Learning how to grow watercress gives you a tasty, water-loving plant option with a peppery taste that can enliven a sandwich or salad. Ann McCarron will show you how easy it is to grow and share our tips for caring for this perennial herb. Who can resist the hot, peppery taste of watercress in a salad, a sandwich, or even garnishing a burger, but did you know that watercress is very easy to grow yourself? Read on to learn how to grow watercress at home in your own garden. As a water-loving perennial, it’s often assumed that watercress can only be grown in fresh flowing water. While this is true, you’ll be happy to learn that recreating these growing conditions using containers is straightforward. You can even grow watercress on a sunny windowsill if you follow our tips! Watercress has been cultivated since Roman and Greek times, and there are good reasons for its long success. Those small fresh leaves are packed full of vitamins A and C, iron, calcium, and folic acid, making watercress a nutritional powerhouse. It’s not just for salad mixes, either. Add a handful of leaves to smoothies for a healthy vitamin boost, or try your hand at making watercress soup or pesto sauce to add to pasta. Either way, this incredibly versatile leaf is going to taste delicious. What is Watercress? Watercress, also known as garden cress, comes from the cabbage or mustard family Brassicaceae. With the botanical name Nasturtium officinale, it would be easy to confuse watercress with the land-grown, colorful nasturtium ornamental flowering plant, Tropaeolum majus. To add even more confusion, both plants are edible and have a strong peppery flavor, but they are not related botanically. Native Area Watercress is native to Europe and Asia and is naturalized across North America growing in streams, springs, slow-moving rivers, and marshland. As a semi-aquatic herb, watercress thrives in permanently wet conditions, either partially submerged or grown in soil regularly refreshed with clean, clear water. Watercress cannot grow in a stagnant environment. Characteristics Watercress has a dense, sprawling growth habit, propagating freely from leaf nodes which is why you sometimes see fine hair-like white roots on your bagged watercress salad from the supermarket. Leaves are mid-green, alternate, pinnately compound ranging between three to nine leaflets growing on hollow stems. Clusters of four-petalled white flowers are borne on dark green/brown stalks protruding slightly above the carpet of leaves and are a magnet to water insects, hoverflies, and bees. Flower production is stimulated by day length and tends to occur in mid to late summer. Seed pods are similar in appearance to other brassica family varieties: long, thin, and upright, turning brown when ready to harvest. Pods remain elevated above the water, bursting when ripe, falling close to the parent, and usually germinating within a week, providing continuous crop throughout the season. Seeds are tiny, oval, brown specks that are best broad-sown. Each pod contains 20+ seeds, and each cluster of flowers has around 20 seed pods. Watercress has both basal roots to secure it to the location and advantageous roots that float and assist in progressing colonization. Watercress has a vigorous growth rate, allowing harvests in as little as four to seven weeks. Treated as a cut-and-come-again salad, watercress rewards you with continuous lush growth from spring to late fall. Leaves become bitter and unpalatable after flowering, so frequent harvesting will keep your watercress producing new leaves for longer. All parts of the watercress, including the flowers and roots, are edible, but the latter parts tend to be bitter. Watercress is grown primarily for its tasty leaves, which are best consumed raw to get the most nutritional value. Leaves can also be cooked in soups and stir-fries or wilted like spinach. Planting Plant shop-bought watercress outdoors from March if no harsh frosts are forecast. Young plants may suffer from a sudden change in temperature so it’s best to acclimatize them over a few days. If growing in containers, keep indoors until the first frost-free date. Sow watercress seeds outdoors from spring when average daily temperatures are between 50-60°F (10-16°C) or indoors and plant outside once they have become established. Seeds require this temperature range to successfully germinate. If using store-bought transplants in garden ponds, simply place watercress into aquatic pots filled with compost or soilless potting mix and topped with gravel to prevent the growing media from floating away. Sow seed directly along the edges of ponds as long as the soil is saturated, as they grow naturally in that sort of environment. No access to a garden pond? No problem. Grow in containers outside or even on a windowsill. Grow transplants or sow watercress seeds on the surface of the soil and place the pot into a deep saucer filled with water. Keep the saucer topped up at all times using rainwater whenever possible. Place the container in a bright sunny location and watch your watercress grow! Although watercress is a perennial, when growing in containers, it should be treated as an annual. Watercress will not tolerate stagnant conditions which encourage bacterial growth. To avoid this flush your pots at least twice a week simply by removing the saucer and watering the container with fresh water allowing the excess to drain away. Do this a couple of times and return to the saucer topping it up with clean water to keep the soil moist. How to Grow Watercress is self-sufficient with few issues when grown in the correct habitat. Follow the tips below to learn how to grow watercress! Maintenance Generally, pruning is not necessary for growing watercress, although they benefit from regular snipping to encourage new lush growth for continual harvest.

Grab your Cubanelle seeds and get ready to grow peppers! This cultivar is a necessary component for many Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban dishes, including sofrito. With sunlight, good soil, and water, your chiles will excel all summer long. Join longtime pepper grower Jerad Bryant in learning the juicy details about this unique variety. Cubanelle peppers are special additions to vegetable gardens throughout the U.S. They add ornamental charm with white flowers and lush green leaves on three-foot-tall stems. Their slight spiciness is less than a jalapeño; it’s perfect for mild spice lovers. The Cubanelle replaces bell peppers in recipes, adding a bit of spiciness to dishes. It’s a unique kind, with sweetness and heat. Roast these peppers in an oven or over a barbeque for a smoky treat—roasting them brings out their honey-like flavor. This is an easy crop to grow in USDA plant hardiness zones 3 through 9, though they require a jump start indoors. This is easy enough with a bright window or grow lights. Once mature, they’ll thrive outside under summer heat. What Is It? The Cubanelle grows commonly throughout Central and South American gardens. Peppers are perennial in tropical zones 10 and above, and frost tender in zones 9 and below. In grocery stores, this variety is green to yellow, but they turn orange, then red if you leave them on the vine. They look similar to banana peppers with a wrinkly, slightly curved shape. Native Area Cubanelle peppers originate from Central and South America. They’re incredibly popular in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and for good reason! They add necessary flavor alongside varieties like ‘Ají Dulce’ and ‘Rocotillo.’ This type thrives in tropical conditions—plants appreciate consistent water, warm temperatures, and plenty of direct sunlight to match their native range. They are now common vegetables throughout the world. They may be annuals in most parts of North America, but there’s a trick to keeping them alive during the winter! Characteristics The Cubanelle plant sprouts white and green flowers like most other varieties. These attract bees, as the blossoms provide valuable nectar and pollen aplenty. If there’s a lack of pollinators, gently shaking your flowering plants helps them pollinate themselves. This trick works for eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and most crops with bisexual flowers. After pollination, flowers morph into Cubanelle peppers. Lime green skin complements wrinkly, five-inch-long fruits. They taste freshest when this color. With age, they’ll turn sweeter and spicier. Cubanelle plants grow three feet tall, meaning you can easily fit them in amongst your other plants. One plant grows a dozen or more chiles, so plant a few to have enough for canning, sauce making, or cooking. Planting Unless you’re in zone 10 or above, you’ll want to start Cubanelle seeds indoors a few weeks before your last average frost date. This type is hard to find as transplants in nurseries, so seed starting is the best way to get a crop going. How early to start seeds depends on your plant’s hardiness zone. They need eight to ten weeks indoors, and another 80 days after transplanting to produce lots of fruits. Keep seedlings safe from frost, then bring them outside when warm temperatures return in spring or summer. How to Grow Cubanelles grow similarly to bell peppers; they’re short, stocky plants with peppers throughout their stems. Tuck them in where you would a bell pepper, or arrange them in rows for organized fruit production. They appreciate some care while they grow—give them what they need, and they’ll reward you with dozens of peppers. Maintenance Peppers need little maintenance while they grow. If they lean or fall, you can use a stake or trellis to straighten and support them. When they are young, you may choose to top prune them, encouraging bushy growth. Do this only if you have a long growing season of more than 80 days. As fall frost approaches, your peppers may stop ripening if cold reaches them. Protect them with row cover on frosty nights, and hard prune them. Hard pruning means cutting stems above ripening fruit and removing flowers along with leafy growth. This encourages the Cubanelle to put energy into ripening their fruits rather than growing bigger.

‘Gala’ apples are tasty, sweet, and juicy! Learn how to grow your own ‘Gala’ apple tree, and discover new ways to use apples in the kitchen. Follow this guide from gardener Jerad Bryant to enjoy a bountiful harvest each year. Why grow a ‘Gala’ apple tree? They are one of the best apples for the home gardener. They are tough trees in the landscape and reliable producers of annual crops. In general, apple trees of all types are excellent fruit trees in temperate zones. I often see them growing wild in the Pacific Northwest, and their resilience in natural areas is impressive. Each year, they provide flower nectar for pollinators, delicious fruit for humans, and seeds that birds love to eat. Want to grow ‘Gala’ apples? This guide has everything you need to grow a big and lush fruit tree. What is a ‘Gala’ Apple? The ‘Gala’ variety is an iconic apple cultivar from the 1920s. This semi-dwarf tree reaches over 15’ tall in maturity. When grafted onto dwarf rootstock, it grows to a mature height of 10’ tall. Both the dwarf and semi-dwarfs’ short heights make them perfect specimens for small and large gardens alike. Growers love this variety because it reliably produces an annual bountiful crop. Most apple varieties are alternate-bearing, meaning they produce a large crop of apples one year, and then they conserve their energy and produce fewer apples the next year. ‘Gala’ defies this trend by creating many juicy apples each growing season. Apple trees are the most widely adapted fruit trees, and they are important to many cultures worldwide. Where I’m from, we bake apples into pies, make apple jelly, and eat apples fresh off the tree. Native Area The original ancestor of apple trees is Malus domestica, the common apple. Native to parts of Central Asia and Afghanistan, it is a deciduous tree that often grows to 30’ tall in the wild. Over centuries, apple growers selected and grew the apples they loved to eat. With time, this selection process developed thousands of different apple cultivars that readily adapt to new environments. ‘Gala’ is a cross between ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Kidd’s Orange Red’ varieties. After performing well in New Zealand in the 1930s, nursery growers in the U.S. planted orchards full of this cultivar in the 1970s. Now, ‘Gala’ is one of the top apples grown in the U.K. and the U.S. Characteristics All apple trees share some commonalities. They are deciduous fruit trees with delicate white-pink blossoms and glossy green leaves. Their flowers and fruit are incredibly fragrant, and their fruit is round. ‘Gala’ apples are golden yellow with red coloration over the yellow. Apples grow bisexual flowers with both male and female reproductive organs in the same flower. Although they have perfect flowers with both pollen and ovules, apples are not incredibly self-pollinating. Most varieties, including ‘Gala,’ require another cultivar near them that blooms at the same time, like ‘Fuji’ or ‘Granny Smith.’ Do you lack space for two trees in the garden? Place a bouquet of blooming crabapple or apple blossoms at the base of your flowering ‘Gala’ tree. This helps the pollinators near your tree access different apple pollen and leads to successful pollination and fruiting without having two full-sized trees. Propagation Grow ‘Gala’ apple trees from cuttings. Apple seeds are highly variable and grow offspring that are different from the parent tree. Ensure you have the ‘Gala’ variety and take cuttings off a healthy, mature tree. Growing from cuttings is time-intensive, and it may take up to six months for roots to show. Skip the waiting process and find grafted trees for your climate at your local nursery, or order them online from a reputable source.