Savvy Gardening

Annual vines: 12 great choices for the garden

While it takes years for perennial vines, such as climbing rose or wisteria, to properly take hold, annual vines can really shine—and grow quickly in a single growing season. There are several flowering vines that are breathtaking and also pretty easy to grow. So, whether you’re drawn to vibrant blooms and intoxicating scents or especially unusual leaves, you’re bound to find a few contenders here. Best of all, you can use these annual vines to address specific challenges in your landscape, attract bees and other important pollinators, create interesting container and window box arrangements, and more.

Japanese Stewartia: A beautiful small tree for the landscape

Written by Jessica Walliser

Few deciduous trees do as much for a four-season landscape as the Japanese stewartia. You could say spring’s bronzed-leaf emergence, summer’s cup-shaped white flowers, and fall’s stunning foliage change are enough to set this ornamental tree apart from the others. But the Japanese Stewartia has one more beauty secret to reveal, with beautiful, peeling bark that’s stunning year-round. This last feature is especially evident once its leaves have fallen, lending a distinctive focal point to the winter landscape. In this article, I’ll go over Japanese Stewartia’s traits, its preferred growing conditions, and how to care for the tree. If you didn’t know about the Japanese Stewartia before, I’m pretty sure you’ll be planning to add one to your garden before you’re finished reading.
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Growing potatoes in straw: A step-by-step guide

Written by Jessica Walliser

Get cleaner potatoes that are easier to harvest with minimal digging by growing potatoes in straw. This sounds like a cheesy gimmick, but it’s all true. Simply burying the potatoes in straw is a remarkably easy way to grow potatoes in your garden. You might already know about straw mulch’s many garden benefits, including that it reduces weeds, keeps the ground cooler, helps the soil retain moisture, and feeds the soil as it decomposes. By growing potatoes in straw, you combine all of those benefits with potatoes’ need for a dark, cool, easily draining place to grow.
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Growing fava beans in your garden: A how-to guide

Written by Niki Jabbour

Because they’re prolific, very nutritious, and also great for your soil, growing fava beans in the garden is a win-win. This easy-to-grow vegetable is tolerant of cold weather and one of the first crops planted in spring with the harvest beginning in early to mid-summer. Fava bean plants grow 2 to 6 feet tall, depending on the variety, and when they bloom attract bees and other pollinators. In this article you’ll learn all about planting, growing, and harvesting fava beans from your garden.

How to start seeds in a paper towel

Written by Niki Jabbour

More gardeners should know how to start seeds in a paper towel. It’s a handy method for checking germination rates of old seeds, but it’s also an effective way to start vegetable, flower, and herb seeds indoors. It saves serious time and space, and is very easy to do. In this article you’ll learn the essential steps for starting seeds in a paper towel and what to do with them after they sprout.

Propagating rosemary from cuttings

Written by Jessica Walliser

Propagating rosemary plants has become one of my favorite tasks in my herb garden. It is a fun and simple process, and when performed correctly, propagating your own rosemary can save you money and provide plenty of plants to share with neighbors and friends. In this article, I’ll fill you in on how I propagate rosemary using two different methods.
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