Dig Magazine

The National Garden Bureau has designated 1999 as the ‘Year of Asian Vegetables’, and is featuring five popular vegetables. Two require summer warmth to create their bountiful harvest. These two are the Asian Eggplant and Asparagus Bean (yardlong). The other three vegetables are transitional crops, grown best under spring or fall conditions. These are Daikon, Pak Choi (Bok Choi) and Snow Peas. All five vegetables are flavorful, easily grown from seed or plants and offer gardeners the opportunity to explore Asian cuisine.

ASIAN EGGPLANT
History & Classification
Eggplants have been grown in China and India since the fifth century. In the twelfth century, the Arabs introduced them into Spain where they became popular as an aphrodisiac. They moved into England and Italy in the 16th century as ornamental plants only since they were thought to cause madness if consumed. Their popularity in all areas of the world today is evident by the hundreds of cultivars available. Asian eggplants have smaller fruits on smaller plants than traditional Italian and American types. The glossy black, white, lavender, pink, purple or green fruits are long and slender, usually about two inches in diameter and up to nine inches long. Asian eggplants, Solanum melongena var. esculentum, belong to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, along with peppers, tomatoes and potatoes. They are called nasu in Japan.

Site planning, preparation and sowing seed
Choose a site in full sun. Eggplants will thrive as long as the soil is well drained. This is so important that in heavy soil, they should be grown in raised beds. Eggplants also need rich soil, especially in potassium. The addition of copious amounts of organic matter will make the soil rich and moisture retentive. Eggplants must have warm soil to grow well and they take a long time to reach maturity. The best method in northern climates is to grow from seed indoors or purchase bedding plants and plant them outdoors when the soil is thoroughly warm. Start seeds indoors 10- 12 weeks before the last frost. Plant them outdoors after hardening them off and after all danger of frost is past.

Growing on
Transplant eggplants 18-24 inches apart in rows 30 to 36 inches apart. For intensive or raised bed gardens, allow 24 inches in all directions. Eggplants grow best in hot weather. Eggplants are heavy feeders, so in addition to providing rich soil initially, feed them with composted manure or a balanced fertilizer when the plants are half grown and again after harvesting the first fruits. Mulch the plants lightly after the soil is warm. Eggplants are tolerant of dry conditions, but produce much better if wellwatered during dry spells.

As the plants begin to bloom, pick off the first few flowers to force the plant to put energy into more fruit. Some gardeners stake and prune Asian eggplants like tomatoes to keep the fruits straight and long. Keep an eye out for signs of flea beetle damage or yellowing bottom leaves, which may indicate verticillium wilt. The easiest way to control flea beetles is to grow the plants under row covers until they begin to bloom. If you suspect verticilliurn wilt, remove the entire plant and destroy it to prevent the disease from being transferred to other plants. Always rotate crops and don’t grow eggplants where you’ve grown any other nightshade plant for three years.

Harvest & Storage
Harvest usually begins in mid to late summer, about 70-90 days after sowing the seeds. Harvest when the fruits are about six inches long and the skin is glossy and firm. If it begins to lose its gloss, the fruit is past its prime and may become bitter. Discard fruits that turn brown or feel spongy instead of firm. Harvest eggplants with pruning shears or a knife to avoid tearing the plant. Eggplants do not store well, so eat them as soon as possible after picking; they can be refrigerated for a few days. The easiest way to store an abundant crop is to cook them into a favorite dish and freeze the dish. They don’t freeze well by themselves.

Eating qualities
Asian eggplants are milder and more delicate in flavor compared to American and Italian types, although many feel they have more “eggplant” flavor. They have very tender skin so there is no need to peel them. They are flavorful grilled, fried, roasted, pickled or stir fried.

ASPARAGUS BEAN
History, definition & classification
The asparagus or yardlong bean originated in southern Asia and is now grown extensively in Asia, Europe, and most recently, the United States. These unique beans grow on twining, delicate stems with a tenacious root system. The plants bloom in mid-summer with a pair of large white or purple flowers. Once pollinated, the flowers are followed by tiny dark green beans that reach a foot long in only a few days. The beans can grow up to three feet long, ripening to pale green and inflating as the red or black seeds ripen.

Although they resemble pole snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), asparagus beans are more closely related to southern cowpeas, Vigna unguiculata. Asparagus bean, Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis, is called dow gauk in China, sasage in Japan, and Chinese long bean or yardlong bean in Europe and the United States. Site planning and preparation

Asparagus beans thrive in average garden soil that is loose and friable. Rich garden soil heavy in nitrogen causes abundant leaf growth and few beans. True legumes, they enrich their soil by trapping atmospheric nitrogen in nodules on their roots. With the help of nitrogen fixing bacteria, the plant makes its own food. Choose a site in full sun and loosen the soil to a depth of eight to ten inches in preparation for sowing. Mix in compost or composted manure in spring to boost soil fertility slightly. These climbing beans must be grown on a trellising system. Bamboo tripods or row trellising with poles and string are effective. Whichever method you use, make it at least seven feet high to accommodate the vines.

Sowing seed & growing on
Asparagus beans thrive in heat and wither in cold, so sow after all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed. Usual timing is to sow them about two weeks after sowing green beans. To move the schedule ahead, you can put down black plastic mulch to warm soil earlier. If using a tripod system, plant three or four seeds to each pole. If using a row trellis, plant the seeds 3 to 4 inches apart in rows 8 inches apart. Plant the seeds two inches deep in good soil or an inch deep in heavy soil. If you have a very long growing season, make two more successive sowings, at two-week intervals. In northern climates, a single sowing in late spring will often produce until frost.

Asparagus beans germinate in about a week and will begin producing abundantly once the weather heats up. They easily tolerate hot weather and even some drought. However, to keep the beans producing, water in dry spells. It is unnecessary to fertilize asparagus beans unless you have nutrient-poor soil.

Harvest, storage & eating qualities
You should have harvestable beans about two months after sowing, continuing throughout summer and into the fall. Harvest when the beans are about half the diameter of a pencil, before the seeds have filled out inside and when they still snap when bent. You may need to harvest daily since continuous picking keeps the plants producing. The plants will stop producing if beans are left to ripen. Although the beans will keep several days in the refrigerator, they are best eaten soon after harvesting. They can also be blanched and frozen for winter storage. Asparagus beans get their common name from a taste similar to asparagus. They have a more dense texture than snap beans and more intense “bean” flavor. Their texture and fla-vor hold up well when stir-fried or steamed. If the beans are left to mature somewhat, they can be shelled and cooked as other southern “peas”.

DAIKON
History & classification
There are literary references and archaeological remains of winter radishes in ancient China. Daikon is the Japanese name for the radish that is so popular in Asian cuisine. Daikons are long and narrow and usually white, green or creamy yellow. They range from two to three inches in diameter, and from six to fifteen inches long, round is also common. Daikons belong to the species Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus, along with other types of winter radish.

Site planning, preparation & sowing seed
Daikons, a root crop, must have nutritious soil for good development or they become woody and strong-flavored from slow development. Loose, deep and friable soil allows the long roots to develop unhindered. Choose a spot in full sun for the best development.

Daikons are a cool season crop that is harvested in spring or fall. There are heat tolerant varieties that will grow during summer. In northern gardens, sow in early spring or late summer. In southern gardens, sow about two months before the last frost so the roots will be ready for harvest in late spring. Sow seeds about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep in rows 12-24 inches apart. Thin seedlings to 8-12 inches apart. If gardening intensively or in raised beds, thin the plants to 8 inches apart in all directions.

Growing on
Thinning the plants to the correct spacing is absolutely critical to develop healthy roots. Keep the plants well-watered in dry times to keep the roots tender. Fertilize four weeks after planting with a high phosphate, high potash fertilizer. Avoid high nitrogen, which develops leaves at the expense of roots. Watch for root maggots, especially if you’ve grown carrots, cole crops or radishes in the area in years past. A sprinkling of wood ashes around the plants will help curb the damage.

Harvest & Storage
Daikons are ready for harvest 50-60 days after sowing. They can remain in the ground after they mature, but the longer they stay, the pithier they get. It’s best to harvest all of the plants and store them for use. When harvesting, dig carefully with a spading fork to avoid harming the roots. It is especially important to avoid injury if you plan to store the plants. Daikons will store for several months in a refrigerator, root cellar or cool basement in damp sand. If you don’t have good storage conditions, you can blanch and freeze them.

Eating qualities
The daikon flavor varies from mild to pungent, and all types are crisp, much like turnips. Peel and slice them raw to serve with dips or in salads, boil or steam and serve them like cooked turnips, or grate them into a stir-fry. Daikon greens are tasty when picked young and sautéed like turnip greens.

PAK CHOI (pak-choy)
(or Bok Choi)
History & classification
Pak choi is native to eastern Asia where it has been grown for thousands of years. The Celts brought the vegetable to the British Isles and it became popular in Europe until the late 1800s and then in the States since 1900. The plant is grown for its thick white tender stalks that are the petioles and main veins of the leaves. The leaves are dark glossy green with white veins. There is also a miniature green variety with green tender stems.

Brassica rapa (Chinensis group), called celery cabbage, Chinese celery and Chinese mustard cabbage, is more closely related to mustard than cabbage. The Cantonese name is bok choy or pak choi and the Mandarin name is pe-tsai or pei tsai. The name means white vegetable in Chinese. Pak choi is a member of the mustard family, Brassicaceae, to which cabbage, mustard, broccoli, kohlrabi and turnips belong.

Site planning and preparation
Pak choi performs best in full sun in a somewhat cool spot. Provide rich, loose soil that is very well-drained to prevent crown rot. Incorporate plenty of well-rotted manure or other organic matter into the planting bed to help retain moisture. If the bed is low enough to be poorly drained, raise it, but not more than 6 inches to prevent the soil from becoming too warm.

Sowing seed
Plant pak choi in very early spring and again in mid to late summer for the fall garden. In cool climates, sow seeds I/ 4 – 1/2 inch deep directly in the garden after the danger of frost has passed. Sow the seeds three to four inches apart and then thin to 8-12 inches apart. In climates with hot summers, start the plants indoors six to eight weeks before the last frost. Start them in individual pots to avoid damaging the roots in transplanting. Transplant outdoors two to three weeks before the frost-free date. Plant in rows two to two and a half feet apart or space them a foot apart in raised beds or intensive gardens. For fall planting, sow the seeds directly about 3-4 inches apart and thin to 8-12 inches once the seedlings are up. The plants can be grown in a cold frame to extend the season.

Growing on
Pak choi is a heavy feeder, so fertilize with composted manure or a balanced fertilizer four weeks after setting out transplants. Take precautions against cabbageworms, cabbage root maggots and flea beetles. The plants can be grown under row covers to keep the pests out, or sprayed regularly with Bacillus thuringiensis to prevent worm damage. Some gardeners have luck keeping flea beetles at bay by alternating rows of pak choi with garlic and green onions.

Harvest & Storage
Pak choi greens can be used as early as 30 days after sowing; it takes about 5060 days to have harvestable heads. Harvest the outer leaves while they are tender early in season. As the weather heats up, harvest the tender inner leaves. You can also cut the whole head, which will weigh 3-4 pounds. Pak choi is a short-season vegetable so it tends to bolt quickly. Breeders are developing types that take much longer to bolt, but pak choi is a cool-season vegetable so it sends up a flowering stalk as soon as the weather gets warm. A flower stalk usually indicates that the stalks and leaves are getting tough. Pak choi keeps several weeks in the refrigerator or for a week or so in a cool cellar. If you have a cold frame, dig the plants with the roots on, place them in the cold frame and cover them with straw and dirt. They will keep several months this way.

Eating qualities
The stalks of pak choi are not fibrous even though the plant is sometimes called celery cabbage. They are tender, and particularly good when cooked lightly in a stir-fry. Pak choi is a stock ingredient in many Chinese recipes. While tender, the stalks can be shredded and added to cole slaw with other types of cabbage. The leaves are good when prepared like other greens, and the thinned seedlings are superb when lightly sautéed. Pak choi can be blanched and frozen to add to soups and stews.

SNOW PEAS
History, areas of origin & classification
Snow peas originated in the Mediterranean, and were grown widely in England and Europe in the nineteenth century. They were called English sugar peas or mangetout in France. The Chinese adopted these peas into their own cuisine from the English, and they have been known as Chinese snow peas ever since. Snow peas have light green pods that follow purple or white, sweetly scented flowers. Some varieties climb with twining tendrils to four or five feet, and other varieties are dwarf types, only growing to two or three feet. Snow peas are true legumes, classified as Pisum sati vum var. macrocarpon.

Site planning and preparation
Snow peas need soil that is rich in phosphorus and potassium. If your soil is somewhat acidic, add wood ashes or ground limestone. Otherwise, add a fertilizer high in phosphate and potash. There is no need for extra nitrogen since the plants fix atmospheric nitrogen. Snow peas perform best in soil with plenty of organic matter, which makes the soil moisture-retentive. Select a site in full sun and rotate peas annually to avoid blights and root rot. All snow peas need some sort of trellising, even the dwarf varieties. They have fairly weak root systems and untrellised peas don’t produce as well as those on a sturdy trellis. A lightweight trellis of netting or string is sufficient as long as it is securely anchored. Some gardeners use shrubby branches to make a natural trellis.

Sowing seed
Snow peas should be grown as an early spring or fall crop in areas with hot summers. In areas with mild winters, they are usually grown as a winter and early spring crop. Make successive sowings every ten days from March through May for harvest through early July. Some gardeners soak pea seeds for 24 hours or sprout them before planting to give them a head start in the cold ground. It is wise to dust the seeds with a bacterial inoculant to help boost their nitrogen-fixing capacity. Plant when the soil temperature reaches 45 degrees and the soil is dry enough to till. Plant the seeds one to two inches deep in prepared soil, two to three inches apart in rows 18-24 inches apart. Be sure to put your trellising system in place when you sow the seeds to avoid disturbing the tender roots later.

Growing on
Keep snow peas well-watered during dry spells and cultivate lightly between the rows to remove weeds. Don’t cultivate too near the peas, however, because their roots are extremely vulnerable. Apply mulch as the soil warms in order to keep it cool. As soon as the peas have finished bearing, turn them under rather than pulling them. This provides nitrogen to other crops. Watch for fusarium and root-rot diseases. Fusarium wilt, a vascular disease, can usually be avoided by rotating your crops. Avoid root rot by not planting your peas too early.

Harvest & Storage
Snow peas are ready to harvest 50-60 days from sowing. Pick them when tiny peas are just beginning to swell inside their pods, usually 5-7 days after flowering. Harvest as long as the peas are very small inside, daily to keep plants producing. If not picked regularly, snow pea plants will stop producing. They also stop producing as soon as the weather gets hot. When you see production begin to slow, be ready to pull the plants or dig them under. Try to eat or blanch and freeze your snow peas as quickly as possible after picking. Although they can be kept in the refrigerator up to two weeks, they tend to lose their intense sweetness.

Eating qualities
The sweet, crisp, tender pods are eaten whole, either raw or lightly steamed or saut6ed. The pods lack the papery inner membrane of regular peas, which is why they are so tender. The tender shoots (called Dow miu) and leaf buds are considered a delicacy in China.

This time of year, one of the most common questions from my web correspondents is: how do I get my poinsettia and the amaryllis they gave me at the Christmas party to bloom again?

Well, unless you’re really short of indoor greens, I say as soon as the poinsettia begins to look like a plucked chicken, toss it. But amaryllis are different, especially the magnificent new varieties. They’re horticultural treasures that will reward just a little care with years of ever more satisfying bloom.

Remember the old mile-high amaryllis stems topped by quartets of scarlet trumpets that never seemed able to open all together? The first one I ever saw was scraping the ceiling of the New York Flower Show. The friend with me spotted it first and stopped dead in her tracks, head back, eyes up, frozen in admiration. Love at first sight. I thought it had swallowed Alice in Wonderland’s grow-taller mushroom. But those gawky days are long gone. Right now on my kitchen counter there are four pots of amaryllis. Two pots are in bloom: in one a set of three dainty mini gracillis amaryllis have opened their with slim red trumpets, and in the other a giant bulb anchors two sturdy 12-inch stems topped by ten, yes, TEN, velvety trumpets in an vibrant blood red, ALL open. In the other two pots, sleek jade-green flowering stems are zooming up.

These gorgeous new varieties are a modest sampling of what lies ahead. The amaryllis wave has not yet crested! Breeders are in love with the giant bulb from South America because it reproduces so often and so easily (even in your pot) that hybridizers can make their dreams of new varieties come true in a relatively short time. The august Dr. August (Gus) A. De Hertogh, dean of bulb scientists, calls the amaryllis “the rabbit of the bulb family,” and predicts it will be the most important bulb flower of the 21st century.

If anyone knows, Dr. De Hertogh does. I met him in the mid 90s when I was working on The American Horticultural Society Flower Finder. A plant physiologist from Belgium, for 30 years he headed all the bulb trials for the Dutch Exporters Association. He has produced the highly respected Holland Bulb Forcer’s Guide, Fourth Edition, designed for commercial flower forcers but popular with just folks, and The Holland Bulb Garden Guide, which is prized by the landscaping industry.

Now Professor of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University, Dr. De Hertogh is a warm, generous man with the slightly absent manner of the absorbed researcher. His passion for bulbs doesn’t end in the lab. He and Mary Belle, his wife, grow masses of bulbs of every kind in their home gardens. I asked Dr. De Hertogh what one bulb he would take if he and Mary Belle were about to be stranded on a dessert island.

He replied, “Hippeastrum, the Barbados lily.” Amaryllis to you and me.

De Hertogh said he would take an amaryllis because, in addition to lavish and reliable blooms “it’s a magnificent cutting flower, has no enemies, is perennial, blooms almost anywhere, and reproduces easily and repeatedly.” Can’t beat that! In the snow belt, we grow the giant bulbs in pots indoors and they bloom in mid winter. But in warm climates amaryllis are used as bedding plants.

Dr. De Hertogh told me way back then of the hybridizers love affair with the amaryllis. “The potential is tremendous, ” he said. “It will be the most important flower of the 21 century.”

Early in the coming century, Dr. De Hertogh predicted the appearance of ever more varieties offering a greater choice in size, more pinks, more bi-colors, and more picotees. He anticipated variations on the tall yellow amaryllis, slim and elegant as a lily-flowered tulip, which had made its first appearance in my catalogs that year. He predicted amaryllis doubles and amaryllis that are fragrant. We have a few fragrant forms now and the fragrance will be enhanced.

Mary Belle De Hertogh loves amaryllis as much as her husband does. Mary Belle is a real Southern name, given to honor two grandmothers, Mary and Belle. Not satisfied with the 50 amaryllis she personally grows, now and then Mary Belle sweeps through her husband’s research greenhouses, emerging with great armfuls of amaryllis that she designs into stunning bouquets.

(Mary Belle is so well loved, a new tulip has been named for her. The ‘Mary Belle’ is a multi- flowered, mid-season red with a broad yellow edge. It hadn’t been classified when Dr. De Hertogh told me about it, but he expected it to belong to the Triumphs, medium height tulips. You don’t have to be rich and famous to have a flower named for you-you just have to love flowers, and be very much loved in return.) In the South, Zones 8 to 11, smaller amaryllis hybrids survive winters in the garden with protective mulch. There’s a photo in the Flower Finder of a fabulous turnaround in Florida filled with amaryllis in flower. If you grow lots, you could, like Mary Belle, harvest them for bouquets.

The best time to harvest amaryllis is while they are still in the bud stage with just the lead bud showing color. Cut too soon, the buds may not open. A stem will last up to two weeks, depending much on luck, and some on handling. If you can get the amaryllis stem to drink vase water, all the buds will open.

My friend Eileen Brennan, a floral designer in Guilford, Connecticut, told me how she gets amaryllis to open. She adds floral preservative to warm vase water and fills a measuring cup with the same solution. Then she re-cuts the amaryllis stem under the water, upends the stem, and fills it with the preservative solution. For support, she gently pushes a clean stick up into the stem, all the way to the head. She stuffs the bottom of the stem with cotton to hold the stick in, covers the end with her thumb to hold the water in, and puts the stem into the vase water before removing her thumb. Then she proceeds with the arrangement. Other flowers with hollow stems benefit from similar treatment, delphinium and lupines, for example.

I haven’t heard of any plans to make amaryllis hardy enough to overwinter here in Northwest Connecticut, but your gift amaryllis can easily be made to rebloom every year, especially if it can be outdoors in summer.

Gift bulbs usually start to grow 4 to 6 weeks after being planted. Any well-drained all purpose potting soil kept evenly damp will do. Do not fertilize the plant until you see signs of growth. The amaryllis prefers temperatures between 61 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and suffers below 55 degrees. A sunny sill is a good spot for it while it is growing, but bright light, not direct sun, are better when the plant is in bloom. These great big trumpets stay fresh longer, a week or ten days or more, if the soil is a little on the dry side during the blooming period.

To handle an amaryllis so it will come back into bloom, after the blossoms fade, cut the flower stem(s) off at the base. Set the pot in a sunny East, West or South window, and fertilize lightly at every watering. The great strap-shaped leaves stay handsome. If you can, summer your amaryllis outdoors in good indirect light. Otherwise, keep it on a sunny sill. Before the outdoor temperatures drop below 55 F or 60 F, bring the pot indoors. I once left an amaryllis out until October in Washington, DC, and oddly enough, it gave up its mid winter bloom cycle and flowering in the spring.

The amaryllis needs a period of dormancy before it can come into bloom again. So after it’s summer vacation, bring it indoors, cut the foliage off cleanly at the base, and store the pot in a warm, dry room. After the soil has dried, set the pot on its side.

In two or three months, start checking the pot for new growth. The first sign is a slim white-green tongue poking through the top of the bulb. That’s the signal it’s ready to grow. Add a few inches of fresh potting soil, or repot if you’re up to it. It’s best to keep your amaryllis in a pot no more than two inches larger than the bulb’s diameter. The top two or three inches of the bulb should be above the soil. Keep the pot in good light, and resume watering and fertilizing. Those huge, glorious trumpets should unfurl in 4 to 6 or 8 weeks.

If you have decided to grow your own food but don’t know how or where to start, I would suggest – before picking up a shovel – to gather gardening information. I asked myself what I would need to know if I wanted to start all over again and decided that planning is where I would begin. To assist in the planning, I have come up with a basic guide to successful gardening and developed a list of essential decisions and actions that need to be considered.

Where to place the garden.
Choose a location that will provide the requirements for plant growth. If you do not have an existing garden plot, your first decision must be to select an area that contains the elements that enable produce to grow.

Soil. The better the quality of soil you start with, the less time and effort needed to build it to peak performance. Decide how you will fertilize the soil: compost, animal manure, ready-made fertilizers, or other methods.
Sun. The plot should receive a minimum of six hours of sun each day to have flourishing plants. Some leafy crops like lettuce can tolerate partial shade but still must have six hours of sunshine.
Water. In the form of rain or from a faucet, water must be available. If not enough rainfall exists, a sprinkler or an irrigation system must augment the rainfall. A total of one inch of water a week is ideal. Use mulching as a way of helping conserve water. Beside available water, the soil needs adequate drainage or the plants will “drown”.
Warmth. Plants grow with a minimal degree of warmth. A protected area, floating row covers, cloches, and raised beds are helpful in raising crops in early spring and late fall.
In addition to these essentials, an ideal garden location needs to be close to the house – to discourage predatory animals as well as for easy access – and needs to be flat to slightly sloping (four degrees or less) to the south or west. This slight slope permits the soil to warm up earlier in the spring and allows you to plant sooner.

If space is limited, plant along a walk or driveway, in tubs, or on the patio. There is no iron rule that garden plots must be rectangular.

Begin a soil-building program.
The nutritive content of the food eaten – proteins, vitamins, and minerals – are all derived from the soil. With each harvest the soil is further depleted; therefore, it is important to put back what has been taken out each year.

Since I do not use chemical fertilizers, I maintain the quality of the soil in a less expensive way by using ecological methods, such as compost, green manure and cover crops. These methods increase organic matter and nutrients in the soil.

Plant Growth requires large quantities of three primary elements: nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K). In addition, plants need trace amounts of a host of other elements. Soil microbes, worms, and bacteria, which feed on the organic matter in the soil, convert the elements (N, P, and K) to a form that can be assimilated by the plant.

Creating the conditions that promote the growth of these organisms is what is meant by “building the soil”. This is done by adding organic matter and by avoiding extremely acid or alkaline soil conditions.

Actually, chemical fertilizers do not build the soil. They consist of elements (N, P, and K) that have been treated to render them in a form that can be taken directly by the plants, thus bypassing the soil organisms. Often these harsh fertilizers destroy the soil life.

To increase the fertility of the soil, it is important to start making compost right away. Compost contains the whole range of nutrients needed by crops. In three to six months your kitchen and garden wastes can become rich, black compost, teeming with soil life and nutrients. Any poor quality soil can be improved by working in compost and other organic materials.

In addition to compost, here are some other ways to replace the N, P, K and other elements in the soil.

Animal manure. Manure acts as both a soil conditioner and fertilizer. It is the best all around fertilizer to use as it can be added to the compost pile, applied directly to the garden late in the fall and tilled in as a “sheet compost”, or liquefied to make “manure tea”.
Green manure. This is a crop grown in the warm season that is dug under while it is still green and before it has gone to seed. Green manure (buckwheat) and cover crops (winter rye and hairy vetch) are good sources of organic matter and nutrients for the garden.
Legumes. Plants such as peas and beans planted in rotation throughout the garden add nitrogen to the soil by the bacterial action on their root system. This bacterial action collects nitrogen and stores it for later use.
Seaweed. An excellent source for trace elements is seaweed. If you cannot gather it where you live, it would be good to purchase a supply from a garden shop. Seaweed is available in liquid or powder form.
Here are some other natural nutrient sources for your garden; adding them to the compost pile would be the best:

Grass clippings, poultry feathers, bloodmeal, and fish scraps are high in nitrogen.
Bone meal contains phosphorous.
Wood ash is an excellent source of potassium in the form of potash. A word of warning, however: use wood ashes sparingly because too much will cause an imbalance in the soil chemistry.

Have the soil tested and check the pH level.
Ideally, building the soil should begin with a soil test, which will indicate the type of soil (loam, clay, and sand), the pH level (acid or alkaline), the organic matter contents, and the existing amounts of each vital nutrient. This test is available through your local agricultural extension service. Any nutrients that are deficient should be added before planting.

Determining the pH level is very important since vegetable and fruit varieties have differing needs. If the pH is too low (acidic) or too high (alkaline) it must be adjusted to get maximum plant growth. Most vegetables do well with soil pH in the 6.3 to 6.8 range (slightly acidic).

To raise the soil pH, add lime or bone meal. Sulfur will help lower the pH. These materials are best added in the late fall or early spring because it takes a few months for the pH level to change.

There is no way to match the value of organizing and planning your garden beforehand.

What and how much to plant?
Once you have decided where to place your garden and what condition your soil is in then it is time to consider what and how much to plant. Some considerations that have to be made are:

Which crop and variety to be grown?
How much of each crop?
What method of cultivation?
How much land is needed?
1) Perhaps the most time-consuming decision to make each year is “what to plant?” To accomplish this requires knowledge of the vegetables and fruits under consideration. Information in seed catalogs is a big help. Operating within the constraints of climate, available space, time, and human energy, you must balance preferences with growing requirements.

Selections must be made of early and late varieties, whether to extend the growing season, and foods that store well. If space permits, include herbs for their use as condiments.

2) Another difficult decision is “how much to plant?” One way to approach this is to estimate the annual quantity of each food needed, determine the area required producing the desired yield, and check this figure against the space available. Be sure you have considered the amount of people you would like to feed.

3) How will the crops be cultivated? What tools are needed? Do some crops need special care? For instance, blueberries need acidic soil in order to grow. Wherever they are planted, the soil has to be tended differently from other soils close by. Is there sufficient time and labor available? Don’t take on too much and become discouraged. It’s important to pace yourself and set realistic goals.

4) Calculate the total garden area needed. Decide the type of rows or beds used and how they will be planted – wide rows, raised beds, and succession planting (every 2 or 4 weeks). What will be the size of the path between the rows, and where will the perennials be planted?

Which seeds to order?
The quantities of seeds to be purchased need to be calculated. Seed catalogs will give specific information for each crop. As you study the seed catalogs in order to decide what to plant, you soon come to appreciate the advantage of the hybrid varieties. They have better production rates and disease resistance than their open-pollinated (non-hybrid) cousins do.

The one big disadvantage for the gardener is that hybrid seeds are only available through seed companies or in stores. If you want to save and reproduce seeds in the home garden non-hybrid seeds must be used.
Each year I order a few more seeds than needed. I always have a small surplus handy just in case there is space to put extra seeds in the garden or something fails and needs to be replanted. Most seeds will keep for a few years if properly stored.
I do not use seeds that are treated with Captan, Thiram or other fungicides because the seeds need to be handled carefully with rubber gloves. If you do not protect yourself, the fungicide will be absorbed in your skin and cause you problems. I always request untreated seeds when I am placing an order in most catalogs, but I try to buy from companies that state their seeds are not treated.

Extending the growing season.
Harvesting vegetables early in the spring or in late fall is a gardener’s dream. The ultimate goal for your garden is to produce all the food you want for as long as you want it. You can accomplish this by extending the growing season so there are fresh greens and even tomatoes in the dead of winter.

One way to do this is to build or buy a greenhouse. A greenhouse not only grows vegetables out of season but also helps get a jump on spring with early transplants, such as tomatoes, pepper, and eggplants.
Other cold-weather devices for extending the season are a cold frame, a hotbed (cold frame plus fresh manure – lots of it), cloches, and floating row covers. The cloches and floating row covers serve as mini-greenhouse for plants.
Early in the spring I plant seeds before they are supposed to go in the ground. I cover the soil and seeds with black plastic and a floating row cover. After the seeds have sprouted, I take the black plastic off and leave the row cover in place until the weather becomes warm. I’m able to harvest my first spinach, carrot, pea, beet, and lettuce way ahead of time.
Another way to have early crops is to plant spinach, Swiss chard, kale, onions, and garlic in the fall, mulch or cover them with a floating row cover in the late fall, and harvest them early in the spring.
What kind of garden aids do you need?
1) Record keeping.

Each year, before planting the first seed, draw a detailed diagram of the garden, show where every crop will be located and the quantity to be planted. Make three separate diagrams – for the spring, summer, and fall gardens.
Indicate which crop will have staggered plantings (for example, I plant lettuce every two weeks throughout the growing season – with the use of shade clothe in the summer). Note succession plantings, such as spinach in spring, beans in summer, and peas in fall all grown in the same raised bed.
Determine the planting techniques to be used – raised beds, wide rows, or intensive gardening. Show the spacing between rows and between plants in the rows.
These diagrams become the working blueprints throughout the season, complete with a schedule of activities.
2) The other invaluable planning aid is my record of notes from previous gardens for crop rotation.

3) Allow some time each day during the season to check the garden’s progress – weeding to be done, crops to be harvested, evidence of pest infestation, indications of disease, plants that have finished producing and need to be replaced, and areas that need to be watered, fed or mulched.

4) Observe what is going on in the garden and keep a log. Jot down simple notes based on your observations. These will serve to guide next year’s efforts.

What tools do you need?
You don’t need many tools for gardening, but do buy quality tools, for they will last longer and do a more efficient job. All you really need are the tools listed below:

Shovel or spade for turning up the soil.
Reisch hoe (pointed hoe) for making furrows or cultivating between plants.
Metal garden rake for thinning, seedbed preparation, leveling and removing rocks.
Trowel for digging planting holes for seedlings.
Pitchfork (3 tines) or a straw fork (5-6 tines) for picking up, turning, and scattering hay mulch, leaf mold, and light compost materials.
Wheelbarrow for transporting things to and from the garden.
You might want to invest in a rototiller or even a garden tractor for larger gardens,

Preparing for your garden requires some basic gardening considerations, decisions, and actions. Planning is the most important thing you can do. The information here is a beginning, as you will have changes that need to be added to reflect your particular needs and desires.

Here on our farm, my husband and I have chosen wood as our sole source of heat. Our house is kept warm and cozy by the wood stove in the living room. In an average heating season the stove consumes three cords of mixed hardwoods, all from our land.

Fortunately, we have about 30 acres of forest, so there’s never a shortage of firewood. Now, you don’t need to own 30 acres of woods to be self-sufficient in firewood. In most regions of the United States a woodlot of three acres is adequate. If available land is limited, firewood can be grown along roads, streams, edges of fields, stone fences, property lines or surrounding the house, as a windbreak or privacy screen. A small woodlot that is well planned and properly maintained is far more productive (per acre) than a large one that is neglected.

The mental attitude with which you approach the woodlot will determine how much firewood you can get from it. Many wood burners unconsciously see themselves as “hunters and gatherers” rather than producers of firewood. As a result, they cruise through the woods, chainsaw in hand, hunting only for their most-favored species (say, oak) and gathering everything they can find of burnable size in those species.

To get into the mindset of being a producer of firewood, I think it’s helpful to conceive of the forest as an “energy orchard”. Generally speaking, the principles and practices of managing a fruit orchard apply to the woodlot, whether you’re planting a new one or improving an existing stand of trees. Your goal is to produce a continuous supply of trees that is self-sustaining far into the future. To do this, you need to assure that the amount of new growth each year is at least equal to the amount harvested as fuel. This means, first and foremost, that you need to know about – and care about – the ecology of the forest. The ideal “energy orchard” consists of a wide variety of trees of all sizes and ages. It contains seedlings of many species just beginning to grow, as well as mature trees ready for cutting. There should be an even distribution of trees in varying stages of growth, so that the harvest can be continuous year in and year out.

In addition to having a variety of trees of differing ages, the plot should include a mixed planting of species with different rates of growth (see chart #l). This will provide a measure of insurance against an attack of insects and diseases that could wipe out an entire forest if planted to a single species. The spacing between trees should be sufficient to give access to sunlight, but not so spread out that space is under-utilized, or that “wolf” trees – with widespread, dense foliage – prevent other trees from developing.

Careful planning and decision-making are especially crucial in woodlot management. In starting a new woodlot or improving an existing one a key decision is the selection of trees to be planted. You want diversity, so choosing is more complicated. Be sure to plant at least five or six different species, even if one or two kinds predominate. Some things you’ll want to take into consideration are the burn characteristics of the different woods, fast vs. slow growing species, and species which are tolerant of crowding.

Burn Characteristics. In general deciduous trees are classed as “hardwood” while conifers are “softwood”. But some so-called hardwoods are softer and lighter than some softwood. Wood burners favor the denser hardwoods, which burn slow and hot, and produce lots of long-lasting red coals. In our area locust and red oak are highly prized for this. We keep a separate pile of “overnighters” (large diameter), which are put in the stove at bedtime. The next morning we need only to add more logs to the coals – no need to use kindling.

But firewood in all sizes and density has its special uses. Pine, poplar and dogwood are great for heating the house fast after the stove has been left untended too long. I find that it’s a good practice to burn slow and fast-burning wood together. Some of the densest wood burns well only when supported by the flames of the softer woods. (See Chart #2). For a quantitative measure of the different woods, it is good to compare their output of heat in BTU’s. As Chart #3 shows, hardwoods produce almost equal amounts of heat on a weight basis, but vary more widely in BTU/cord, which is measured by volume (one cord is 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, 8 feet long). Obviously, beech and red oak weigh more than the others and thus have the highest BTU’s per cord.

Fast vs. Slow Growing. You’ll want to plant both fast and slow growing trees, not only for diversity’s sake, but in order to maximize the value of total firewood harvest. In general the faster growing trees have more air space between the cells, are lighter in weight and will have a shorter burn-time. The slower growing species are denser and heavier, so they burn more slowly and produce better coals. There are exceptions to the rule, however. Note that in Chart #1, Rock Elm is a fast grower with a very high heat value. But the BTU/cord measure can be misleading, if the goal is to produce the most firewood (in BTU’s) from a given area. As Chart #3 indicates, the fast growing Hybrid Poplar has a much lower value in BTU/cord, but because it produces three to five times as many cords each year as the others, its BTU/acre per year figure is the highest by far.

Planting. Choose the location of the woodlot carefully. If you have the room, plant in blocks or wide strips, to encourage a slightly crowded condition. As the trees reach upward for the light, they produce more usable wood, faster. A good way to start is to plant 1200 trees per acre and periodically thin out the trees to increase the growth. The thinning can be used for firewood. Leave some trees to grow to maturity in 10 to 20 years.

Land that is too steep or rocky to be farmed can be excellent for firewood production. When locating the woodlot keep in mind the need for access at harvest time and avoid low, wet areas. As a bonus, a woodlot will provide excellent erosion control in the area planted and can increase the aesthetic appeal of the land.

Weeding. The competition for available nutrients, moisture and sunlight is as fierce in the woodlot as in the garden. So, in order to give every advantage to the trees you intend to harvest, remove defective, deformed and undesirable trees. Although diversity is important, it may become necessary to keep at a minimum or even eliminate certain species. Sassafras and Ailanthus are the most unwanted trees in our woods. They are extremely prolific, grow fast, and crowd out everything else. We root Ailanthus out on sight, but it’s a never-ending battle, since they sprout from runners.

Hedgerows and Coppices. The handsdown winner when it comes to BTU production per acre/year is the combination of methods invented and developed in Europe over centuries of practice. When a mature tree is felled, its massive roots do not die. Many hardwood species will produce sprouts from the trunk (see Chart #4). Since there is such an extensive existing root system, the growth rate is several times faster than a planted tree.

Managing sprouts is called coppicing. A coppice is literally, a sprout forest. If left to nature, a cutover area would soon become a thicket of brush, rather than useable firewood. In coppicing, no more than two sprouts are allowed to grow, forcing all of the energy of the roots into them.

In order to promote quick growth, the stumps – or stools as they are called – must receive lots of sunshine. This observation led Europeans to plant in hedgerows rather than in a block. Hedgerows are always less than 50 feet wide, to permit ample sunshine to reach the innermost trees. They are often planted as windbreaks between open fields and located along roads, banks of streams, stone fences, property lines, and surrounding a house as a privacy screen or windbreak.

The stools must be carefully prepared to foster strouting by making a smooth cut, on a slant, across the entire stump. The stump should be cut one-foot off the ground with no jagged surface, thus discouraging the stump from collecting water and rotting. Harvest should only be in late fall or winter to promote rapid regrowth. If done in spring, as the sap is rising, the tree will bleed heavily and lose much of its energy.

In the woodlot it is advisable to wait until the tree is almost fully mature before cutting. While in the hedgerow it is best to harvest the firewood before the trunk reaches five inches DBH (Diameter, Breast High). Beyond this size, trees start to produce seeds, and divert their energy from sucker growth to seed production.

Being able to grow your own firewood is challenging and rewarding, but most of all there is a sense of security knowing that you have control over your own fuel supply.

Chart #1:
GROWTH RATE AND HEAT VALUE
Heat Equivalent (BTU/Cord)
Growth Rate Species Very High High Medium Low
Slow Apple X
Slow Beech X
Slow Birch X
Slow Hemlock X
Slow Hickory X
Slow Hornbeam X
Slow Oak X
Slow Walnut, Black X
Medium Ash, White, Black X
Medium Basswood X
Medium Butternut X
Medium Dogwood X
Medium Cherry, Black X
Medium Fir, Balsam X
Medium Locust X
Medium Maple
Medium Sugar, Red X
Medium Spruce, Red X
Fast Ash, Green X
Fast Elm, Rock X
Fast Maple, Silver X
Fast Pine X
Fast Poplar X
Fast Sycamore X
Fast Tuliptree X
Fast Willow X

Chart #2:
SELECTED SPECIES AS FUEL WOOD
Apple Very dense hardwood considered among the best as firewood. Excellent coaling qualities for cooking and long-lasting fires.
Ash White ash is an excellent firewood with higher BTU value per cord than black or green ash. Grows well on poor soil. Black ash also does well on wet soil.
Beech Very slow grower and difficult to split. Very susceptible to disease.
Birch Excellent wood, high in BTUs. Some birch can be used in hedgerows because it has a tendency to sucker. Gray birch is suitable for wet soil.
Cherry, Wild Black Suckers freely and grows quickly, excellent for coppices. Burns with colorful flames.
Conifers Not good heat producer. Best used for fast fires or when mixed with other wood. Excellent for kindling. Watch out for flying sparks when used in open fire.
Dogwood Good firewood, high in BTU’s. Excellent in hedgerows and regenerates easily when a stump is left. Low growing tree.
Elm Rock elm is high in BTU’s and a slow burner. Does best in a mixed fire. Easy to transplant and quick to be established.
Hornbeam Very slow grower. Hard, tough, heavy wood, has dulled many saws and axes. Great as a heat producer.
Locust Black locust makes excellent firewood, more BTU’s than oak. Excellent hedgerows and coppices.
Maple Sugar maple is the best heat producer. Red maple grows well on poor soil and in damp places. Silver maple sends up suckers, is good in hedgerows, works fine for coppicing, but is susceptible to decay.
Oak Excellent firewood, great in BTU’s. Hardy, strong-wooded, long-lived and relatively free of serious insect and fungus troubles.
Popular, Hybrid Among the fastest growing wood for firewood. Regenerates very well from stumps. Grows over a wide area from 20 degrees below zero to northern Georgia. Can burn green when hot fire is maintained. Good tree to grow for reforestation of old fields, cutover areas, strip mines and worn out soil. Long-lived, grows five to eight feet per year. Harvest firewood four to five years from planting.
Sycamore Grows well in most of the country. Rapid grower. Sprouts from roots. Moderate BTU’s, but good quality wood.
Tuliptree One of the tallest of native trees. Fast growing, resprouts well. Grows well in most of the country except northern most regions. Fair quality wood with low BTU’s.

Chart #3:
TYPICAL HEAT VALUE AND GROWTH RATES FOR VARIOUS HARDWOODS
Species Heat Value BTU/lb Heat Value BTU/cord* Growth Rate** Cord/Acre per Year BTU per Acre/Year Years to Harvest
Ash 8500 25,800,000 Medium 0.75 19,400,000 8-10
Beech 8600 28,900,000 Slow 0.50 14,450,000 10-15
Red Maple 8200 22,300,000 Medium 0.75 16,700,000 8-10
Red Oak 8300 27,200,000 Slow 0.50 13,700,000 10-15
Hybrid Poplar 8600 18,500,000 Fast 2.50 46,200,000 4-5

Chart #4:
SPECIES SUITABLE FOR THE COPPICE METHOD
Ash, Green Hickory Sycamore
Birch Locust Tuliptree
Cherry, Wild Black Maple, Silver Willow
Dogwood Oak
Elm Poplar

Frank Browning’s lifelong fascination with apples began on his parents’ orchard in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky. In Apples he charmingly demonstrates why this mysterious fruit continues to tempt and delight us.

Throughout Western memory, the apple has been the fruit of trouble, immortality, and temptation: Paris and the Trojan War; Nordic Loki and the apples of eternal life; and, of course, that infamous couple in the Garden. Browning leads us on a beguiling tour through the primal myths of the world’s most popular fruit and then explains that the first apples appeared in Kazakhstan on the slopes of the Heavenly Mountains. He visits the apple germ-plasm repository in Geneva, New York, and describes the powerful effects of genetic engineering on the apples of the future. In Wenatchee, Washington, world capital of apple growing, he meets Mr. Granny Smith and learns about the apple’s niche in the global marketplace, before setting off to sample Calvados from the pot stiffs of Normandy and cider from Somerset.

For the more practically inclined, Browning includes a selective listing of apple varieties, basic instructions for planting a backyard orchard, and a selection of beloved apple recipes from around the world.

Author
Frank Browning, whose previous books include The Culture of Desire and A Queer Geography, grows apples and ferments cider in Wallingford, Kentucky. He also reports for National Public Radio from New York City.

“Apples represent one of the oldest and closest links between nature and culture. Frank Browning blends colorful stories, extensive travel, useful information, and a history of culture into this savory winesap of a book.” –Roger Shattuck, Author of Forbidden Knowledge

“What Cezanne did in paints, Frank Browning does in words, making you see, touch, feel, taste an apple for the very first time, like Eve on the verge of discovery, risking paradise for just one bite.” –Betty Fussell, Author of The Story of Corn

Contents

Prologue 3
ONE Perseverance, Pests, and Perversity 13
TWO In Search of the Primeval Apple Forest 36
THREE The Pursuit of Paradise 63
FOUR Genetic Promiscuity, Biotech, and Suicide 89
FIVE Reds and Grannies and Seek-No-Further 121
SIX Cider: Lifeblood of the Heathen Apple 149
SEVEN Pomona’s Prospect 185
APPENDIX I Twenty (or so) Prize Apples 213
APPENDIX II Back-Yard Orchards 221
APPENDIX III A Few Good Recipes from Around the World 225
References 237

Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from the book Apples by Frank Browning.
Published by North Point Press; 0-86547-537-7; $24.00; Sept. 98
Copyright © 1998 Frank Browning

Late one August evening in 1992, when I was living in San Francisco, I found myself scrolling through the electronic card catalogue of the University of California. The university was closed, but a laptop computer and a telephone line kept its vast cataloguing system perennially open. Obsession, insomnia, and the byzantine tracking system of the UC library had converged that summer, leading me into one of the most arcane, and yet obvious, branches of apple lore: the search for the apple’s true birthplace.

I knew already that a modest disagreement had lingered for more than a century over the origins of the apple. Only a few Christian fundamentalists continued to insist that the apple came from “the Holy Lands.” Waverley Root, the estimable food historian and author of Food: An Authoritative and Visual History and Dictionary of the Foods of the World, declared that the first apples grew near the Baltic Sea, but he declined to elaborate on the “etymological evidence” he relied upon for his conclusion. Referring to fossils and carbonized remains of apples in prehistoric Swiss and Celtic settlements, he dismissed the conventional notion that the Romans introduced apples to northern Europe. Oddly, he seemed thoroughly unaware that geneticists have identified more than a dozen distinct species of apple, whose homes range from British Columbia to Sichuan Province, and that these prehistoric remains may bear no relation to the sweet table apples of the Romans.

Within horticulture, biologists and naturalists have pursued their own debate about the apple’s origins: either southwest Asia, in the Caucasus Mountains, or south-central Asia, on the slopes of the enormous range that separates China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Both areas were crossed by the great Silk Route that brought the charms of the Orient to the early cultures of the Mediterranean.

I also knew that the world-renowned Russian geneticist Nicholai Vavilov had visited both the Caucasus and Kazakhstan and favored the latter as the site of the modern edible apple’s origin. But it was hard to find much of Vavilov’s work in English, which was why I was spending my evenings wandering about the library’s electronic nervous system. There seem to be certain unwritten, mysterious laws about electronic library catalogues. Never once did my tapped-out inquiry deliver quite the same menu of references as it had previously.

This time I asked for any title, subject, or author with the name “Vavilov” in it. The first fifteen or twenty listings were in Russian, followed by a few journal articles in English published during the 1920s (most of these concerned grains). Then came item 32. It stood apart from the rest: The Vavilov Affair.

What sort of “affair” could this starched-collar geneticist have been involved in? A few lines into the synopsis came another flag: “Foreword by Andrei Sakharov.” What possible interest could the famous dissident and human rights activist have in a long-dead scientist?

For the next week I set everything else aside, roaming deeper into the library. I searched through old newspaper clippings and requested musty journals long since dispatched to the library’s storage archives twenty miles away. Vavilov, it turned out, had traveled by mule train across southern Asia and, upon arriving in Alma-Ata, pronounced the Kazakh capital the origin of the earth’s edible apples. The reason for Andrei Sakharov’s interest was that Vavilov, who had identified the birth sites of more plants than anyone in history, died a grisly death in a Soviet prison, the victim of the Soviet Union’s worst scientific scandal.

A few days later I learned that a small team of American agricultural researchers had opened new contacts with a group of Kazakh scientists who had quietly carried on Vavilov’s work. In fact, the Americans told me, there was a remarkable octogenarian, a Kazakh native who had devoted his life to studying the vast apple forests of Kazakhstan. The man’s name was Djangaliev, and his team was even now on a field expedition into the forests. Perhaps, they said, I should contact him, though the only number they had was his institute’s fax number in Alma-Ata.

Two weeks later, I was on an Aeroflot jumbo jet flying from Moscow to Alma-Ata. Eighty-year-old men don’t live forever, I reasoned, and apples, even wild apples, ripen only once a year. The best time to visit a wild apple forest was when the fruit was ripening on the tree.

Time is often confusing to first-time flyers in the old Soviet Union. My flight was scheduled to leave Moscow at 2 p.m. and arrive in Alma-Ata at 5:30, which it almost did, except that after three hours in the air, it was obvious we were still at maximum altitude and nowhere near the mountain range at the eastern end of Kazakhstan. No one had told me that Aeroflot listed all departures and arrivals in Moscow time-even for a two-thousand-mile flight to a city whose local time was three time zones later. At 8:30 the fat, loose-jointed jumbo jet rolled to a stop behind an attractive one-story building slightly smaller than the terminal in Lexington, Kentucky.

Dusk was losing its last light as I walked down into the plane’s cargo bay and picked up my bag from the wooden luggage racks (I’d been advised that prudent Aeroflot passengers never check their bags). Inside the Intourist lounge a small greeting party awaited my arrival. A man with graying hair and expectant eyes stepped forward.

“Mr. Browning,” he said, emphasizing the g, rather the way some New Yorkers say “Longuyland.” He thrust his thick, sturdy hands out to grasp mine. Quickly his interpreter, a blond fortyish woman with matching everything–eyeliner, purse, shoes, nails–stepped up.

“I am Gallina Alexandrovna and this is Dr. Aimak Djangaliev. We would like to welcome you to Alma-Ata.” Beside her stood Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of Ecology, the chief of the National Forest Service, another assistant, and of course the driver.

I was the first Western Journalist Djangaliev had ever met.

Aimak Djangaliev was four years old when the Russian Revolution swept through the northern plains of Kazakhstan. His father, a prosperous sheepherder who could neither read nor write, had owned a large two-story house and commanded the respect of his seminomadic community until it was collectivized by the Bolsheviks. Through the eighty years Dr. Djangaliev had lived when I met him in 1992, he had survived the promises and torments of revolution, the purges and tortures of the Stalinist terror, the desperation and heroics of the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany, the steady, soul-numbing encroachment of the Brezhnev bureaucracy, and the final collapse of the horrible and wondrous edifice that had been the Soviet Union. Except during the war years and his time at the university, he had devoted himself to his “great passion,” the study and preservation of the world’s original apple forests on the slopes of Kazakhstan’s Tian Shan, or Heavenly Mountains. It was in these forests, thick groves of trees that meander on for hundreds of miles, that Djangaliev escaped Stalin’s agents and eventually won renown for his work. Before I arrived in Alma-Ata, my American contacts had subtly warned me to be prepared for a difficult but remarkable man whose tough ego had been the source of his salvation.

Alma-Ata (pronounced Alma A-TAH) sits between two rushing glacial streams, the Greater and the Lesser Almatinka Rivers, that have their headwaters high in the snow-packed peaks to the southeast and disappear into a haze in the vast, and center of the country. The name Alma-Ata, which means “father of apples,” was invented by the Russians after the revolution (and changed to Almaty in 1994, three years after Kazakh independence). It had been a trading center on the Silk Route at least since the time of Alexander the Great. Imperial Russia staked out a military post there midway through the nineteenth century and gradually imported Cossack forces to hold it in the name of the czar. In those days the deep ravines and undulating slopes were blanketed by forests of apples and apricots. Green, red, yellow, rusty orange–large and sweet, small and bitter–apples ruled the land, and their forests set the acidity of the soil, made peace with specific herbs and flowers, attracted the birds and bears and antelope that would spread their seeds far and wide. That is how it appeared to Djangaliev when he was a boarding-school student there in the 1920s.

By 1992, however, when he was showing me his gardens and forests, Djangaliev could barely contain his rage and disgust at what three generations of Russian planners and bureaucrats had done to his precious fruit forest. He and his wife, Tatiana, a specialist in wild apricots, took me out to an orchard where forty years earlier he had transplanted one particularly promising strain of wild apple trees. From the smooth, tight appearance of the bark, the vigor of new growth, the size of the crop on them, these trees looked to be no more than a third their actual age. He said he had never pruned them, irrigated them, or fertilized them. The nearly ripe fruit varied in size, but much of it was as fine-skinned and colorful as New England McIntosh.

Djangaliev could see that I was struck by their appearance, and he had a good deal to tell me about these trees, but first he tugged me and his translator over to a clear space where we could see more clearly into the mountains. He began pointing with powerful gestures up to them. He was a tall man, as many Kazakhs are, and his shoulders were still sturdy and broad. The bones in his wrists were wide. His fist seemed fierce.

“If you look at the mountain over there, you’ll see some dachas, some small buildings. This is one of the ways of destroying wild forests.”

He was upset and wanted me, the American Journalist, to know it.

“So people remove fertile land and build houses there. Well, if we treat our nature like that we’ll have nothing in future, will we? The representatives of bureaucratic classes, some rich people, built their dachas in the mountains.”

Now he was railing.

“They never give it a thought who produced this fragrant air and who is responsible for the beauty and fertile land. So they begin destroying it.”

These were the weekend and summer cabins of the elite of Alma-Ata. Each one had a quarter or a half acre of land, tied to the highways by crude gravel drives. Already we could see hundreds of dachas; at the current construction rate there would soon be thousands. Once Western developers set to work on the pristine ski slopes just above the dacha zone, it could come to resemble Vail or Steamboat Springs.

Djangaliev is not a sentimental preservationist. He is proud of the modern industrial world the Kazakhs have built and of the productivity of modem Kazakh agriculture. He takes particular pride in the fact that, all through World War II, Kazakhstan turned itself into the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, that Kazakh grain nourished him and the troops with whom he fought on the western front. And, though he had a torturous life with the Communist Party, he retains a grain of the Marxian faith in progress and the force of history. His angst over the steady destruction of the apple forests derives from his conviction that, without such natural preserves, science and progress will be stymied.

As we stood there in the late August afternoon, he led me over to one of the wild apple trees he transplanted in 1949. The apples on this tree are medium-sized and without blemish. “This one I call Krasota [or Beauty],” he said, nodding his head to me, his gray eyes opening wide. That is also the name of his mother and his granddaughter, his interpreter, Gallina, explained.

This apple, Beauty, which he has studied for four decades, he hopes might become vital breeding stock in the future of Kazakh horticulture. It seems resistant to many of the standard apple diseases, offers good commercial potential, and requires no irrigation to reach moderate size. Its botanical name is Malus niedvetskyana number 49. A few rows away is another variety, Malus sieversii number 1001. This one is a large, dusky-green apple, and it grows from the tips of long willowlike limbs attached to short, stocky trunks. It may also possess special breeding qualities, he believes.

Djangaliev’s counterparts in the United States and Europe are not so confident that these particular varieties will change the shape of contemporary fruit growing, nor do they consider Malus niedvetskyana a species distinct from Malus sieversii, the basic Kazakh apple. But they agree that these lower slopes of the Tian Shan and another vast, almost untouched region to the northeast of Alma-Ata called the Dzungarian Alps constitute the center of origin for the ancestors of nearly all the apples we eat today. For horticultural scientists, that is vital information. Because the apple, or Malus, has survived so long on these slopes, and because until recently it has been undisturbed by man, it has retained rich genetic diversity. The modern apples we find at fruit stands and supermarkets represent but a tiny slice of all the possible apples that have existed in the world. They are the descendants of thousands of years of selection for color, size, shape, and growth habits. But they are also the chance descendants of the fruit and seedlings carried by travelers of the Silk Route and wild birds and animals that ate the fruit and scattered the seed as it passed through their digestive tracts. The apples that reached Persia, Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, and eventually central and northern Europe contain less than 15 to 20 percent of the genetic material found in these ancient Asian forests. Locked away in the genetic codes of that other 80 percent are the still unexplored possibilities of what an apple might become: Apples resistant to rots and blights and insects. Apples untouched by deep killing freezes. Apples of tantalizing yet unknown taste. Apples possessed of deep, rich skin tannins and tingling fresh fragrances that could be the basis of new untasted wines and ciders.

Even an afternoon’s walk through those sun-dappled, grovelike forests reveals a variety of wild fruit that the European or American wanderer has never imagined. It is almost like a journey back into an unkempt primordial garden.

Djangaliev wanted me to see, touch, smell these forests as quickly as possible, to absorb viscerally the intense “appleness” of this place called “father of apples.” The next day he arranged for one of his expeditionary teams to pick me up for its trek into the mountains.

Copyright © 1998 Frank Browning

‘The book isn’t anti-Atlanta, and it’s not pro-Atlanta, just as Bonfire of the Vanities wasn’t anti-New York or pro-New York. . . .What I’ve always been swept up in is the great journey of journalism, of discovery, what I call the objectivity of egotism. It’s always been more important to me to discover something new in what I’m writing about and put it into brilliant prose than to make any political point on earth.’ —

Tom Wolfe – Interviewed in The New York Times, November 11, 1998

The highly anticipated novel from the bestselling author of The Bonfires of the Vanities and Ambush at Fort Bragg, Tom Wolfe, the prime chronicler of America at its most outrageous and alive. The master is back with a pitch-perfect, coast-to-coast portrait of our wild and woolly, no-holds-barred, multifarious country on the cusp of the millennium. Bold, caustic, and hilarious, sparing no one as it winningly dissects our insatiable greed, vanity, and hunger for bearings, this book speaks volumes about the way people live now.

Read an excerpt from “A Man In Full”

Prologue: Cap’m Charlie
Charlie Croker, astride his favorite Tennessee walking horse, pulled his shoulders back to make sure he was erect in the saddle and took a deep breath . . . Ahhhh, that was the ticket . . . He loved the way his mighty chest rose and fell beneath his khaki shirt and imagined that everyone in the hunting party noticed how powerfully built he was. Everybody; not just his seven guests but also his six black retainers and his young wife, who was on a horse behind him near the teams of La Mancha mules that pulled the buckboard and the kennel wagon. For good measure, he flexed and fanned out the biggest muscles of his back, the latissimi dorsi, in a Charlie Croker version of a peacock or a turkey preening. His wife, Serena, was only twenty-eight, whereas he had just turned sixty and was bald on top and had only a swath of curly gray hair on the sides and in back. He seldom passed up an opportunity to remind her of what a sturdy cord no, what a veritable cable kept him connected to the rude animal vitality of his youth.

By now they were already a good mile away from the Big House and deep into the plantation’s seemingly endless fields of broom sedge. This late in February, this far south in Georgia, the sun was strong enough by 8 a.m. to make the ground mist lift like wisps of smoke and create a heavenly green glow in the pine forests and light up the sedge with a tawny gold. Charlie took another deep breath . . . Ahhhhhh . . . the husky aroma of the grass . . . the resinous air of the pines . . . the heavy, fleshy odor of all his animals, the horses, the mules, the dogs . . . Somehow nothing reminded him so instantly of how far he had come in his sixty years on this earth as the smell of the animals. Turpmtine Plantation! Twenty-nine thousand acres of prime southwest Georgia forest, fields, and swamp! And all of it, every square inch of it, every beast that moved on it, all fifty-nine horses, all twenty-two mules, all forty dogs, all thirty-six buildings that stood upon it, plus a mile-long asphalt landing strip, complete with jet-fuel pumps and a hangar all of it was his, Cap’m Charlie Croker’s, to do with as he chose, which was: to shoot quail.

His spirits thus buoyed, he turned to his shooting partner, a stout brick-faced man named Inman Armholster, who was abreast of him on another of his walking horses, and said:

“Inman, I’m gonna—”

But Inman, with a typical Inman Armholster bluster, cut him off and insisted on resuming a pretty boring disquisition concerning the upcoming mayoral race in Atlanta: “Listen, Charlie, I know Jordan’s got charm and party manners and he talks white and all that, but that doesn’t” dud’n”mean he’s any friend of . . .”

Charlie continued to look at him, but he tuned out. Soon he was aware only of the deep, rumbling timbre of Inman’s voice, which had been smoke-cured the classic Southern way, by decades of Camel cigarettes, unfiltered. He was an odd-looking duck, Inman was. He was in his mid-fifties but still had a head of thick black hair, which began low on his forehead and was slicked back over his small round skull. Everything about Inman was round. He seemed to be made of a series of balls piled one atop the other. His buttery cheeks and jowls seemed to rest, without benefit of a neck, upon the two balls of fat that comprised his chest, which in turn rested upon a great swollen paunch. Even his arms and legs, which looked much too short, appeared to be made of spherical parts. The down-filled vest he wore over his hunting khakis only made him look that much rounder. Nevertheless, this ruddy pudge was chairman of Armaxco Chemical and about as influential a businessman as existed in Atlanta. He was this weekend’s prize pigeon, as Charlie thought of it, at Turpmtine. Charlie desperately wanted Armaxco to lease space in what so far was the worst mistake of his career as a real estate developer, a soaring monster he had megalomaniacally named Croker Concourse.

“—gon’ say Fleet’s too young, too brash, too quick to play the race card. Am I right?”

Suddenly Charlie realized Inman was asking him a question. But other than the fact that it concerned Andre Fleet, the black “activist,” Charlie didn’t have a clue what it was about.

So he went, “Ummmmmmmmmmmm.”

Inman apparently took this to be a negative comment, because he said, “Now, don’t give me any a that stuff from the smear campaign. I know there’s people going around calling him an out-and-out crook. But I’m telling you, if Fleet’s a crook, then he’s my kinda crook.”

Charlie was beginning to dislike this conversation, on every level. For a start, you didn’t go out on a beautiful Saturday morning like this on the next to last weekend of the quail season and talk politics, especially not Atlanta politics. Charlie liked to think he went out shooting quail at Turpmtine just the way the most famous master of Turpmtine, a Confederate Civil War hero named Austin Roberdeau Wheat, had done it a hundred years ago; and a hundred years ago nobody on a quail hunt at Turpmtine would have been out in the sedge talking about an Atlanta whose candidates for mayor were both black. But then Charlie was honest with himself. There was more. There was . . . Fleet. Charlie had had his own dealings with Andre Fleet, and not all that long ago, either, and he didn’t feel like being reminded of them now or, for that matter, later.

So this time it was Charlie who broke in:

“Inman, I’m gonna tell you something I may regret later on, but I’m gonna tell you anyway, ahead a time.”

After a couple of puzzled blinks Inman said, “All right . . . go ahead.”

“This morning,” said Charlie, “I’m only gonna shoot the bobs.” Morning came out close to moanin’, just as something had come out sump’m. When he was here at Turpmtine, he liked to shed Atlanta, even in his voice. He liked to feel earthy, Down Home, elemental; which is to say, he was no longer merely a real estate developer, he was . . . a man.

“Only gon’ shoot the bobs, hunh,” said Inman. “With that?”

He gestured toward Charlie’s .410-gauge shotgun, which was in a leather scabbard strapped to his saddle. The spread of buckshot a .410 fired was smaller than any other shotgun’s, and with quail the only way you could tell a bob from a hen was by a patch of white on the throat of a bird that wasn’t much more than eight inches long to start with.

“Yep,” said Charlie, grinning, “and remember, I told you ahead a time.”

“Yeah? I’ll tell you what,” said Inman. “I’ll betcha you can’t. I’ll betcha a hundred dollars.”

“What kinda odds you gon’ give me?”

“Odds? You’re the one who brought it up! You’re the one staking out the bragging rights! You know, there’s an old saying, Charlie: `When the tailgate drops, the bullshit stops.'”

“All right,” said Charlie, “a hundred dollars on the first covey, even Stephen.” He leaned over and extended his hand, and the two of them shook on the bet.

Immediately he regretted it. Money on the line. A certain deep worry came bubbling up into his brain. PlannersBanc! Croker Concourse! Debt! A mountain of it! But real estate developers like him learned to live with debt, didn’t they . . . It was a normal condition of your existence, wasn’t it . . . You just naturally grew gills for breathing it, didn’t you . . . So he took another deep breath to drive the spurt of panic back down again and flexed his big back muscles once more.

Charlie was proud of his entire physique, his massive neck, his broad shoulders, his prodigious forearms; but above all he was proud of his back. His employees here at Turpmtine called him Cap’m Charlie, after a Lake Seminole fishing-boat captain from a hundred years ago with the same name, Charlie Croker, a sort of Pecos Bill figure with curly blond hair who, according to local legend, had accomplished daring feats of strength. There was a song about him, which some of the old folks knew by heart. It went: “Charlie Croker was a man in full. He had a back like a Jersey bull. Didn’t like okra, didn’t like pears. He liked a gal that had no hairs. Charlie Croker! Charlie Croker! Charlie Croker!”

Whether or not there had actually existed such a figure, Charlie had never been able to find out. But he loved the idea, and he often said to himself what he was saying to himself at this moment: “Yes! I got a back like a Jersey bull!” In his day he had been a star on the Georgia Tech football team. Football had left him with a banged-up right knee, that had turned arthritic about three years ago. He didn’t associate that with age, however. It was an honorable wound of war. One of the beauties of a Tennessee walking horse was that its gait spared you from having to post, to pump up and down at the knees when the horse trotted. He wasn’t sure he could take posting on this chilly February morning.

The two shooters, Charlie and Inman, rode on in silence for a while, listening to the creaking of the wagons and the clip-clopping of the mules and the snorts of the horses of the outriders and waiting for some signal from Moseby.

You could hear the low voice of one of the buckboard drivers saying, “Buckboard One to base . . . Buckboard One to base . . .” There was a radio transmitter under the driver’s seat. “Base” was the overseer’s office, back near the Big House. Buckboard One . . . Charlie hoped Inman and Ellen and the Morrisseys and the Stannards got the drift of that and were reminded that he had sent out four shooting parties this morning, four sets of weekend guests, with four buckboards (Buckboards One, Two, Three, and Four), four kennel wagons, four dog trainers, four sets of outriders, four of everything . . . Turpmtine was that big and that lavishly run. There was a formula. To send out one shooting party, with one pair of shooters, half a day each week for the entire season, which ran only from Thanksgiving to the end of February, you had to have at least five hundred acres. Otherwise you would wipe out your quail coveys and have no birds to shoot the following year. To send out one party all day once a week, you had to have at least a thousand acres. Well, he had 29,000 acres. If he felt like it, he could send out four parties all day, every day, seven days a week, throughout the season. Quail! The aristocrat of American wild game! It was what the grouse and the pheasant were in England and Scotland and Europe only better! With the grouse and the pheasant you had your help literally beating the bushes and driving the birds toward you. With the quail you had to stay on the move. You had to have great dogs, great horses, and great shooters. Quail was king. Only the quail exploded upward into the sky and made your heart bang away so madly in your rib cage. And to think what he, Cap’m Charlie, had here! Second biggest plantation in the state of Georgia! He kept up 29,000 acres of fields, woods, and swamp, plus the Big House, the Jook House for the guests, the overseer’s house, the stables, the big barn, the breeding barn, the Snake House, the kennels, the gardening shed, the plantation store, the same one that had been there ever since the end of the Civil War, likewise the twenty-five cabins for the help he kept all this going, staffed, and operating, not to mention the landing field and a hangar big enough to accommodate a Gulfstream Five he kept all this going, staffed, and operating year round . . . for the sole purpose of hunting quail for thirteen weeks. And it wasn’t sufficient to be rich enough to do it. No, this was the South. You had to be man enough to deserve a quail plantation. You had to be able to deal with man and beast, in every form they came in, with your wits, your bare hands, and your gun.

He wished there was some way he could underline all this for Inman. Inman’s father had built up a pharmaceuticals company back at a time when that was not even a well-known industry, and Inman had turned it into a chemicals conglomerate, Armaxco. Right now he wouldn’t mind being in Inman’s shoes. Armaxco was so big, so diverse, so well established, it was cycleproof. Inman could probably go to sleep for twenty years and Armaxco would just keep chugging away, minting money. Not that Inman would want to miss a minute of it. He loved all those board meetings too much, loved being up on the dais at all those banquets too much, loved all those tributes to Inman Armholster the great philanthropist, all those junkets to the north of Italy, the south of France, and God knew where else on Armaxco’s Falcon 900, all those minions jumping every time he so much as crooked his little finger. With a corporate structure like Armaxco’s beneath him, Inman could sit on that throne of his as long as he wanted or until he downed the last mouthful of lamb shanks and mint jelly God allowed him whereas he, Charlie, was a one-man band. That was what a real estate developer was, a one-man band! You had to sell the world on . . . yourself! Before they would lend you all that money, they had to believe in . . . you! They had to think you were some kind of omnipotent, flaw-free genius. Not my corporation but Me, Myself & I! His mistake was that he had started believing it himself, hadn’t he . . . Why had he ever built a mixed-use development out in Cherokee County crowned with a forty-eight-story tower and named it after himself? Croker Concourse! No other Atlanta developer had ever dared display that much ego, whether he had it or not. And now the damned thing stood there, 60 percent empty and hemorrhaging money.

The deep worry was lit up like an inflammation. Couldn’t let that happen . . . not on a perfect morning for shooting quail at Turpmtine.

Copyright ©1998 Tom Wolfe

Did you notice how time became almost irrelevant in 1998, or do we all experience the time continuum very differently? For me, the natural progression of events accelerated and holidays schmooshed together. Here’s Christmas knocking at the door and our holiday cocktail party that was LIGHT YEARS away has been beamed up, Scottie, and is a few DAYS away.

So! How do we handle this? With a deep-freeze. If you invited 40 but maybe 60 will land on your pad, way ahead make nibbles for 60 and freeze them. If a galactic storm vaporizes half the guests, the frozen left overs will be real handy for impromptu holiday fly-bys.

Here are some fun new recipes for a crowd you can make and freeze — guaranteed to leave you and your guests beaming (!) in whatever direction you choose to go. Ahhhhh, relax, smell the Holiday Cheer recipe that follows and let’s party!

Ben Green’s “Holiday Cheer”
Serves 4-5

Ben Green and his wife, Francesca are a pair of playful holiday revelers who really know how to get into the holiday spirit. Ben dons his Santa hat and greets friends at the door with a steaming mug of his easy-as-pie “Holiday Cheer” – spiced-spiked- cider (can YOU say that five times fast?) and fun begins.

1/2 gallon good apple cider
4-5 cinnamon sticks cinnamon sticks
Good – quality dark rum or apple brandy

In a large pot over medium-low heat, simmer the cider and cinnamon sticks for about 20 minutes. Pour one-part rum to five-parts hot spiced cider into a mug. Add one of the cinnamon sticks and serve hot.

Fast Festive Sundried Tomato & Basil Roll-Ups
makes approximately 90-100 pieces

These little numbers require patience for the first one, and the rest are a snap. If the roll-up doesn’t stay together, spread a bit more of the cheese mixture on the edge of the tortilla. The combination of white, green and red are as smashing as the rich earthy flavors.

1 10-count package 8-inch flour tortillas (at room temperature)
1 8-oz package cream cheese (at room temperature)
2 tablespoons fresh goat cheese (without ash)
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, shredded
1 7-ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and minced

In a food processor, puree the cheeses until smooth and well combined – about 1 minute on high. Lay one of the tortillas flat. Spread a thin layer of the cheese mixture on one side all the way to the edges. Sprinkle some of the sun-dried tomatoes and the shredded basil over the cheese. Leave one edge of the tortilla plain–so that just the cheese shows. Gently roll the tortilla into a tight roll, working toward the edge with only cheese on it. The just-cheese edge “glues” it together. If you are using these freshly made, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 2 days. Before serving, remove the plastic and using a very sharp knife, cut the roll into thin 1/8 inch diagonal slices and arrange on a platter. To freeze, seal the plastic covered rolls into freezer bags and freeze. Defrost are room temperature for approximately 2 hours and slice as directed above.

Roast Beef & Spinach Roll-Ups
makes 90-100 pieces

Here’s a variation of the Sundried Tomato & Basil Wrap. This one combines cheese, roast beef and spinach. You can substitute turkey for the beef. These don’t hang around for long!

1 10-count package 8inch flour tortillas (at room temperature)
1 8-oz package cream cheese (at room temperature)
2 tablespoons fresh goat cheese (without ash)
1/2 teaspoon powdered garlic
Salt & pepper to taste
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and wrung absolutely dry
1/2 pound paper-thin slices of rare roast beef or turkey

In a food processor, puree the cheeses, garlic salt & pepper until smooth and well combined (about 1 minute on high). Lay one of the tortillas flat. Spread a thin layer of the cheese mixture on one side; be sure to spread it all the way to the edges. Sprinkle some of spinach over the cheese. Place a single layer of roast beef (or turkey) over the spinach. Leave one half of the tortillas’ edge plain–so that just the cheese shows. Proceed as directed above in the Sundried Tomato & Basil Roll-Ups above.

Cheese-Olive Puffs
makes 30-40 pieces

This is a family stand-by that I always keep in my freezer, ready to go for any occasion.

1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup butter at room temperature
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 15-ounce bottle of small stuffed green olives (30-40 count) drained and wiped dry In a food processor combine the first five ingredients until it forms a ball of dough. Pinch off a small piece of the dough, (about 1 teaspoon) and flatten it in your hand. Place an olive in the center and gently press the side of the dough around it. Roll gently between your hands until it has formed a smooth little ball with no part of the olive showing. Continue until all the olives are covered and seal them into a freezer bag and keep frozen until ready to use. To serve: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.. Place the frozen olive puffs on a non-stick cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot. (If baking fresh instead of frozen puffs, 15 minutes should be enough)

Why are our favorite plants often the most difficult to grow well? Do we just need the challenge? Or, do we gardeners have some psychological need to always struggle? For whatever reason, I really like gardenias as a houseplant, and of course gardenias are one of the more difficult houseplants to grow properly. Let’s see if we can understand what these attractive and fragrant plants need, and how we can try and provide it.

Sun, Sun, and More Sun
The first requirement in growing and flowering a potted gardenia is sun. These plants really want and need a very sunny, bright growing location. You can’t grow them well when they’re sitting 20 feet from the window. During the cold months of the year they need to sit “in” a sunny window or on a sun porch. During the warm months of the year they greatly benefit from a season outdoors, again in the sun.

Potting Soil, Second Key Ingredient
The potting soil for your gardenia needs to be well drained and acidic. Potting soils bought at the local garden center or plant store rarely meet these requirements. If you want the absolutely based potting soil mix for a gardenia here’s your recipe:

1 PART FINE PINE BARK
1 PART PERLITE
1 PART SPHAGNUM PEAT MOSS
You can buy fine pine bark bagged for use as mulch. Make sure the pieces of bark are small, dime size is best. Perlite and sphagnum peat moss are available from most garden stores. Blend these three ingredients together and you’ll have your well drained, acidic gardenia soil mix.

Water and Feed Often
Once potted in our special potting mix don’t allow your gardenia to dry out or starve. Check the soil weekly and when dry to the touch water thoroughly using a diluted, water-soluble fertilizer. Mix the fertilizer at one quarter the recommended strength and use at every watering. Any of the commercial water-soluble fertilizers are fine.

Keep Cool in Winter
This might be the hardest requirement to meet but gardenias respond best to cool, not freezing, temperatures in the winter. This is the reason plants on sun porches or in unheated rooms do so well. They like their winter night temperatures dropping into the fifties if at all possible. If you can’t provide this, don’t despair, do the best you can with the temperature and see what happens. Give me a call and let me know when the first flowers open.

Planting a living Christmas tree can be a wonderful family tradition as well as a great way to improve your home landscape. What you don’t want is to spend a lot of money on a living Christmas tree and then have it die soon after planting, or have to cut it down because it has grown too large for its location.

Does Your Landscape Need A Large Evergreen Tree?
Before you buy a live Christmas tree, you should make sure you have space in the landscape for it. Most trees used as Christmas trees eventually get big, often more than 50 feet tall and 20 feet wide. These are not trees to plant 10 feet from the house, or right next to the driveway. If you have a small yard and still would like to have a living Christmas tree, explore the possibility of donating the tree to a local school or church for their landscape.

About a month before the holiday period, visit your local nursery or garden center and inquire as to the types of evergreens available as living Christmas trees. Decide which type of evergreen would be best for your location and your landscape.

Select Location and Dig Hole First
Well before it’s time to plant your living Christmas tree, locate the spot in the yard where it will be planted, and dig the planting hole. If you wait until the day of planting to dig the hole, you may find yourself faced with frozen or wet soil. With a living Christmas tree you can’t afford the luxury of waiting until the weather is better, you have to get the tree out of the house and into the ground quickly.

The planting hole should be at least 24 inches in diameter and approximately 15 inches deep. You may have to make the hole larger if the root system of the tree needs more room. The hole can be covered with a board until the planting day. If the soil is heavy, with lots of clay, mix in a liberal amount of organic matter, such as compost, leafmold, or peat moss. The additive should be mixed with the existing soil in a three to one ratio, three parts original soil and one part additive. If the soil is relatively easy to dig and not compacted, it’s best not to add any additives to the soil.

Buying the Tree
As soon as you get your new living Christmas tree home, check the soil ball and make sure the soil is moist; if it’s not, place the root ball in a tub or large container that has several inches of warm water in the bottom and allow the root ball to soak up water for an hour or two. Until you’re ready to bring the tree into the house, keep it in a cool, shady, windless location.

Using an Anti-transparent
One smart method of preventing the needles of your living Christmas tree from drying out too rapidly is the use of an anti-transparent spray. Ask your local garden center for an anti-transparent product and follow the label directions for spraying your new living Christmas tree. The anti-transparent will retard the evaporation of moisture from the tree’s needles.

Bring the Tree Indoors
The warm, dry air inside a house in winter is not a favorable environment for an evergreen tree. There is a danger that the warmth of the house will stimulate the tree to start growing and make it unable to withstand the cold when it goes outside. Therefore, once you bring the tree inside, don’t place it in a location near a heat source, such as a radiator, fire place or heat duct. Also, limit the time the tree is in the house, no more than 7 days. If the temperature in the house is greater than 70 degrees F., reduced the time the tree is indoors to only 5 days.

During the trees stay indoors, check the condition of the soil in the root ball and make sure it stays moist. If the soil begins to dry out carefully pour several cups of warm water on the top surface of the root ball.

Planting the Tree
As soon as you remove the decorations from the tree, move the tree outside and plant it. -If the weather conditions, such as a heavy rain or snow, do not allow planting, take the tree outside and place it in a shaded location protected from the wind. As soon as possible, place the tree in the prepared planting hole, making sure the top of the root ball is even with, or slightly above, the top of the planting hole. Position the tree in the most favorable orientation and begin filling the planting hole with the prepared soil. When the planting hole is half full, loosen the burlap from around the root ball and fold it down so it is below ground level. Finish filling the planting hole with soil.

If your living Christmas tree is potted, rather than a ball and burlap tree, carefully remove the pot. If the roots are in a tight mass on the outside of the rootball, use a knife and cut or pry some of the roots loose so that they will grow out into the soil rather than continue growing in a pot-Eke configuration. Place the root ball into the planting hole so that the top of the root ball is equal with, or slightly higher than, the top of the hole.

After the planting hole is filled with soil, pack it firmly around the root ball with your feet. Using the remainder of the loose, prepared soil, build a small dike 3 to 4 inches high around the outer edges of the planting hole. This will help in keeping the newly planted tree watered. Add 3 to 5 gallons of water within the dike area and allow it to soak into the soil.

Post Planting Care
Mulch the area under the tree with pine bark, shredded hardwood, or another type of mulching material. During the remainder of winter and into the upcoming spring and summer, check the soil condition beneath the tree weekly and water well if the soil begins to dry out.

If your newly planted, living Christmas tree is located in an open location and subject to drying, winter winds, it is beneficial to erect a temporary windscreen around the tree. Burlap or heavy plastic, supported by a series of stakes, can be placed near the tree to lessen the impact of the wind.

The Best Types of Live Christmas Trees for Your Yard
The best, most adaptable needled evergreens for use as a five Christmas tree and later planting into the home landscape are the pines and the spruces. In general the firs are less successful in our area as landscape trees. Balsam firs in particular have problems with our hot summer weather. Remember, give all of these needled evergreens plenty of landscape space, most mature into LARGE trees.