Moxie Gardener

Ornamental grasses in the landscape of a parking lot at a local bank.

Here in the far north the landscape is barren and snow-filled for at least three months of the year (and often longer).  Ornamental grasses provide winter interest in the garden.  Unlike most other herbaceous plants that die back or become limp piles of “compost” in winter, ornamental grasses maintain their structure.  Their leaves and seed heads stay visible above the snow and provide a welcome break from the monotony of the snowy landscape.

Some ornamental grasses stay evergreen throughout the year and others turn brown and grow anew from their roots in spring.  Ornamental grasses are members of the Poaeae family and consist of several different species within this family.

Ornamental grasses require very little care once they’re established in the garden.  They will grow in almost any type of soil.   Most types prefer full sun, but a few varieties tolerate light shade.  Ornamental grasses are seldom bothered by pests or diseases.

Be conscious of hardiness zones and plant accordingly when selecting ornamental grasses.  Space plants as far apart as their expected height at maturity.  They need a lot of room in which to grow and will reward you admirably for providing it for them.

During the growing season, ornamental grasses provide unusual color in the landscape and garden.  The foliage can be green, blue, or red.  Variegated varieties have red, white, or yellow foliage with ivory or yellow stripes.  In autumn these colors deepen to reds, tans and browns.

The flower spikes—called inflorescence—dry well and add height to dried winter arrangements.  Flower spikes come in colors like maroons, reds, pinks, silvers, whites, tans, and yellows.

Other than root division every three or four years, Ornamental grasses require very little care.  In return, they provide interest in the garden during all seasons.

Especially during the long, dark winter months.

Ornamental cabbages sold in a bouquet of cut flowers at the farmer's market.

Ornamental cabbages are one of the last spots of fresh color in the landscape at this time of year.  Although they are edible, ornamental cabbages are grown for their colorful leaves.  They come in colors ranging from reds, to purples, to pinks, to whites, with ruffled foliage that is much fancier than regular cabbage.

Ornamental cabbages share the same botanical name as edible cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower—Brassica oleracea. The ornamental varieties are edible too, but they are not as tasty and tender as their “edible” counterparts.

Grow ornamental cabbages the same way you grow regular, edible cabbages.  Plant in full sun in rich, fertile soil.  While ornamental cabbages can be started in individual pots and transplanted to the garden, the plants will grow better and produce healthier and larger cabbages if direct seeded in the garden where they are to grow.  Plant seeds 6 to 10 weeks before your first anticipated fall frost.

Plant seeds 6 inches apart in rows 18 to 24 inches apart.  Because the seeds need light to germinate, barely cover them with less than 1/8 inch of soil and do not firm the soil down.  When the plants are 3 inches high, thin to stand 18 to 24 inches apart.  Ornamental cabbages reach 18 to 24 inches in diameter, and 18 to 24 inches high.

Ornamental cabbages don’t develop their characteristic colors until touched by frost.  Subsequent frosts will intensify the colors.  Ornamental cabbages can withstand temperatures down to 5 degrees F., but must be gradually acclimated.  A sudden cold snap will be fatal.  If you watch the weather and cover the plant if large changes in temperature are expected, your ornamental cabbages can last well into early winter in the north, and even all winter in milder climates.

One caveat about ornamental cabbages:  used as a cut flower, it starts to stink like cabbage after a few days.  Get around this by cutting the ornamental cabbages for arrangements early in the day you plan to use them and discard within a day or two.

Extend your garden’s growing season with ornamental cabbages.  They are one of the last purely “for show” plants left growing in the garden at season’s end.

Cranberries can be grown by home gardeners.

Cranberries grow on small, evergreen shrubs and are sometimes called the “Rubies of the Pines.” Vaccinium macrocarpon is what the botanists call them.  Native American Indians consider cranberries a symbol of peace.

Native to North America and grown only on this continent, cranberries can be found growing on the East Coast from Newfoundland south to North Carolina and west to Minnesota.  Cranberries grow best in Zones 2 to 5.

Cranberries are for the most part grown commercially, but by providing the right conditions, the home gardener can successfully grow them, too.  Cranberries spread by “runners” and make a good ground cover.

Plant one year old transplants in spring or fall.  Space the plants about two feet apart in each direction.  Cranberries like sandy, acidic soils with good drainage and with lots of peat moss added.  They like damp soil, but do not like to sit in water during the growing season, so good drainage is essential.

Add a 2 to 3 inch layer of sand to the top of the soil every other year.  This will increase the vigor of the cranberries and increase yield.  Cover cranberry bushes with a pine needle mulch in winter.  Uncover around April 1st, but continue to protect the tender shoots from frosts and freezes into mid May.

One year old plants will flower and produce fruit after three years in your garden.  Harvest berries by hand from late September to late October.  Berries will suffer damage if exposed to temperatures below 30 degrees F.  It is not necessary to flood your cranberry patch.  Commercial operations flood their fields for easy harvesting.

After three years of fruit production, prune your cranberry patch by cutting away shoots, trimming runners and generally straightening up the bed.  Your cranberry patch will reward you by producing more berries.

Cranberries produce their own preservative, benzoic acid, and will keep several months packed in water in barrels or other breathable containers.

And then of course, there’s Thanksgiving….

Sweet potatoes are a staple in the tropics.

Sweet potatoes are as American as South America.  They are, in fact, native to South America and have been cultivated there for over 5,000 years.  Sweet potatoes spread throughout the Americas, and interestingly, to Polynesia, making it there before western explorers.  The timing of the sweet potatoes’ arrival in Polynesia before western explorers is the subject of much speculation and argument.

The sweet potato belongs to the Convolvulaceae family and the Ipomoea genus, the same genus as the Morning Glory.  Its full binomial name is Ipomoea batatas. Sweet potatoes are sometimes mistakenly called yams, but the two are in different families and are only distantly related.

Sweet potatoes mature in two to nine months, depending on variety and growing conditions.  Early maturing varieties can be grown in the temperate north.  Sweet potatoes grow best in the sub-tropics with average temperatures of 75 degrees F.

Sweet potatoes are grown from “slips.”  The so-called slips grow from sweet potato tubers in storage.  The slips are cut off the tubers and planted in the ground, taking care to plant the slip so the end that was closest to the tuber is at the bottom.

As long as they get lots of consistent moisture, sweet potatoes will grow in all types of soil.  The vines will produce flowers, but only if they receive less than eleven hours of daylight each day.

Harvest sweet potatoes like regular potatoes, when the vines begin to die down.  After harvesting, let the sweet potatoes “cure” at a temperature of about 75 to 80 degrees F. for one to two weeks.  This will toughen up the skins and heal any minor cuts.

Stored at 55 to 61 degrees F. with 85 to 90 percent humidity, sweet potatoes will keep for six months.

If there’s any left after Thanksgiving, that is.

Kohlrabi may be called "knob celery."

Kohlrabi is said to be the hardiest of all vegetables.  Kohlrabi will withstand temperatures in the upper 20’s and will keep growing even after Swiss Chard has frozen out.  Cover the plants at night if temperatures dip into the lower 20’s and daytime temperatures rise into at least the upper 20’s.  Your kohlrabi will stay alive until temperatures are consistently 25 degrees F. or colder.

Thought to be developed from a plant called “marrow cabbage,” kohlrabi is indeed a member of the cabbage family.  Its Latin name is Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes.  Its common name comes from the German words kohl, for cabbage and rabi, for turnip.

Kohlrabi was first grown about 1500 A.D. in Europe and made it to the United States by the 1800’s.  Sometimes mistakenly called a root vegetable, kohlrabi shares cold hardiness with that class of vegetables and in fact tastes best if grown in cool weather.   Few insects or pests bother kohlrabi.

The kohlrabi “root” is actually a swollen part of its stem and forms just above the surface of the soil.  The leaves are also edible and are most often eaten like spinach, either raw or cooked.

Plant kohlrabi in spring as soon as soil can be worked, whether you’re planting seeds or transplants.  Harvest kohlrabi before hot weather arrives.  Plant for fall harvest in mid-summer, about the time you plant your late cabbages.  Time your planting so you can harvest kohlrabi beginning one to two weeks prior to your first fall frost.  Depending on the variety, kohlrabi matures in 38-55 days.

Plant kohlrabi in rich soil and keep well watered as kohlrabi tastes best if grown on rapidly.  Sow seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep in rows 12 to 18 inches apart.  When the seedlings are a few inches high, thin to 2 to 5 inches apart.  Use the thinned plants for tender stir fried greens.

Begin to harvest kohlrabi when the knobs reach about tennis ball size.  Kohlrabi has a celery-like flavor but tastes  more nutty than celery.  Kohlrabi keeps longer than celery too.  Stored in plastic bags in the refrigerator or root cellar, kohlrabi will keep for several months.

Plant bittersweet for stunning fall displays.

Fall has an abundance of natural materials for seasonal decorating.  Bittersweet vines, with their orange and scarlet berries, are a real knockout in fall seasonal displays.

Bittersweet vines make an even more stunning display in the fall landscape.  Their brightly colored berries really “pop” next to their vivid yellow foliage.  Bittersweet berries stay on the vines well into winter, providing visual interest and food for the birds.  Unfortunately, bittersweet vines are rather uninspired looking during spring and summer.

The berry-covered vines we see every fall in seasonal displays and at florists are actually one of three different types of vines, all commonly called “bittersweet.”

The American or “false” bittersweet, is a native species.  The Latin name is Celastrus scandens.  The berries on this variety of bittersweet appear at the tips of the vines.  Considered an endangered species, its habitat is being overrun by the invasive Oriental bittersweet.

Oriental bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus, is similar to American bittersweet in appearance and habitat.  One difference is the berries on Oriental bittersweet grow all along the vines, rather that at the tips, like American bittersweet.  Because of its vigorous growth habit, Oriental bittersweet is in some places considered an invasive species with restrictions on planting.  Oriental bittersweet grows so vigorously that it chokes and ultimately kills any tree unfortunate enough to play “trellis” to it.

The third bittersweet, the “true” bittersweet, is actually in the Nightshade family, classified as Solanum dulcamara.  This bittersweet was classified after the other two, so even though it is thought of as the “true” bittersweet, that name was already taken.  True bittersweet produces berries that start out green, change to yellow, then orange, then scarlet.  It is not unusual to find berries in all four colors on a single vine.  It makes a stunning fall display.

Solanum dulcamara is the bittersweet that was used medicinally.  The taste is reported to start out bitter, then finish with a sweet aftertaste, hence the name “bittersweet.”  NOTE:  All members of the Nightshade family are poisonous.  Consult a knowledgeable professional before using any herb medicinally.

Bittersweet vines grow vigorously and require diligence to contain their growth habit.  They will reward you in fall with a stunning display of the yellow-orange fruits that burst open to reveal the scarlet seed pod, set off by their vivid yellow foliage.