BETTER HOMES AND GARDEN

Look what I found on the Better Homes and Garden website. I know most of you probably know about this site or may even get the magazine but have you looked at the site lately. They have a lot of things to spike your interest. I love this idea in the photo. Find a wire wastebasket of preferred height at a home store. Lightly line it with peat moss, then fill the remaining area with potting soil. Top it off with your desired plants. Here, white delphiniums look great next to a doorway.

Check out these quick videos from Better Homes And Gardens too. Starting with, "make your own stepping stones"...hanging baskets, vine suupports, etc. Each one is about a minute and a half. I think you will enjoy them.

Mini videos

EDIBLE LANDSCAPE & PATIO TOMATOES

Interest in patio vegetable gardens and edible landscapes is going through the roof. I knew this explosion was going on in Europe because of some of the garden blogs I read. I wondered if it would hit here, too. After the scare we are having with out tomatoes, lettuce and other veggies this year, it was just a matter of time. Big veggies like zucchini squash, acorn squash and Windsor pumpkins are being grown in large patio containers. Other containers, not so large, are filled with peppers, sweet ones and hot ones like Cheyenne. Although I have a garden, I also grow peppers and patio tomatoes in containers. You can grow lettuce in a bowl on your patio. Grow them in window boxes, hanging baskets, all kinds of ways to grow veggies. I mix flowers and veggies in my garden and in containers around the property.

Sales in vegetable seeds and transplants have taken off. Edible landscapes and small square-foot or intensive-type gardens like mine are gaining in popularity. Look for transplants at local garden centers as well as seeds for some quick sow-grow-and-harvest products like cilantro, that key ingredient for salsa and fajitas, ( I love fajitas) or basil for Italian pesto sauce. I am growing two types of basil this year. One I grow alongside my tomatoe plants, since it is talior made to go with tomatoes and the other I use in pork dishes. I grow it on my back porch in a container. It is stronger than the other one so it is good with pork.

There is a new eggplant out this year , SLIM JIM, that I am trying to locate... It can be used as the thriller plant (see another post for this) in a mixed container. I can also plant it in my Lantana bed with my yellow and orange flowers. I think it will be a winning combination -- plus, I will be eating eggplant parmesan which is one of my favoirte dishes.

HANGING BASKETS

Hanging basket containing a display of purple and white flowers including Diascia, Phlox, Verbena, Lobelia, Reinwardtia and ivy-leaved Pelargonium.

I love hanging baskets. I like to use a big, big basket it gets more attention and you have to water it less. Right now I don't have any planted,,they just hang there, making me feel guilty. I want to get out this weekend and see what kind of flowers I can find. I fully intended to plant a few but I got so involved with the veggie garden, I just didn't take the time.

I really like the mesh type baskets best because when you think about it, most baskets are seen from below and this way, you can poke holes and plants all around the sides. You can buy the natural mesh liners to line your pot. It looks better from below. You will have to line it with plastic to keep it from getting dry so fast, that's the only problem. With the plastic types, you won't need to do this. Insert you plants through the slits cut in both the natural liner and the plastic. Make it stiffer so it is easier to insert by wrapping in a piece of stiff paper.

When it gets dry, take it down and let it soak in a pan of water for a few hours, overnight is better. That way it will get thoroughly and evenly wet. Use slow release fertilizer in your soil. Primp them while you're at it, get rid of dead flowers, trim up the dry or dead foliage..check for disease or insects before you hang it back up. And use a strong support. Plants get really heavy when wet and need the support. I have had a few fall so I know. I messed up one of my favorites in a pot once, broke to smitherins.... And after all your hard work on them,,don't forget to enjoy them.