Windows or outdoor areas getting a lot of sun easily welcome some crops and can kill or stunt others. Only plants that tolerate — even love — glowing light can thrive in a full-sun area. Pick wisely when dressing your glowing spots and the crops will reward you with their health and energy.

Sun Tolerance

A sunny window or window might seem like a perfect place to show a favorite potted plant, however when that plant cannot tolerate full sun, you’ll fight a losing struggle. Plants that need full sun grow fuller with more robust foliage if put in bright light. Windows or outdoor spots receiving southern exposure offer the most intense light for these plants. Garden centers can offer advice, and lots of plants come labeled with directions, including mild tolerance.

Flowering Plants

Bright and cheery with many varieties and colors, geraniums (Pelargonium x hortorum) develop easily in pots or containers, requiring full sun for the best vitality. Most frequently an annual, they live well to Zone 10, however they’ll grow inside over winter in a sunny place. Opt for a less clear flowering plant to fill your sunny place with a white bird of paradise (Strelitzia nicolai), which thrives in full sun. The plants likely will not produce flowers indoors, but they’ll grow tall and compact near a sunny window.

Foliage Plants

A bright, sunny place cries out for a nutritious leaf plant, and sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas) fits the bill with its glowing, yellow-green leaves. Complete sun brings out the deepest color within this annual plant, which will trail out of a container for a stunning look. Other varieties come with dark purple or pale green and pink foliage. Try a ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata), an impressive foliage container plant that thrives in complete or indirect sun. In case you’ve got the room for this particular plant that can grow six to 18 feet tall, it can make an impression in a sunny room or outdoor terrace. Ponytails originated in Mexico, so they thrive in sunny, arid conditions.

Herbs

Spice up both your glowing place and your cooking by growing herbs in pots. As long as temperatures remain below 90 degrees F. in summer, many herbs thrive in full sun. Follow directions that come with seeds or bedding plants for proper preparation and pot size to ensure your potted herbs grow well. A few to try at a sunny place include chamomile, thyme, tarragon, chives, dill and parsley.

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Lime fruits earn their way into innumerable foods and beverages as a flavoring agent, and lime essential oils are used in the formulation of many household products. Both commonly recognized lime tree species — Tahitian limes (Citrus latifoila) along with Mexican limes (Citrus aurantifolia) — are hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant hardiness zones 9 through 11. One tree of species will produce more vegetables than a family could ever require, however lime trees are curious specimens to develop nonetheless, rich with fascinating botanical facts.

Meaning of Names

Several names are used interchangeably when describing limes, but two distinct kinds of limes exist. Tahitian limes are so-called since they initially came to California through Tahiti, but they are considered to have originated in the Middle East — the reason that they are also called Persian limes. In nurseries, they commonly are found with the label “Bearss” limes, though “Bearss” isn’t recognized by botanists as a distinct cultivar. Mexican limes are also referred to as West Indian limes and Key limes, as a reference to their first U.S. commercial plantings in the Florida Keys.

Different Limes for Different Uses

The small, across lime fruits commonly found in grocery shops and used extensively by bartenders are in the Mexican variety of lime tree. The fruits are picked green when they are between 1 and 2 inches in diameter, and they have a sharper, more acidic flavor than Tahitian lime fruits. Tahitian lime fruits are the size and shape of lemon vegetables and usually are picked when yellow. They seldom are found on grocery store shelves since they are so easily confused with lemons, however they are processed into lime goods, such as the filling for Key lime pie.

True-to-Type Propagation

Most varieties of trees which produce edible fruits would be propagated by cuttings grafted onto the roots of another selection. That technique is a form of clonal propagation, meaning that the seed of a resulting tree’s fruits won’t develop a tree which produces an identical fruit. In reality, the resulting fruit is typically of inferior quality. Limes, however, are one of the few fruit trees which develop true-to-seed, which makes them simple to spread at home. Cuttings can also be employed to spread lime trees, but this method tends to produce less vigorous trees than those from other methods.

Exotic Uses

Pies and beverages might come to mind when Americans think of utilizing lime fruits in the kitchen, however, other civilizations have found many more applications for your fruits. As an instance, the intense concentration of citric acid in lime fruits triggers an enzymatic reaction with raw fish, which makes it appear as though it was cooked. It’s this land, and the lime flavor, that makes possible the Latin American chicken dish ceviche. The Kaffir or even Kieffer lime (Citrus hystrix) is another sort of lime that’s employed in cultural cuisine. It’s the tree’s leaves, however, which are used to impart a tangy flavor in southeast Asian soups and curries. Kaffir lime trees are hardy in USDA zones 9 through 10, but their fruits are inedible and covered with bumpy protrusions.

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The mung bean plant (Vigna radiata) is a close relative to cow pea, and is developed for dried and bananas beans for human consumption. Mung bean components are also grown as forage for livestock. Mung beans are similar in look to other kinds of beans, and are often known as golden gram, green graham and chop suey beans.

Mung Bean Plant Appearance

Mung bean plants resemble other kinds of garden beans. The plant height may vary significantly from 1 to 5 feet tall, depending on variety. The plants grow 3 -to 4-inch-long pods and every hold 10 to 15 seeds. A typical mung bean plant produces 30 to 40 pods per plant with several pods growing at every leaf axil. As the pods mature, they turn dark brown to black. Mung beans create pale yellow flowers near the surface of the plant in clusters of 12 to 15.

Growth Habit

Mung beans can get an upright or vine growth habit depending on variety. These highly branched plants have been warm season annuals of the legume family with three leaves comparable to other kinds of legumes. Plants are self-pollinated, therefore they do not rely on wind or insects. The mature seeds are round or oblong, and vary in colour from yellow to brown and to mottled green or black, depending on variety.

Mung Bean Growth Requirements

Mung beans need growing conditions similar to soybeans. The plants thrive in well-drained sandy loam with a pH between 5.8 and 7.2. Mung beans require a sunny location, since the crops are day-length sensitive; short days speed up long and flowering days delay bloom production. The beans are generally ready for harvest after 90 to 120 days of frost-free ailments. Mung beans have been harvested by pulling up the entire plant and hanging it upside down to dry.

Mung Bean Uses

Mung beans are employed in both refined and complete form in a variety of foods. The whole seeds are used to create sprouts for salads and other dishes as well as beans for soups. Processed forms of mung beans act as bean flavoring for soup bases and bean flour. Whole mung bean seeds are expensive and not cost effective for use as livestock feed; however, after bean processing and cleaning, leftover substances, such as cracked seed and splits, are used to feed livestock.

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Increasing your personal potatoes can be a rewarding endeavor that’s also fun for kids as they dig up the tubers. As a result of the numerous varieties now available, potatoes can be grown in just about any climate as long as they have a sunny place with loose, healthful soil. Although it can be tempting to use the same garden bed annually for potatoes, the tubers and a lot of different crops should not be planted in those beds for at least one or even two decades.

Potatoes

A garden bed used for potatoes one year should not be used the following year for another harvest of potatoes. One issue with growing potatoes in precisely the same bed year after year is that potatoes are heavy feeders. Increasing another harvest of potatoes in the former year’s potato bed depletes the soil of nutrients, leading to low yields or reliance on fertilizer. Another problem is infection. If the very first crop of potatoes develops a disorder, then the next year’s harvest in precisely the same bed often has a much worse case of the disease. Repeated usage of land for potatoes was one of the main causes of the spread of blight that resulted in the Irish potato famine. Like illness, potato-destroying pests in the soil abound in the event that you severely plant their preferred food at precisely the same soil.

Solanaceae Family Members

Potatoes are part of the Solanaceae familymembers. This family also includes crops such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Because of their close family ties, those plants are all susceptible to the same diseases and pests. Even if your potatoes did not show signs of infection, the soil in which they grew still could harbor specific fungi that can make a mess of the roots of tomatoes the following growing season. All these family members have also comparable mineral needs, and pepper crops grown in the same soil that was used for potato plants that the former year might suffer from mineral deficiencies or have a low yield.

Root Vegetables

Although other root crops might have different nutrient needs and are not closely linked to potatoes, planting them following potatoes might be asking for trouble. Potatoes have a tendency to attract grubs and other underground pests that nibble on and invade the tubers. If you plant root crops such as beets, carrots or turnips after potatoes, then the pests will enjoy them just as much as they enjoyed your potatoes. Because the pests have had time to proliferate in the soil, the issue might be worse than it had been along with your potato crop.

Suitable Crops

Crop rotation might appear complex, but it’s only a few basic rules. First, do not plant a comparable plant just two years in a row. This means not putting other root crops or other members of the Solanaceae family following potatoes. Second, remember this rhyme for alternating the crops in your garden beds: beans, roots, greens, fruits. It’s a simplified form of crop rotation that works for most home gardens. Beans include peas and green beans that add nitrogen to soil. Roots include potatoes, turnips and beets. Greens can be any harvest harvested because of its leaves, ranging from cabbages to lettuce. Fruits include tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and corn. Keeping crops within this rotation can help to reduce nutrient depletion soil and reduces the chance of pests and diseases running rampant. So, following your potatoes, then place that garden bed aside for something leafy.

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Can you imagine a more perfect place to sip wine on a fall evening? This warm, walnut paneled nook is tucked into the wonderful pool home at designer Jamie Beckwith’s Nashville home. The pool home itself is a whole work of art, but this tucked-away area is what really tempts us on a crisp day. Fluffy pink pillows and soft lighting make this the perfect spot to curl up with a friend and a bottle of your favorite red wine.

See more of Jamie Beckwith’s Modern Gothic Pool House

Beckwith Interiors

This cozy nook sits right outside a chilled wine basement within the pool house. Walnut paneling lines the walls, while the floor is a patterned wood block (made by Beckwith) that is completed after installation. The corner was created in a warm, bright pink to contrast with the freezing blue wine cellar. “We wanted it to be a cozy area to sit and enjoy a bottle of wine, because the wine cellar is cooled,” says Ashleigh Farrar, an Interior Design Assistant with Beckwith Interiors.

Wall art: A New York artist, purchased at the Nashville Antique Art & Garden Show
Side Effects: Tony Table by Oly Studio
Cushion cloth: Shibori Circle by Schumacher

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