BEFORE PUTTING SPADE IN, KNOW HOW BIG THAT LITTLE PLANT WILL GROW

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 20, 1992                   TAG: 9202190020
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: JOE HUNNINGS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BEFORE PUTTING SPADE IN, KNOW HOW BIG THAT LITTLE PLANT WILL GROW
Some of the best-laid plans of dedicated gardeners run amuck because they don't know how big their plants will grow.
This problem is as common to the container gardener trying to sustain a four-foot tomato vine in a six-inch pot as it is to the home owner maintaining a potentially 10-foot shrub beneath a low picture window.
For fewer frustrations, select plants with natural proportions to fit the allocated space.
Then resist the urge to fill in around them until they get bigger. A layer of attractive mulch can cover the open spaces until the plants grow larger.
The only time "fillers" are appropriate is when using short-lived plants that will be removed before the space is required by the chosen plant.
Vegetable gardeners may recognize this as a method called intercropping, where lettuce may be grown between young tomato vines since it will be harvested before the space is required by the tomatoes.
In a similar manner, annual flowers may be used to fill in around shrubs for the first few years until they approach a mature size and require the space.
To assist in planning your garden, whether a vegetable plot, a flower border or the trees and shrubs of your landscape, it is important to acquire a mental image of the mature size of each plant.
It is almost impossible to believe that the young tree in a gallon container eventually will have branches spanning 20 feet or more.
Thus, you may end up with a tree bowed away from the house or misshapen by proximity to neighboring trees.
The idea that a tiny pumpkin seed can, in only one summer, produce a vine 15 feet long can be grasped only by some as it marauds across the pepper, eggplants and broccoli.
Measure the space available and check the mature size of the proposed plant. If it won't fit, don't plant it.
It is equally difficult for some to understand that different varieties of the same plant may vary significantly in size. Some of the tiniest zinnias hardly exceed six inches in height and width, while others may stretch toward three feet in height.
Another excellent example of size variability in a popular plant is the tomato.
Midgets are suited to eight-inch pots and produce a vine smaller than a gallon bucket; compact or determinates stop growth at about 2 1/2 to three feet; indeterminate or large vines can reach eight feet in height and spread three feet or more in a single summer.
These are called indeterminate because the vines continue to grow until they are killed by frost.
Among the shrubs, consider the juniper for diversity of size.
The creeping and shore junipers make excellent ground covers of less than a foot in height. Some varieties of Chinese juniper, such a Pfitzer, can reach between six feet and 15 feet, depending on the variety.
There also are tree forms such as the Eastern red cedar that mature at well over 15 feet.
Ideally in planning, one will decide on the desired results and then study catalogs and horticultural books for plants to fit the need.
Unfortunately, the ideal rarely occurs. Instead, we see a flower or read about a vegetable or a shrub that would be fascinating to grow and decide to add it to our landscape.
Next time, before setting shovel to soil, find a site that will permit success by - always - considering the size of the plant.

Joe Hunnings is the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service agent for agriculture in Christiansburg. If you have questions call the Montgomery County extension office at 382-5790.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB