bottom of his brand new pool had 50+ nut sedge sprouts sticking right up through the rubber bottom.  Needless to say, he hates nut sedge too.

I am writing this post because, once again, I am faced with a major outbreak in one of my beds.  Three weeks ago, I cleaned out a large bed.  I pulled all of the weeds that I could see, laid down eight layers of newspaper and then covered it all with about 6” of hard wood mulch.  Imagine my surprise when I was watering just two weeks later and discovered approximately 100 of these little green devils all over my freshly mulched bed!

Until this last bit of mulching I thought I had eradicated most of it in my beds.  I am certain that most nut sedge comes into my yard concealed in the materials that I am applying.  There is just so much nut grass in my newly mulched bed that it had to be in the mulch I used.  And here in lies one of the major problems with this green devil.   You can mulch it, you can dig it, you can compost it and you can run it through a shredder and it will still come back.

Biology of a Pest – Why is nut sedge such an effective weed?  Well, the answer lies in its biology.  First of all, it’s a sedge.  All sedges have a very thick cuticle covering them so many topically applied herbicides do not even get into the plant.  And, even if it did, it wouldn’t solve your problem.  You might kill the parts of the plant that are showing but the tuber (or “nut”) of this plant is what allows it to come back time after time.  This tuber lies deep in the soil and it is connected to the plants by very fragile roots.  That’s why pulling it does very little good.  You may get what you think is the plant and all of its roots, but in reality, you most likely left the nutlet behind.  This nutlet can lie dormant for up to two years.

Another problem with nut sedge is that in addition to the tubers, it also spreads by rhizomes.  These underground roots shoot out sideways from the nutlet and create another tuber that will, in turn, sprout another plant.  These rhizomes and tubers can be as deep as 14” in your soil.  Digging, and I mean deep digging, is really the only way to get rid of this pest in an organic manner.

If you are not of the organic mindset, then there are a couple of chemical products out there that have been shown to be fairly effective against nut sedge.  First is a product called Sedge Hammer (which I think is a really cute name).  Sedge Hammer contains a chemical called halosulfuron and it is the very best thing out there.  It requires you to coat the plant with it through a spray or a direct application.  I have used it both ways (in a previous garden, before I tried to be an organic grower) and for me, it was most effective when I used a brush like applicator and actually “painted” each plant with it.  Another trade name for halosulfuron is Manage.  This product is readily available at most garden centers.

Another effective product is imazaquin.  Imazaquin is sold under the brand name of of Image.  Both of these products are designed to be absorbed by the roots so you should water soon after application.  Also, for best results, treat your nut sedge when it is young.  The bigger it gets , the harder it is to kill.  Also, don’t be surprised if you have to apply several treatments to get the control desired.

P.S. Round Up (Glyphosate) also works somewhat against this scurge.  If using Round Up, make sure to spray when the plants are young, spray often and make sure there is nothing that you care about growing anywhere close to nut sedge.