Gardening
Grow Fruit in Containers
Compact varieties of raspberries and other fruit are well suited to being grown in containers and small spaces.
Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
Have fun and enjoy picking fresh fruit right outside your door thanks to compact varieties you can grow in containers. Just clear some space on your patio, deck, balcony, or front steps that receives at least six hours of sunlight and get busy planting.
Consider starting with strawberries. They provide seasonal interest with their white flowers, red berries, and brilliant fall color. Day-neutral and everbearing strawberries produce fruit throughout the summer and grow well in strawberry pots, containers, and hanging baskets. Place the containers where you can enjoy their beauty and easily harvest and enjoy a few berries on your cereal, as an afternoon snack, or atop your favorite dessert.
Include a few of the relatively new compact berry bushes suited to containers and small spaces. Raspberry Shortcake® grows two to three feet tall and wide and is thornless which makes harvesting a breeze. They produce a bumper crop on new plant growth each season.
Baby Cakes® blackberry is another thornless space-saving berry plant. Like Raspberry Shortcake® it grows two to three feet tall and wide and is thornless. The white flowers and tasty fruit that form on old growth make Baby Cakes® a nice addition to any outdoor space.
Grow compact blueberries in pots adding pretty flowers, edible fruit, and great fall color to your patio, deck, or balcony. Blueberries prefer moist, well-drained acidic soil that many of us do not have in our gardens but can provide these ideal conditions when growing in containers. You only need one plant to have fruit but growing two will more than double the harvest.
Use narrow and columnar dwarf apples as a living screen or vertical accent. The Urban Apple® series, Spire® apples, North PoleTM, and Sentinel varieties are all suited to growing in containers and small spaces. The trees grow about eight to ten feet tall and only several feet wide. The trunk is loaded with short branches and lots of fruiting spurs for easy harvesting. You will need two different varieties of most apples, including these, for cross-pollination to occur and fruit to develop.
Grow your compact berry bushes in pots 12 to 16 inches in diameter and at least ten inches deep. As the plants grow and mature, move them into larger, 20 to 24" containers. Your columnar apples will appreciate a bigger container that is 20 inches wide and deep.
Use pots with drainage holes and fill them with a quality potting mix. Check soil moisture daily and water thoroughly whenever the top few inches of soil are starting to dry. Reduce ongoing maintenance by incorporating an organic moisture-retaining product like Wild Valley Farms wool pellets (wildvalleyfarms.com) into the potting mix. This sustainable product reduces watering by up to 25% and increases air space for healthier growth.
Supplement the nutrients in Wild Valley Farms wool pellets as needed with a low nitrogen, slow-release fertilizer and eliminate weekly fertilization. Add the slow-release fertilizer soon after planting and again mid-season if needed. Do not fertilize in late summer as that can stimulate late-season growth that can be damaged in winter.
Those gardening in cold climates will need to provide extra winter protection. Insulate the roots by grouping plants together and surrounding them with bales of straw, bags of potting mix, or similar materials. Or move plants to an unheated garage for winter and water whenever the soil is thawed and dry.
Another option is to grow these plants in nursery pots and set them in decorative containers for summer. When winter arrives, move the potted plants out of the decorative containers and sink the nursery pots in a vacant part of the garden. Lift the plants out of the ground in spring and set them back in their decorative containers for the growing season.
As you master these fruit plants, and if space allows, expand your small-scale orchard to include citrus, figs, dwarf cherries, plums, and peaches. You'll enjoy the flowers, shade and of course the tasty fruit.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener's Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Wild Valley Farms for her expertise to write this article. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Latest Antiques and Collectibles Nnews
Photo courtesy of Wayne Tuiskula
It's been nearly a month since my last column on auction news. With the royal family in the headlines recently, the upcoming sale of Princess Diana's dresses, suits, shoes, and accessories is making news in the auction world. This is the largest collection of Princess Di's belongings to be auctioned since 1997, according to the Robb Report. Diana was known for bold sweaters and gowns that were considered too flashy for the conservative royal family. She also advocated for AIDS awareness and other charities that were atypical of the royal family. Auction highlights include a two-piece yellow and navy suit that she wore while visiting the British Forces in Hong Kong in 1989. It has an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. A floral dress that she wore to St. Mary's Hospital in 1991 is expected to bring between $50,000 and $100,000. A silk and lace dress she wore in London and Hamburg in 1987 could fetch between $100,000 and $200,000. Another top item is a "Diamante Star gown by Arbeid (estimate: $200,000 to $400,000) that Diana wore to the Phantom of the Opera premiere and a dinner with King Constantine of Greece in 1986," according to the Robb Report.
Some books dating back centuries are also making auction news. The collection comes from the estate of Jay M. Pasachoff. Pasachoff was an astronomy professor at Williams College in Western Massachusetts. One book being sold is by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) who was a German astronomer who discovered three laws of planetary motion. The Robb Report writes that the rare Kepler book "the Mysterium Cosmographicum" once sat in the library of Frederick the Great and is estimated to sell for $120,000. Kepler's Astronomia nova from 1609 is expected to sell for even more ($300,000 to $500,000). Two books by Galileo are also being offered. The Honeyman copy of his Dialogo could bring $80,000 to $120,000. His Sidereus Nuncius from 1610 could reach $300,000 to $500,000. Sir Isaac Newton's Principia in contemporary vellum from 1687 is expected to sell for $400,000 to $600,000. The star of the astronomy auction is Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. The groundbreaking book offered the controversial opinion that earth and the other planets revolved around the sun at a time when the earth was generally considered to be the center of the universe. The auction estimate is $1 to $1.5 million.
A very different kind of book set an auction record recently. A copy of the first appearance of Superman, Action Comics No. 1 sold this month. The 1938 comic book graded an 8.5 out of 10. Only 78 of these comics have been graded and about 100 are estimated to exist, according to the Smithsonian Magazine. Superman's writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster were both sons of Jewish immigrants. The comic book was described as "a reflection of [Superman's] creators' experiences, as well as the American dream." In 1939, Superman got his own comic book, Superman No. 1. A copy of that issue sold for $5.3 million in 2022. Action Comics No. 1 flew up, up and away setting a comic book auction record of $6 million.
We aren't selling 1930s Superman comics, but have many other desirable ones in our May comics and sports collectibles auction. We are still accepting gold jewelry, sterling silverware, art, coins, and other antiques and collectibles consignments for our summer auction. I'll be presenting at the Holden Senior Center on April 22nd. I'll also be at a Learning in Retirement event in Danielson, Connecticut on May 6th. Please visit our website www.centralmassauctions.com for links to other upcoming events.
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique, Collectibles Auctions and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111).