Pole beans are heavy producers for the relatively small area of garden space they require. Choose a spot in full sun, loosen the soil to a depth of 1 foot, and add a 4-inch layer of aged compost or organic soil amendment—but not manure (beans produce their own nitrogen). Plant 5 seeds around the base
You only need to list a few of the varietal names of pluots—Flavor King, Flavor Queen, Flavor Prince, Flavor Supreme, Flavor Heart, Flavorosa, Flavorella, Flavor Grenade—to understand the most outstanding attribute of these hybrids between plums and apricots. A pluot—which is ¾ plum and ¼ apricot—is all about flavor. It has the flavorful blend of
If you crave a fruit with a juicy sweet-tart taste and don’t mind working for it, you will surely enjoy the pomegranate. The pomegranate is a native of Iran and is one of just a handful of fruits that warranted a mention in the Old Testament. In fact, Moses told the Israelites as they wandered
There are more than 200 varieties of chilies or hot peppers. Sometimes the names of chilies can get a bit confusing because often the same pepper will be known by two or even three different names. Here’s a quick users’ guide to about four dozen very popular chilies and how you can used them in
Boiled Yukon Gold potatoes with butter and dill Choose potatoes for planting with cooking in mind. Potatoes for boiling—for making potato salad and home-fry potatoes—should have a low- to medium-starch content. Potatoes for baking should have high-starch content. Low- and medium-starch potatoes keep their shape and remain creamy and toothy when boiled. High-starch potatoes will
The Nantes carrot was first described in a nineteenth century French vegetable seed catalog in this way: “Root almost perfectly cylindrical…skin very smooth…flesh of the root entirely red, very sweet and mild in flavor….” The Nantes carrot takes its name from the city on the Atlantic coast of France where the surrounding countryside is ideal
Spinach staggered across narrow row Planting beds—not traditional rows—offer the best use of space for growing a home vegetable garden. Planting beds that space two, three, or more plants across a bed 1½ to 4 feet wide are ideal for a home garden. These beds are often called narrow beds—they are just wide enough for
The navel orange is a type of sweet orange that is large, seedless and has a rich, juicy flavor that is delicious for eating out of hand. There are several varieties of navel oranges. They all have thick, rough, bright orange skins that are easy to peel. The segments of the navel orange are easy
Nectarines come to harvest in spring and continue through summer. If you get to know your nectarines and choose from early, midseason, and late harvest varieties, you can have fresh, local nectarines at your table for nearly half the year. The best way to select nectarines is to smell them and gently squeeze them. A
Botanically speaking the nectarine is a variety of peach. But eaten out of hand or served at the table, the nectarine is both more and less than the peach. Less: the nectarine is smaller than the peach; it is about the size of a plump plum. More: the skin of the nectarine is fuzzless which
