Staking is a simple technique but an important one for vegetable and flower growers alike. For large-flowered plants such as dahlias, asters, and peonies, staking allows the blooms to show to best advantage and keeps them from getting top-heavy after a rain. Tall, fragile-stemmed plants like delphiniums often need help weathering storms. In the vegetable garden, supporting plants with stakes or other supports will mean the difference between a good harvest and a poor one. If you’ve ever tried to grow tomatoes without staking the plants or growing them in cages, you know how hard it is to salvage a decent crop. Whatever tomatoes you are able to find under the heavy weight of the plants often succumb to attacks from insects and larger animals or rot.

Staking doesn’t have to be unattractive, an important consideration in the flower garden. In fact, if done correctly, it’s not in the least bit an intrusion. Properly staked plants have no visible means of support the foliage grows up to hide the stakes, strings, and wires.

There are several different ways to stake plants. As a general rule, it’s best to start early in the season, so the leaves have a chance to cover the supports and you can train the plant as it grows. It’s not easy to stake a plant that has sprawled on the ground or has flopped over after a heavy rain. You can easily break or crush stems. Furthermore, leaves and flowers won’t look quite as graceful as they would if properly trained from the start.

Bamboo Canes: Bamboo canes are lightweight, sturdy, and available in several thicknesses from pencil-thin to several-inch canes suitable for staking tomatoes or large flowered dahlias. Use the thinner ones for supporting stems of delphiniums or other top-heavy beauties. Select a bamboo cane about two-thirds as tall as the plant will be at maturity and insert it into the ground close to the base of the plant. Then use yarn, strips of soft fabric, or strips of old pantyhose to tie the flower stem to the stake. Add more ties as the plant grows taller. For multi-stemmed flowers such as chrysanthemums, use a single stake to support more than one stem. Tie twine or yarn to the stake, gather the stems, and loop the twine loosely around them.

You can also use bamboo canes to make a sort of cat’s-cradle around clumps of flowers such as peonies. Insert four or five canes around the plant. Again, they should be two-thirds as tall as the plant at maturity Then tie twine to one and wrap it around the others in turn. Tie it off on the first cane. Add rings of twine every 6 to 12 inches as the plant grows. You can also weave the twine through the plant foliage from one stake to its opposing one to create an extra network of support.

Pea Staking: When you prune your trees in early spring, don’t burn those trimmings. Instead, save them and use them to stake such weak-stemmed perennials as coreopsis or gypsophila and such annual climbers as sweet peas. When the plants are still small, simply stick twiggy brush into the ground near them. As they grow, the plants will climb over the network of twigs and their foliage will soon hide the twigs from view. Pea staking is most successful for plants that don’t grow taller than about 2 feet. The twigs should be about 6 inches shorter than the plant at maturity.

Wire Cages: Round or square wire cages similar to but smaller than the ones used to grow tomatoes are available for perennials such as peonies. Ready-made cages have wire legs that you simply push into the ground. You don’t need to tie plants to wire frames; they simply grow up and through the wire and get all the support they need from the enclosure. Cages need to be put in place in early spring, while the plants are still small. You can buy cages ready-made or make your own using galvanized large-mesh.

Marc Warren offers a vegetable gardening tip of the day - such as how to grow beans and peas - on the Gardening Mania blog. For more helpful advice, visit http://gardeningmania.blogspot.com

Related : BabyForMom.com

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Container vegetable gardening is becoming more prevalent in these days of smaller yards and more hazards with our food supply. More people want to grow some of their own vegetables in an attempt to avoid buying non-organic product or having to pay the high prices of organic produce. With the recent prevalence of outbreaks of salmonella, e. coli and other from products such as green onions and spinach, we are left concerned about whether any of the produce we buy is really safe. The problem is, the produce we eat is mass produced and mass processed. This means a lot of hands are touching each and every item we end up eating. When you grow your own vegetables, you know whose hands are touching your food!

Of course, most of us don’t have the space for large gardens. Many of us have very small yards. Apartment and condo dwellers may have no space at all! That is where container vegetable gardening is very handy. Growing vegetables in containers means you can grow your vegetables on a deck or patio, or even indoors using special grow lights. Because of container gardening, we can now grow our own vegetables no matter where we live.

Some types of vegetables are more appropriate for growing in containers than others. Some of the larger types of plants won’t do as well in containers. For example, corn is so large that you would have to use a very large, very heavy pot to support it. Large melons grow on long vines and may set out multiple root systems, thus they don’t do well in containers. Very large varieties of tomatoes and squashes may be hard to support in pots.

Some types do especially well in containers. Lettuce, spinach, and other leafy vegetables typically do very well in containers. Smaller varieties of tomatoes such as salad tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, and grape tomatoes are great for container growing. Many types of bush beans and peas do well in containers. If you use large tubs, you can even plant potatoes in containers! It’s not difficult to do this, and they grow remarkably well in this manner. In fact, most smaller varieties of vegetables will grow just fine in pots.

The biggest concern with regards to growing your vegetables in containers is choosing the right size of container for your plants. You should look up the average root depth, as well as the average diameter of the plant. If your plant has 6 inch deep roots and normally grows about 10 inches wide, you should get a container that is about 8 inches deep and 10-12 inches wide. You should always leave a small amount of room for error. Sometimes your plant’s roots may grow a bit deeper than normal, or the plant may grow larger than expected. You don’t want to have to risk damaging your plants by transplanting them if you don’t have to.

If you are concerned about the safety of your food, I suggest you give container vegetable gardening a try. Remember, you can also grow many types of herbs and even fruits in containers, too!

Amy Stevens has been an avid container gardening hobbyist for many years. She runs several gardening websites, including Container Gardening Tips.

For more container gardening tips, visit her site Container Gardening Tips.

Price : $11.26

Product Description

Discover the secrets of a naturally pest-proof vegetable garden with Great Garden Companions. Let master gardener Sally Jean Cunningham show you how to keep pests and diseases at bay with her unique companion-gardening system. By planting special combinations of vegetables, flowers, and herbs, you can minimize pest and disease problems and create a high-yielding, beautiful garden!

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-09-05
I’m an avid gardener, and I garden organically. My specialty has always been ornamentals, but recently I’ve become interested in vegetable gardening. This book has been a great resource to help me understand how to layout and manage a sustainable organic garden that is productive, beautiful, and fun to work in. Although there are not many color photos in this book, there are many illustrations that provide the nuts-and-bolts of laying out a garden. In addition, there are lists of vegetables and companions, along with information that specifies when to plant, basic plant requirements, and when/how to harvest. This book is fun to read and a great resource to refer to again and again.

Review date : 2008-07-08
i checked this book out from the library, and let my neighbor borrow it. she liked it so much didn’t want to give it back. as soon as i started reading it, i understood why. it’s very approachable, and has lots of crucial information for first-year and experienced gardeners alike. and it’s got nice pictures and clear diagrams. i really like the "top crops and how to grow them" section.
so i bought my own copy, and i’ve been showing it to everyone who stops by to see my veggies. i like her "messy-looking" technique of interplanting all different kinds of vegetables. altho i should have paid more attention to how far apart to plant seeds, i had a veritable tomato forest under my squashes.
i bought another copy for my stepmom, and she loved it. she’s a top notch gardener. she wrote to say this book had answered some of her longtime questions, and she had only owned it for a few hours. she said the book was "awesome" and she uses it frequently.
i have half a dozen gardening books, but this is the one i re-read most often.

Review date : 2008-06-14
I checked this book out through inter-library loan - had to return it last week & am really missing it! So needless to say will be buying my own copy soon. I had read some other books on companion planting but they weren’t as thorough or impressive as this one. Excellent resource, especially for beginners. The bulk of the book is about companion planting but she also discusses the marits of mulching, composting, beneficial bugs & more in an easy to read format. I personally have never been to fond of the separate "garden plot" - off, alone by itself (never mind that we don’t currantly have the space on our city lot for one anyway :). Have already put some of companion planting to practice & so far am having success (you should see my leafy lettuce & spinach!). This is a great book for many reasons - it’s a budget friendly, green guide to gardening! Blessings…

Review date : 2008-06-06
I am findingg this book to be very interesting and helpful My goal is to not have to use any pesticides and garden in a very small space. This book is giving me many helpful ideas.

Review date : 2008-05-19
I love this book. It is filled with loads of useful information explained in a clear and concise manner. Not only is it a great book to own, but it is also a great book to give as a gift.