Given the growing (haha) popularity of vegetable gardening over the last several years, which has gone into overdrive during the pandemic, more and more people are looking for innovative ways to grow in all kinds of spaces. Container vegetable gardening can be as simple as popping a tomato into a bucket, but there are lots … Continue reading Contain Yourself: Vegetable gardening in containers and small spaces
I attempted to clean up our little home greenhouse over the holiday break. There’s no good place to recycle pots around here, and I hate throwing them away…so I suffer from container build-up. Figured I’d sort through the haphazard pile in the corner of the greenhouse, wash and re-stack the useable ones, and finally ditch … Continue reading Re-using containers? A cautionary tale.
I’m just starting to think about getting my containers planted for the summer and happened to get an email on the topic from a blog reader. John was frustrated with a local columnist’s advice on using gravel in the bottom of the containers for drainage. When challenged, the columnist refuted John’s accurate comments with “logical … Continue reading Container planting: intuition vs. reality
A few days ago I got a question from Cynthia about “potting up.” For those of you for whom this is an unknown phrase (and no, it’s not a euphemism for a certain herbal activity), it refers to the practice of moving plants into ever larger containers. She was wondering if there was any “real … Continue reading Plant containers – does size really matter?
I enjoyed Jeff’s post on the RootTrapper and thought I’d share another interesting and [relatively] new development in the world of greenhouse growing containers. Take a tube full of growing media, wrap a paper sleeve around it, and voila – the Ellepot! It’s bottomless, root permeable, and degradable. Each Ellepot sits in its own cell … Continue reading Building a Better Container, Part Deux: The Ellepot
As most of you know, roots circling around a container isn’t considered a good thing. And so people try various things to control circling roots. One of the more creative horticultural minds out there, Carl Whitcomb, a guy why basically got sick of academia and went into private industry (and, as far as I can tell, … Continue reading Building a Better Container
“Put rocks in the bottom of pots for drainage” is one of the most pervasive gardening myths, because it makes intuitive sense (as discussed in this earlier post). Understanding the science behind capillary barriers (what gardeners call perched water tables) is not only more mentally satisfying than the faulty belief but it can help you … Continue reading Hitting rock bottom
It’s been 20 years since I began my Extension position at Washington State University. During that time, I’ve tackled gardening myths and produced peer-reviewed fact sheets and manuals through our Extension Publications department. But because of the way that Google searches work, these resources are often buried far beneath the glitzy but fact-free websites promoting … Continue reading The truth is out there – you just need to know where to look. Part 1 – navigating the informational swamp
A few months ago I wrote about the newly released Purple Tomato, one of the first direct-to-consumer genetically engineered plants made available to the general public. (I’m happy to report that my Purple Tomato seedlings are growing along quite well.) Shortly after I wrote that article, I learned about another new genetically engineered plant being … Continue reading Hort couture or hubris? The growing trend of genetically engineered novelty plants
I’ve written before about my time as a trial judge for the All-America Selections program, which I did during my seven years with Nebraska Extension. I happened upon the opportunity to be a judge by accident, but really came to relish my time and the work that the organization does. You see, All-America Selections started … Continue reading Trials and Triumphs: All-America Selections Judging and 2024 Winners
