Gardening
Grow Vertically for Added Beauty and Garden Productivity
Clematis and impatiens growing on a wheel trellis.
Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
Expand your planting space, grow a living screen, or add vertical interest to your garden beds. Train vines up a decorative support, onto a fence, or allow them to climb a trellis set in front of a wall or structure.
Pole beans, peas, Malabar spinach, cucumbers, melons, and squash are all edible candidates for growing vertically. Training these vegetables up a support saves space in the garden. Plus, the increase in light and airflow through vertically trained plants helps reduce the risk of mildew and other diseases.
Growing vertically can also increase your yields and make harvesting much easier. Pole beans typically produce an extra picking. Plus, it requires less bending to harvest. If it is easy, you are more likely to pick regularly, increasing productivity and ensuring the best flavor. Try scarlet runner beans or purple podded pole beans for added color.
Train Malabar climbing spinach up an obelisk in a container or over a decorative trellis in the garden. Use the leaves the same way you use true spinach. The buttery nutty flavor is great fresh, added to a salad, used as a sandwich wrap, stir-fried, or steamed. The red stems, flowers, and seeds make an attractive display in the vegetable or ornamental garden.
Support the heavy fruit of melons and squash when growing vertically. Create a sling from cloth strips, an old T-shirt, or macramé--yes, it's back! Tie the sling to the trellis to cradle the large fruit. The sling handles the weight, preventing the heavy fruit from ripping the plant off the support and damaging the plant. Elevating the fruit also reduces loss to soil-dwelling insects and disease.
Use decorative supports to add a bit of beauty or help blend edibles into ornamental plantings. Save money and add some personality by upcycling found items into creative supports. A section of an old iron fence, headboard, golf clubs, or farm implements can add a bit of functional whimsy to your garden.
Add color to a plain fence or wall with annual and perennial flowering vines. Use a support and leave space between wooden fences and siding to reduce moisture buildup that could damage these structures. This also makes it easier to manage future repairs and painting if the vines can easily be moved away from the structure.
Double up your plants to increase the floral impact. Use annual vines to provide quick cover for the first few years while establishing perennial vines onto the support. Consider mixing two vines on one support if space allows. Select vines that bloom at the same time to create interesting combinations. Or plant two vines that bloom at different times to extend the floral display.
Always select supports strong enough to support the plants you are growing. Make sure the support provides the structure needed for the vines to climb. Those with twining stems and petioles need something to grab onto while those with root-like holdfasts or suction cups need a rough surface for attaching. Make sure the structure will not be damaged by the vines adhering to the surface. Other vines may need their stems to be tied to the support.
As you can see, the possibilities are endless. Start gathering decorative supports, look for spaces that need a bit of vertical interest, and select vines suited to your growing conditions and landscape design.
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. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Checking Your Coins
1873 gold coin
Photo courtesy of Wayne Tuiskula
I often handle estates with coins that families have collected. In today's column I'll share some things you can look for if you also have coins.
We recently auctioned a silver tea set made by Ephraim Brasher, who lived next door to George Washington in New York City. Brasher created the first gold coin, the Brasher Doubloon, over two centuries ago in 1787. The United States minted gold coins for circulation until 1933 when production was halted to stabilize gold value during the Great Depression. However, gold coins are still being made for collectors by the U.S. Mint.
Gold coins will always be at least "worth their weight in gold." Older coins were made from 90% gold. Some modern collector gold coins are 99.99% pure. Some gold coins are "bullion" meaning they are worth only the value of the gold, however, older coins may have value well above their melt value.
Along with checking the date on your coins, there are other factors to consider. Mintmarks indicate where the coin was produced. A "P" or plain/unmarked coin is from the Philadelphia Mint. "D" is for Denver, "S" indicates San Francisco, and "O" stands for New Orleans. The Carson City Mint used "CC" and coins featuring that mintmark are often the most valuable.
Just like other collectibles, coins can be graded. Professional grading companies use a scale of 1 to 70. The highest-grade coins are categorized as MS (Mint State), with an MS-70 being a perfect coin. Some coins may be valuable enough to pay to send out for grading, while others may not. Along with the condition, there are other variations to coins that can make them desirable. Having slightly different shaped letters and differently placed stars and rays can make a big difference in price. An 1861-S $20 Double Eagle AU55 (Almost Uncirculated) gold coin sold for $3,120 at auction in 2023. A "Paquet" variation with the same AU55 grade coin sold for $162,000 that year.
The United States minted silver coins (dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins) out of 90% silver until 1964. Kennedy half dollars from 1965 to 1970 are made with 40% silver. Any silver coins from these years will be at least "bullion" coins and worth their weight in silver but some could be more valuable.
Many of the same factors that impact gold coins also come into play with silver. Age and condition are important. A rare high grade 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar sold for $6.6 million in 2021. The number of coins produced at each mint for each year is very important. This holds true for both gold and silver coins. Only 360,649 silver Peace Dollars (depicting the head of the Statue of Liberty) were produced in 1928 while 10,198 were minted in 1925. A 1925 MS66 grade Peace Dollar sold for a little over $500 recently while a 1928 coin with the same grade sold for over $30,000.
The United States has issued half cents, one cent, two cent, three cent, half dime, and twenty cent coins. There are "type collectors" who look for coins in different denominations and variations. It's worth checking your old coins, some may be worth a pretty penny.
We are accepting coin consignments for our late summer auction along with art, gold jewelry, sterling silver, historical items, advertising signs, and other antiques. Please visit our website https://centralmassauctions.com for links to 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).