It’s all about fathers on Sunday, but not all dads are into ties, tools and sports equipment.
Many are surprisingly great barbecue chefs and the new trend is they are becoming fairly avid gardeners too. Can you believe in the U.S. over one million young men between the ages of 18 and 24 are growing hops — so there’s an idea worth brewing.
Today, one challenge for any gardener can be small space living. Container gardening on the patio is more often the order of the day. Fortunately, food gardening has adapted nicely to small spaces with great results.
Blueberries, like evergreen sunshine blue, the container star perpetua and summer breeze (a combination of three varieties grown together) are fun, delicious and can easily be grown in small spaces. The new container raspberry, called raspberry shortcake and its blackberry counterpart baby cakes are just beginning to fruit in time for gifting on Father’s Day.
Espaliered fruit trees are the new wave of small space trees that can be grown either against a fence or can be the fence. They produce delicious apples, pears and Asian pears. There are also naturally occurring genetic dwarf peaches and nectarines that can be grown on patios and under cover as well.
For more immediate enjoyment, container-grown strawberries and tomatoes are very popular today. Everbearing strawberries are usually grown in hanging baskets and can be enjoyed now and all summer.
Tumbler and tumbling Tom tomatoes are sweet, taste great and fit nicely in pots or baskets. If Dad is into bragging rights, the new giant tomatoes, like porterhouse, are still available. Also exciting is the remarkable ketchup ‘n’ fries, a tomato grafted onto a potato plant.
Bonsai plants have become a lot simpler these days with the advent of the indoor variety ficus microcarpa. It’s a stunning, twisted, gnarled ficus that is easy to grow.
For practical dads, consider giving garden gadgets that are useful, such as Oya watering vessels, watering wands, kneepads and EZ-Riser mobility aids — all make gardening easier.
