My mom makes the best bread and butter pickles. I bet you think your mom makes the best bread and butter pickles, too. So is it about the cucumbers, the brine or the mom?
 This year's first batch of bread and butter pickles.
My mom makes the best bread and butter pickles. I bet you think your mom makes the best bread and butter pickles, too. So is it about the cucumbers, the brine or the mom?
I asked around the office and looked around a bit online, and am I'm convinced it's all about the mom. That's because there's so little variation in bread and butter pickle recipes. They all include the same five things in roughly the same proportions:
Cucumbers and Onions
Relatively thin rounds of sliced cucumbers and sliced onions. I usually peel my cukes but that's up to you.
Vinegar
Plain white vinegar is standard. Some recipes call for blending it with apple cider vinegar.
Salt
Salting the cucumbers draws out the their natural juices so they'll be eager to absorb the brine. This step requires a shocking amount of salt, but most of it gets poured off. Be sure to use kosher or pickling salt, not standard table salt
Sugar
You may be surprised by the large amount of sugar in these recipes. You can experiment with cutting it back a bit, but I doubt your mom would have done that.
Spices
Mustard seeds, celery seeds and turmeric are standard. Don't use that old stuff in your spice drawer; your homegrown pickles deserve better. Some people add stick cinnamon, whole cloves and whole allspice. Did YOUR mom do that?
Here's the recipe my mom and I use. It's from that oldy-but-goodie book published in the mid-70s, Putting Food By, by Ruth Hertzberg, Janet Greene and Beatrice Vaughan. If you're not up for the canning part, just let the jars cool and then keep them in your refrigerator. I don't have room in my refrigerator for more than one jar of pickles at a time, so I can my pickles so they can be stored on a shelf in the pantry.
A couple notes. I like to use the milder red or white onions rather than yellow onions. I also like to add a few red pepper slices to each jar for color (see photo, above).
Bread-and-Butter Pickles
from Putting Food By
- 6 lbs medium cucumbers
- 1 1/2 cups sliced onions
- 1 large garlic cloves, left whole
- 1/3 cup salt
- 2 trays of ice cubes
- 4 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 1/2 tsp celery seed
- 2 tbsp mustard seed
- 3 cups white vinegar
Wash the cucumbers thoroughly; drain; cut unpeeled cucumbers into 1/4-inch slices. In a large bowl, combine the cucumber slices, onion, garlic and salt; cover with the ice, mix thoroughly and let stand for 3 hours. Drain off the liquid and remove the garlic. In a large pot, combine the sugar, spices and vinegar and heat just to a boil. Add the cucumber and onion slices; simmer together 10 minutes. Pack loosely in clean, hot pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headroom; remove air bubbles. Adjust lids; process in a boiling-water bath (212 degrees F.) for 10 minutes. Remove. Cool. Makes 7 pints.
If you're not an experienced pickle-maker, you might want to check out the B&B pickle recipe on Simply Recipes as there are good step-by-step photos that give you an idea what to expect at each stage.
Have your own special tweaks on this traditional homemade condiment? Leave a recipe or comment below.
How about growing sweet potatoes in containers? We're giving it a try in our Grow Beds and our Grow Bags. Come fall, we'll let you know how it all turned out.
Sweet potatoes in the Grow Beds. The third bed is a double-stack to see if there is any benefit to having more soil.
Sweet potatoes in the Potato Grow Bag.
July 13: Growing strong in the Grow Bed.
Growing potatoes seems to be all the rage right now. It's easy to do, harvesting is fun, and potatoes are good keepers that can be enjoyed well into the winter months.
This summer we have a quite a few potato-growing trials under way in our Burlington, Vermont, test gardens. We're experimenting with a couple different soil blends and fertilizers, several varieties of potatoes and some alternative growing systems to the extremely popular Potato Bag.
In the display gardens nearby, I am also trying my hand at growing sweet potatoes in containers. Unlike regular potatoes, which are grown from chunks of potato buried under the soil, a sweet potato starts as a rooted shoot from a sweet potato vine — called a "slip". Once the plant begins growing, it sends its roots down into the soil. The sweet potato tubers form on those roots so there's no need to hill up the plants.
With this in mind, I assembled four Mini-Grow Beds; raised beds that measure 18″ wide x 3 ft. long x 10″ deep. I stacked two of the beds on top of each other so I would have one bed that's 20″ high and two beds with 10″ high sides. Three plants went into each raised bed. I am curious to see if having extra soil depth will make any difference in the size or quantity of tubers produced. We also planted a few sweet potato slips into Potato Bags.
The varieties we're growing are Georgia Jet and Beauregard, which both mature in about 100 days and are reputed to be good producers in northern climates.
Are you growing sweet potatoes in your garden this year? If so, leave a comment and let us know how you do it.
I prefer to grow my tomatoes right side up, so using this planter for tomatoes didn't interest me much. For me, the unusual shape and water-retaining coir liner suggested flowers rather than tomatoes.
 The planter in mid-May, a couple weeks after planting.
 The planter in mid-June.
This hanging planter was designed by our staff as a decorative alternative for growing tomatoes upside down. It's name reflects their intention: "Deluxe Revolution Planter". I prefer to grow my tomatoes right side up, so using this planter for tomatoes didn't interest me much. For me, the unusual shape and water-retaining coir liner suggested flowers rather than tomatoes.
For a soft, feminine look in a location that gets half-day sun, I chose Diascia 'Darla Appleblossom', Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost', Fuchsia 'Shadow Dancer Rosella', Hedera helix 'Mini Ester' and the Blue Bell Boston fern.
The first photo was taken in mid-May, a couple weeks after planting. The second image shows the planter in mid-June.
We've designed some special racks that let you enjoy windowboxes without the windows. Our 2-Tier and 3-Tier Cascade Planters are made of sturdy, square-stock steel and have a handsome, flat-black finish. 
Two, 3-Tier Cascade Planters placed back-to-back. Photo taken in early June before the plants began hiding the framework.
Windowboxes are an easy and inexpensive way to transform an ordinary house into something special. Though we offer 3 sizes and 4 colors of Self-Watering Windowboxes, not everyone has a house that's well-suited to them.
Not to worry! We've designed some special racks that let you enjoy window boxes without the windows. Our 2-Tier and 3-Tier Cascade Planters are made of sturdy, square stock steel and have a handsome flat black finish. Entirely free-standing and self-supporting, they can be used on a porch or patio, will spruce up a wall or fence, and can even be used indoors.
This spring we planted up two of the 3-Tier Cascade Planters, back-to-back, in our display gardens. We filled the six, 31" long window boxes with Self-Watering Container Mix, and then planted a colorful assortment of culinary herbs and edible flowers. For herbs we have several types of basil and sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, fennel and lemon grass. For edible flowers we included nasturtiums, violas, calendula, marigolds and lavender. Every bit as pretty as a more traditional planting of annual flowers, these munchable flower boxes will provide tasty snips and nibbles all summer long.
Variegated thyme and globe basil.
Marigold, calendula and viola.
Marigold and golden oregano.
We've learned to grow more food in less space by using ecological solutions, such as healthy soil, compost and drip irrigation. That’s one reason why Gardener’s Supply has focused on innovations for home composting and water-efficient container gardening.
During the last few decades, I have become especially interested in space-intensive gardening. How can we produce more food in less space? Here in Vermont, we've learned how to do it efficiently by using ecological solutions, such as healthy soil, compost and drip irrigation. That’s one reason why Gardener’s Supply has focused on innovations for home composting, water-efficient container gardening, Grow Bags and raised beds.
Now, I am trying to use similar techniques in our part-time home in Costa Rica. Can we produce delicious organic produce while also developing techniques for maximum output and pest protection? Might what we learn be of use to local landowners interested in improving yields from their farmland, enriching the soil and creating more jobs?
We planted our first tropical fruit salad garden on a hillside. The contoured rows of pineapple, papaya, bananas, passion fruit vines and perennial peppers are surrounded by erosion-controlling vetiver grass. Though hot peppers don’t exactly qualify as tropical fruit, they are popular at market, effective pest deterrents and are the key ingredient in our best-selling chileros hot sauce, which we make and sell under the Mi Tierra brand.
We are pleased with our initial results. We believe we can generate up to $1 per square foot revenue from an intensively planted fruit garden, with crops sold to the local market where organic produce is in demand.
Because the majority of my perennials are on their own when it comes to standing up, there’s often a need for quick in-season fixes. For this I keep two different bundles of bamboo stakes right on my front porch.
 Woven twigs create an artful support for rudbeckia.
 These asters will enjoy two levels of support. The grid is formed with hardwood stakes and plastic netting, similar to our Nearly Invisible Netting.
 Foam Twist Ties have a rubbery outside and a strong, galvanized-steel core. They're gentle enough to tie plants to a support, and strong enough to lash bamboo or other supports together.
One of the many things that have impressed me about the public gardens of England and Scotland is the careful attention given to properly supporting perennials. The plants in their flower borders—be they delphinium, globe thistle, asters or perennial geraniums—almost always rely on a hidden undercarriage made from wire, steel or "pea stick" branches.
The ingenuity of these underpinnings was clearly revealed to me several years ago during a May visit to Wisley, the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship public garden located just southwest of London. Wisley's 400 foot long double perennial borders are among the largest and most impressive in the world. Because it was still early in the growing season, most of the plants in the borders were less than a foot high, so it was easy to see the wide range of support systems that would soon be completely hidden by foliage.
After decades of maintaining those wonderful, 400-foot-long double borders, the staff at Wisley has no doubt settled on the ideal support for each type of perennial. The Gardener’s Supply selection of flower supports doesn’t offer quite that degree of specificity, but we do have a dozen different types of plastic-coated wire and enameled-steel supports. They’re all easy to install and do their job, while staying largely out of sight. For help selecting the best support for any given flower, read How to Choose a Flower Support.
Because the majority of my perennials are on their own when it comes to standing up, there’s often a need for on-the-fly, just-passing-by, in-season fixes. For this I keep two different bundles of bamboo stakes right on my front porch. In many cases, a couple of the little 3-foot-high canes are just enough. They’re only about 3/8” thick, so they slip into the soil easily and don’t call attention to themselves. When the situation calls for a burlier support, I use the thicker, 5-foot-high canes. Early in the season I cut some of them down to 3 and 4 feet so I can get the job done with the shortest and more unobtrusive stake possible. These canes are ¾” thick, so I sometimes use a rock or a shovel head to pound them in.
My perennial border fix-it corner also includes a pair of scissors, a ball of jute twine and some Foam Twist Ties. If you have some of your own in-season tricks to recommend, please leave a comment below.
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