♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Welcome to "Gardening with Steil," a well designed garden can provide color and vibrancy year round.

The discover garden on the Iowa State Fairgrounds is a perfect example how something is always in bloom to create a year-round feast for the eyes.

This garden could easily be harvested from any time during the growing season and still appear full of life and lustre.

Cutting gardens are booming in popularity with homeowners from simple concepts like a raised bed planted with wildflowers to a well-designed mix of annuals and perennials such as the discovery guard on it planting in rows for the sole purpose of harvesting.

Cindy Haynes takes us on a tour of the horticultural garden in Ames to see one example of how to plant and create your own cutting garden.

>> Welcome to the home demonstration garden.

We're standing in the middle of the cut flower garden which has a whole host of some of those annual flowers that maybe you saw at the discovery garden that Aaron mentioned earlier.

This one is laid out a little bit differently than the discovery garden.

Everything is annual in this particular garden, so we lay things out in rows so that I can talk and show you some of the different species.

I think I'll start by showing you the status first because this is something you recognize.

This is something that appears in a lot of cut flower bouquets, it comes in purple and yellow and white, and really holds up well in cut flower arrangements.

Next up another purple is the verbina bonarientis a butterfly magnet, it does a great job being a filler.

This is kind of a brain type of solacia, more of a plume type solacia and there's wheat types of solacia here and here as well.

All of these make wonderful cut flowers and they also dry pretty well, too.

The last thing that I want to show you is with the species of salvea a common cut flower.

I want to show you how to do and what to do cutting flowers so they last the longest that they possibly can.

It starts down here.

The first thing you have to do is identify a long, straight stem, so with the salvea we have plenty of opportunities to find a long, straight stem.

The second thing you need is a pair of nice, sharp shears.

Make sure you' using something that's clean and sharp as possible.

Cut until you get to a branch, snip it off, and then what we're going to do next is strip off the lower foliage.

Any of the lower foliage that gets in the water could create fungal growth, so we want to make sure we remove all of that lower foliage, and the most important thing is to put this in a bucket of water as quickly as possible.

Don't harvest your flowers without a bucket of water, because you put them in water as quickly as possible, they're going to last a lot longer.

I'm going to harvest a lot more flowers so next I can show you how to arrange them.

♪♪ We harvested a lot of flowers at the Station in Ames and we have tons of options to choose from for our cut flower vases today.

First though, you'll select a vase, pick a vase that you like that kind of coordinates with your flowers and that you have about the right amount of FLOU flowers that go into it.

You can add a few greens as well, so that you can kind of fill it out, too.

The second thing to think about is when you harvest those cut flowers is you want to make sure you put some clean water in the vase.

In this particular vase we put watt near rocks in the bottom to help stabilize the flowers we're starting.

When we use clean water you can add the floral life packets or the little packet its you get from a florist.

These are good at providing what flowers need to stay a little bit longer.

Clean water, if you don't have that.

So here is a flower arrangements we've already started.

This is just in a simple vase.

When you look at the vase look at the height of the vase.

You're going 1 1/2 to 2 times that height for the height of your flower arrangement, that height and wide and this one kind of does that pretty well.

You also see with these wildflowers that we've put in here we've kind of defined the lines that we're going to use for this one, too.

From then on, I'm just going to start putting a bunch of things randomly around the vase.

I might even cut a few of these.

Stick them in.

The weighty flowers, the bigger flowers I usually put at the bottom are near the lip of the vase, and then some of the other flowers I'll scatter them throughout.

The pink helps define the line.

This as well.

Go right here.

Some of the things that I've put in this arrangement are, we put in that gloam amoranz we used before.

We have some salocia.

Here is the Oscar milkweed.

I've added some ferns from my garden, a few random zinnias and a few goldenrods from my garden as well to keep with that wild flower type theme.

Everything in this base is very wispy.

It's very open, because it kind of fits with the style of the vase and the flowers that I have.

Add a few more things to the front.

Just leave it nice and open.

This is a vase we have just flowers that are all the way around.

And easy to access.

When you consider the flowers you're using for your vase take a look at the vase.

This is a beautiful race, it's recognize hang LAR so it will force to you do two sides so this particular arrangement is a very brilliant color, so we use very bold, brilliant flowers in it.

You can see both sides of it.

I added some grasses, some varigated grasses, salvia, amaro anz and goldenrod and status as well so most of this will dry pretty well as well.

Next up is another little vase, this is a vase almost everyone has.

Pure water in it and instead of growing something so bold I'll go with something pretty tame.

We'll go with a monochromatic color scheme.

And I'm just going to put a few snap dragons here in the center.

This is another round vase, so we have lots of opportunity to kind of create this round -- that one -- flowers.

So snap dragons, white snap dragons, globe amorantz, I might even put a little bit of a varigated dogwood in this one for some foliage.

And a few more of these in here.

Just want to kind of fill in some holes all the way around.

You can even use something like hosta leaves to finish this one off.

It doesn't have to be fancy.

It can be something pretty simple.

This one has just got a little bit going on.

When you look for things in your garden, wander around and just select things that are blooming, because you can often do something that's very simple and just Mason jars with the things that are blooming in your garden, and not really spend a lot of time actually arranging it, which is kind of a nice way to do it.

Go explore your garden.

Look for flowers and foliage and a simple year-round bouquet, because you can have a lot of fun with it.

>> I hope Cindy's examples are inspiring you to plan and create your own version of a cutting garden this coming season.

As we leave you, here is one more look at the beauty you can experience for yourself at the Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Thanks for joining me on Gardening with Steil.

ll new Gardening with Steil Special.

Today, we're talking totally tomatoes.

A lot of these wonderful heirloom tomatoes have amazing stories surrounding them.

It's called Willie's Garden Tomato.

It's a fairly unique because it's a yellow pace tomato.

Every year since I've been married, planting in the garden and my wife says they're good.

So here we are.

So what do you think makes a tasty tomato?

Something that's good on a sandwich?

We've made this beautiful piece of land that's abundant with food, and we want to embrace that and host people here at the farm.

The diversity of perennials that can be grown in Iowa is huge.

I decided to try to plant my garden for fall color.

Oh, look at all the bees.

It's only his second year, but what a butterfly magnet.

I work on the perennial bed, and we try to feature perennials that bloom throughout the years.

Great things come in little packages.

And tiny house plants are great additions to the home.

My plant passion came from working in the garden with my mom when I was little.

People have felt compelled to incorporate more natural elements into their living spaces.

Terrariums are a great way to grow houseplants.

A layer about an inch thick on the bottom of the jars, there's lots of cool, colorful things in it, and I like using this stuff because it's so fun and color.

Don't miss the all new Gardening With Steil Special premiering Saturday, February 19th.

Only on Iowa PBS.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Aaron Steil: Welcome to Gardening with Steil.

Today's topic is vegetable gardening.

You don't have to have a huge yard to grow fresh food.

I'll show you one way to utilize small spaces for growing your own vegetables.

We'll also visit with a gardener who found a love for vegetable gardening at a very young age.

But first, gardeners are known to be very generous with their bounty.

We caught up with a group of volunteers from Plant a Row to see how their local food collection efforts are helping feed the hungry.

♪♪ ♪♪ Aaron: Carolyn, tell us what Plant a Row for the Hungry is.

Carolyn Jons: Well, it is a wonderful way to provide fresh produce for people who might not be able to afford the produce.

And it is also a wonderful way for people who garden to be able when things come on and there's too much, we provide a way to get them to the right people.

Aaron: So, as volunteers for Plant a Row for the Hungry, what do you do each week?

Carolyn: We come to Reiman Gardens on Monday morning.

We are here by 7.

And we advertise that gardeners can come and bring their extra produce.

We set up tables and people drive by and they drop off their extra produce.

We weigh the produce and then we pack our cars and take them to Salvation Army, Mid-Iowa Community Action, Primary Health Care and the Bethesda Food Pantry.

Roger Ginder: The volunteers are just fantastic.

I mean, it makes this real easy.

You come in once a week.

I'm not sure I could do it on this scale if I had to make individual deliveries.

How long are you guys going to be doing this?

Our schedule is until the third week in October, the 24th or something like that.

Aaron: What about it do you find most rewarding?

Jan Haugen: Well, I guess seeing the people that get the produce.

Usually at each place we go there are people lined up waiting to get the produce.

There is a great need even in the community of Ames.

This goes to Mid-Iowa Community Action.

Carolyn: It really feels good when you go to deliver at one of the places and the eyes pop open and they say, oh, how wonderful!

♪♪ Carolyn: And then when you happen to see the families come and pick up produce, they are so grateful.

♪♪ Carolyn: We don't want people to be hungry and it does feel good to be kind of the middle man between the growers and those who are actually distributing.

♪♪ Aaron: Volunteer organizations like Plant a Row exist across the state.

And it's easy to get involved whether you help distribute to those in need or contribute your own produce.

A love of gardening can come at any age.

We visit with a gardener who found their passion for growing vegetables at a very young age.

♪♪ Hi, this is Brayden.

Welcome to my garden.

I rent a plot in the community garden.

Everyone else here has been gardening longer than I've been alive.

Brayden: This year I grew zucchini and butternut squash, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, onions, cabbage and huckleberries.

Brayden: My family's favorite types of tomatoes are white cherry tomatoes and black cherry tomatoes.

Brayden: Everyone always asks me, what are these?

These are huckleberries and my family uses them to make pie.

We pick them right before the first frost.

Brayden: Since I have to carry my own water across town, I use these coffee cans to funnel down the water to its roots.

When digging sweet potatoes you've got to make sure that you dig farther away from the center of the plant because the roots travel very far.

Brayden: I use ice cream buckets to carry my produce home.

Brayden: The best thing about growing vegetables is that you can eat them.

I'm learning how to cook and how to use my garden vegetables.

And my favorite thing to make with them is zucchini pancakes.

Brayden: My advice for growing gardens is that you need to rotate where you plant your plants to make sure that the soil doesn't deplete of its nutrients.

The most enjoyable part of growing a garden is watching your plants grow and seeing how far you have come.

Brayden: It was fun to show you guys my garden.

Thank you for stopping by!

♪♪ Aaron: Growing vegetables in containers is a great way to get fresh food when space or land is not available.

Here is how to get the most out of your container grown vegetables.

First, you want to start with the right varieties of vegetables.

Not everything we typically grow in a vegetable garden will do well in a container.

But there are many that will, including things like leafy greens, lettuce, spinach, kale, even microgreens.

You can also grow things like herbs, in particular cilantro and basil and parsley do really well in containers.

Looking at other plants, things like bush varieties of cucumber and squash.

We want to try to find and select compact cultivars of vegetables whenever we're using them in containers.

Eggplant, potatoes, beets, radishes, even peppers, both hot and sweet varieties, do really well in containers.

And of course, our favorite, the tomato, is a great addition to a container.

Aaron: Keep in mind when selecting tomato varieties to find and look for either those that are sold as container, great for containers, or those that say they are determinate.

Tomatoes come in two types, indeterminate and determinate.

Determinate types stay smaller and shorter.

They also tend to bloom and fruit in one big lump instead of continuously throughout the season.

Aaron: Once we know what we're going to be growing in our containers, we need to pick the right container.

And in most cases as large as we can get it is what we want to do.

Even as big as this one would be great.

They can be any kind of material from terracotta to glazed.

They can be plastic.

They can be things like this window box here.

And smaller vegetables like the leafy greens or herbs can do well in smaller containers or things like this window box.

But larger vegetables, in particular things like potatoes, peppers and tomatoes need to be in a large container.

Aaron: I'm going to be using for our example here today just an old nursery container.

The price was right on this one.

I'm reusing it from something I had planted earlier in the season and it has both of the things I am looking for in a container for vegetables.

It is a good size and it has great drainage at the bottom.

Aaron: Once we have our container we need to fill it with something that works well in a container.

Garden or topsoil, which is usually really inexpensive in the stores, is not good for containers.

That garden soil or topsoil changes structure when we put it in a container and it tends to be too wet and not provide enough air for the roots to grow well.

Instead, we want to look for a good quality potting mix, even though it is a little bit more expensive.

Ideally, we would fill the container with potting mix.

If the container is really large and you're worried about moving it or are having a hard time being able to get all of the potting soil to fill it, you can put voids in it, things like upside-down containers, packing peanuts in a plastic bag, pool noodles.

Those kinds of things can help fill some of the void.

But hopefully you can fill it all with soil because a good soil volume means we have plenty of water and nutrients available for our vegetables to do well.

Aaron: Now that we have our container and I have it full of soil I am going to pot up our vegetables here.

And I have here just a seedling of a tomato that I am going to place in this container.

If we were growing something from seed like a lot of the greens are grown, or even some herbs, we can sow the seed directly onto the surface of this and then cover it with the right amount of soil, which is says on the back of the package.

Otherwise, we're just going to transplant this into the container.

Aaron: Pop it out and set it in.

When we get done with this, this plant is going to look a little lonely in this container and that's okay.

These things get much larger throughout the season.

So don't worry about that.

Don't be tempted to fill it in with other little things unless you are planning to remove those things later on in the season.

Aaron: Once we have it planted, we need to get it watered.

We always water in newly planted things and watering is one of the most important, and can be one of the more challenging things about growing vegetables in containers.

The reason why this is such an important factor is because most vegetables, including things like tomatoes, need a good consistent source of moisture and containers are so much more likely to dry out than a vegetable garden in your yard would be.

And so being on top of that watering is critical to doing a good job of producing high quality vegetables that you are really happy to eat.

Aaron: You might want to use some fertilizer as well, although most potting mixes that you find in the store now have a slow release fertilizer in them.

You don't want to overdo the fertilizer in these containers.

Too much fertilizer for vegetables often means a lot of leafy growth and very little fruiting, flowering and fruiting.

So, if the potting soil you have had fertilizer in it, you're probably good.

You can use something like a slow release fertilizer, which I prefer to use, or water every once in a while with a water soluble fertilizer throughout the season.

Aaron: The last thing we're going to do is make sure that this container gets put in the best location for light.

All vegetables need full sun to perform their best.

In particular, things like peppers and tomatoes, all the bush varieties of cucumbers and squash, they will need full sun, at least six hours of light hitting the leaves.

If you don't have quite full sun, some vegetables like a lot of the leafy greens, some of the herbs, will do okay with a little bit less light, but they still need as much light as possible if you can't quite get six hours of direct sunlight a day.

Aaron: Vegetable gardening can be one of the most rewarding forms of gardening and one of the easiest to start with.

It gets you connected with the outside and nature and you get food.

It's the perfect way to introduce kids to gardening and healthy foods, getting them engaged in the great outdoors and invested in trying new food.

Nothing tastes better than a vine-ripened tomato or fresh sweet corn grown by your own hands in your own garden, whether it is in your yard or in a container on your patio.

Thanks for joining me on Gardening with Steil.

♪♪