2019 Garden Superstars - New Plants and Products for Spring

The best way to reverse those winter blues is to get back in the garden. To get you excited for spring, Garden Media Group has released its 2019 Garden Superstars for Spring. This year’s list features delicious edible plants, safe garden food and innovative products.

These Garden Superstars will transform any patio or backyard and make gardening easier

Grow your own homegrown nutritious blueberries. This spring try two new varieties from the Bushel and Berry® collection that are perfect for warmer climates and self-pollinating. Blueberry Buckle™, a quick growing blueberry that stays compact with white bell-shaped flowers that appear in spring and produce sweet, dark blueberries. Southern Bluebelle™ will be a charming addition to your patio or landscape. This petite blueberry plant produces plump, juicy blueberries in late summer and displays bright red, emerging foliage that turns emer­ald green as it matures. For more information on these and other berries, visit www.bushelandberry.com.

Summer Bulb of 2019. Get blooms all summer in fiery shades of red, orange and yellow with Crocosmia. Requiring little care, they combine well with ornamental grasses to create a beautiful scene in your yard. Crocosmia is a hummingbird magnet, makes outstanding cut flowers and can provide a vivid splash of color to containers. Plus, they’re deer resistant too! Visit your local garden center to find more summer flowering bulbs. For more information, visit Bulb.com.

Small Space Gardening. The new Collapsible Watering Can and Collapsible Watering Bucket from Centurion were created with storage and mobility in mind. Their heavy duty, non-porous silicone material offers superior strength, while the foldable and detachable parts allow freedom to use these products in any space. The Watering Bucket is perfect for gardening, boating and camping while the Watering Can doubles as a storage container. For more information visit CenturionBrands.com.

Better fruits and veggies. The Espoma Company’s new Tomato! Liquid fertilizer and Berry-Tone granular fertilizer provide just the right nutrients to these timeless favorites. Tomato! comes in a colorful 8 oz. bottle with a user-friendly cap that measures just the right amount of plant food to encourage plump and juicy tomatoes. For berry gardeners, Espoma’s new Berry-tone provides a long-lasting, slow-release of nutrients. Feed plants in early spring to encourage growth and more berries. Find Berry-Tone and other Espoma products at your local garden center or at Espoma.com.

Grow a Hanging Garden. Fresh herbs in the kitchen? Yes, please! This rustic herb kit from Bloem comes with a real wood back and comes with three 6” Ariana planters in black. Write the name of your favorite herbs on the planter holders, and grow vertically! Perfect for growing herbs indoors so you can enjoy the freshest ingredients all year long! Find this and other beautiful containers at BloemLiving.com.

For more exciting new plants and garden products for spring 2019, visit gardenmediagroup.com.

GMG's Friday Find! - It's a POP-UP Garden!

Last week's Friday find was all about planning your garden and this week's find is how to set one up...Quickly! Practically right out of the package...just add soil (and your favorite veggie seeds!)

The Little Acre® Raised Bed Garden Bag makes it quick, easy and affordable to grow an organic garden of veggies, herbs, berries and flowers just about anywhere!

NO Tilling - No Digging - NO Soil Amending - NO Tools

Simply  1. Open it up

 2. Fill it with soil

3. Plant & Watch it Grow

Description from their website...
•Can be set-up just about anywhere - apartments, condos, small back yards, patios, roof tops, urban/suburban settings.
•Can be used again next year! Leave out or fold up and put in the garage.
•Sturdy construction and completely self-supporting once filled with soil - holds a rectangular shape well.
•Cute design, light color reflects sunlight delicate plants will not over-heat.
•Sizes: 3’ X 4’ X 12” ("Original") and NEW for 2012: 2' X 3' X 8" (The Little Acre "Junior")!
•All this for a Suggested Retail of just $49.95 for The Original and $39.95 for The Junior!

So now the excuse "I hate digging and tilling" is no longer allowed! Got any other excuses? Let me know what they are and I will try to find a product to help you over those hurdles!

Now GO GET GROWING!!!!

-Karen
GMG

Garden #2: What should I plant?

My Husband and I are trying to decide what we are going to plant in our veggie garden this year and if we should attempt an even bigger garden this year! We have ideas of grandeur for our second attempt. Last year's plot was 2- 6x8 areas...we are thinking this year's will be 22x15!

I am not saying last year was a failure! NOT AT ALL! We are still enjoying the fruits of our labor with amazing homemade pasta sauce. (See last picture.)

But the entire process was a lot of work...fun work. We were going through the pictures from last summer and came across this little timeline in film of our very first veggie garden. WOW...what a transformation...from the row of bushes that were occupying the space which we (by 'we' I mean Mark & Dad) removed to make room for our spur of the moment idea!

So I thought I would share a few shots from beginning to end...from just plain dirt to amazing sauce!

 Big JUMP in the timeline here...

 FYI...These are all tomatoes.

 The green fence stakes are 3 feet tall. Needless to say we had VERY tall tomato plants!

What I would like to know is what are your favorite tomatoes to grow? I think we will grow from seed again this year...so I need to get those seeds bought!

Please help a novice gardener out and give me some suggestions of some of your favorite veggies (not only tomatoes) that you have had success growing and enjoying!

-Karen

GMG

Tips on growing grafted tomatoes

My 'Big Beef ' SuperNaturals Mighty 'Matoes are being tested in my garden and so far, doing well - even in this blistering heat.

If you were one of the lucky ones to get your hands on a Mighty 'Mato, here are some tips from the co-developer, John Bagnasco, of Garden Life, that should help you grow the perfect grafted tomatoes.

Avoid over-fertilizing your Mighty 'Mato. Just feed it as you would a regular tomato.

Mighty 'Mato is happiest planted in the ground, but if you need or prefer containers, use at least a 15 gallon size or a half wine barrel.

Pruning is also crucial to contain and direct the plant's energy to fruit production. For all grafted tomatoes, remove suckers (side shoots) that form below the graft.

Improve air circulation by removing all branches and suckers from the bottom 10 or 12 inches of the stem. If plants are getting too dense and bushy, you can remove a branch of foliage here and there to encourage air circulation.

Bagnasco says that his favorite way to grow a grafted tomato is to prune it to two laterals (the main stem plus the side shoot or sucker just below the first fruit cluster) which are then trained up a trellis into a V shape.

Throughout the summer, continue to pinch off the suckers that appear on both the leaders.

Wanna' talk about trellis making? Ha! That's next time! By the way, the image is what we can expect to see from Mighty 'Mato. Can't wait! Happy gardening!

~Lynne, GMG

Hot Tomatoes!

Yay!! We received our test samples of the new grafted SuperNaturals Mighty 'Mato tomatoes last week.

GardenLife sent us one 'Big Beef' (non-grafted) and one of the new grafted 'Big Beef ' Mighty 'Matoes. And I can't wait to "test" and see how they compare. Yum.

Some are available in two different varieties on one plant!

The above image shows a side-by-side of 'Big Beef ' on the left and Mighty 'Mato 'Big Beef ' on the right. Wow. And the image below is an example of red and yellow pear tomatoes from the same Mighty 'Mato plant.

Best of all, they're pest and disease resistant and have a greater tolerance to environmental stresses like excessive heat - (good news around our neck of the woods, lately!)

This year they were in limited supply and are sold online at GardenLife but check with them to see if they may still have some available through this week, only. No promises, but worth the look-see!

Currently, for all you lucky people living on the West Coast, you can find SuperNaturals Mighty 'Matoes at garden centers. Next year you'll find them at retailers nationwide and have the happy decision of heirloom or hybrid.

BTW, for those with small spaces, one plant is all you need. You'll get bigger, better and double the amount of tomatoes per plant!

I'm going to keep track of mine (and our other test plants) and post images from time-to-time throughout the summer...that is, if I don't eat all of them first! Maybe I should have a "tomato stand" in my front yard...hmm.
~Lynne
GMG

Mighty Mato and Pink Blueberry in WSJ!!!

Bart Ziegler writes about the new introductions in the plant world in his latest Wall Street Journal online article....and we are thrilled that Mighty Mato and Pink Blueberry made his list!

"Every year the plant industry, much like the car business, introduces new models. And it uses many of the same come-ons: Never-before-seen features! Dazzling new colors! More durable designs!

"As with cars, much of this is marketing hoo-hah—most of these "new" plants are really just minor variations on the old, the horticultural equivalent of new headlight shapes on the same car body. But each spring brings a few tree, shrub or flower rollouts that are worth considering. On rare occasions they represent something dramatically different."

Read the rest here....2011 Rollouts Hit the Garden

-Karen GMG