Surinam cherry offers both fruit and hedge possibilities in your garden ...Middle East

5 things to do in the garden this week:

Fruit. Surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora) is a large South American shrub or small tree that produces a crop this time of year and makes a wonderful hedge. This highly ornamental species yields attractively ribbed, spicy, crimson fruit that turns black when ripe. In its native Brazil, its scented leaves are spread on the floor since the aroma they release — when trod upon — keeps away flies. Surinam cherry is also highly suitable for container growing. It is widely available from Internet vendors.

Vegetables. Plant lima beans now. They were given their name after being dispatched from the eponymous Peruvian city to Europe by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. They are also sometimes called butter beans on account of their texture. There are both bush and pole lima bean varieties, the latter growing up to ten feet tall or taller. Perhaps the most distinctive lima pole bean is King of the Garden. This variety’s beans are white with a sweet, honey-like flavor. Since it’s an heirloom variety, planting its seeds will yield the same quality of lima beans year after year. While most kinds of beans are indigenous to Central and South America, soybeans are native to Asia, while lentils and fava beans originated in the Fertile Crescent and Eastern Mediterranean.

Herbs. Allspice (Pimenta dioica) gets its name from its fragrance, which appears to include a little bit of everything, from cinnamon to nutmeg to cloves. It will grow into a small tree with aromatic leaves that may be used in cooking like bay leaves, which grow from the bay laurel tree (Laurus nobilis). Yet while the bay laurel comes from the Mediterranean, allspice is endemic to Jamaica. It grows easily in southern California as long as it’s protected from scorching sun, but when young must be resolutely protected from the cold. To this end, grow it in a container that you can bring inside when cold nights are forecast or, if grown in the ground, wrap it in burlap or other insulating material to keep it safe from freezing.

Flowers. Kangaroo paws (Anigozanthus spp.) are Australian natives that look glorious for a year or two but typically stop flowering soon after that. The reason for this is a lack of understanding of this plant’s rhizomatous physiology. The flower show kangaroo paws display is indeed spectacular but the energy needed for it is enormous. A fan of leaves will produce a single flower or flowers and never do so again. It is therefore essential to cut back the leaf fans from which flowers emerge. They should be cut back nearly to ground level so that new leaves and flowers can emerge from the rhizomes. This procedure is essential to facilitate rebloom of the classic varieties that grow four to six feet tall. However, where smaller dwarf and hybrid varieties are concerned, take care to be precise in thinning out leaf fans from which flowers emerged, taking care that those fans which have not yet yielded flowers are left intact. In any event, dwarf and hybrid kangaroo paws are shorter-lived than the classic kinds. After new growth is visible on kangaroo paws, fertilize with any complete fertilizer (containing N-P-K, an abbreviation for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Unlike many other Australian natives, phosphorus is not deleterious to the growth of kangaroo paws.

The soil of potted plants, especially those grown outdoors, has a tendency to shrink away from the sides of its container as summer comes. This poses a dilemma since water that is applied rolls down the sides of the container without soaking the soil. Such plants can quickly show signs of drought stress and wilt. To remedy this situation, fill in the sides of your container with additional potting soil to block water from flowing down the sides. If you are going out of town for more than a couple of days, find a slightly larger container in which to nest the smaller one that contains your plant(s). Soak some peat moss and pack it between the walls of the two containers and the cool, wet moss will protect the soil of your potted plant from desiccation.

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