Gardening With Sal

Love It or Hate It—If You Have It, You Know It Loved by some. Loathed by others 🌱 Garden Talk | by Guy Saldiveri | March 6, 2026 This is one plant I find myself at odds with when it comes to my stance on invasive species and allowing nature full control to do as she sees fit.  I love having it in the yard. I think it makes the lawn soft and a pleasure to walk on barefoot. I absolutely hate it when it comes to my raised beds and hardscaped flower beds. In the gardening world, it's called pennywort. You can even find it in some stores as a health supplement (although I think that may be a slightly different cultivar). In the backyard, though, most will simply refer to it as a WEED. Yep—dollarweed. Without a doubt, one of the most prolific weeds, plants, things-that-grow (or whatever else you call it)—you can ever have in the yard. This stuff grows so fast you'd swear it was being mass-produced on Ford's assembly line. One day there is one, the next day you have 300—and that ...

  Two Very Determined & Very Serious Pests 🪲 Garden Pests | by Guy Saldiveri | March 4, 2026 These are without a doubt the most serious foes I deal with in my garden. The squash bug and the squash vine borer deliver more damage pound-for-pound—or is that ounce-per-ounce—than any other pest I have ever dealt with. The vine borer is by far the worst of the two.  Some of my favorite things to grow are winter squash, zucchini, and pumpkins. These two pests just love to wait—or it seems so—until the plants are full, healthy, and producing fruit.  They’ll attack and can kill a plant within three or four days—at least the SVB can—if you’re not on your toes. These two pests are both serious, but they attack in very different ways. The squash bug will pierce the vine stem and suck the sap. While there are many other bugs that do the same, squash bugs are usually present in high numbers, and they’re much more voracious. They can easily cause an entire vine to wilt quickly an...

 The Longest Beans You’ve Ever Grown 🫘 Plant Talk:| by Guy Saldiveri | March 3, 2026 Asparagus beans—my all-time favorite crop. They're also called yard‑long beans and Chinese long beans. They have an edible pod and are technically a type of cowpea in the legume family. Their long, slender pods taste very similar to regular green beans but with a slightly nutty flavor. While they thrive in hot, humid southern climates, I've found that they do better in my area (Gulf South) if I keep them in partial shade or dappled sun. If left in full midsummer sun, they can suffer sun scorch and slow or stop production. They are very prolific from April until the first frost. This is one crop that benefits from picking—the more you harvest, the more they produce. Seeds should be sown about a week after the last expected frost date. They will require a trellis for support as they are true vining plants and cannot stand on their own. A trellis around six feet tall has worked very well for me....

 The Conventional and Not-So-Conventional Way 🥔 Plant Talk | by Guy Saldiveri | March 2, 2026 Who doesn’t love a good sweet potato? I know I do.  Baked, French fried, mashed, or baked into a pie. The pie… I almost like that even better than pumpkin pie—almost. If you’ve never tried growing your own, I highly recommend it. They’re easy to start, easy to maintain, and extremely high-yielding. Plus—and a lot of folks don’t know this—you can eat the leaves too. Clearing up the big confusion Let’s start this one off by getting rid of the elephant in the room—sweet potatoes are NOT yams. They look and taste different, and they belong to different families of plants. Sweet potatoes are grown throughout the world. Yams, on the other hand, are generally grown in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Sweet potatoes are root vegetables in the morning glory family. They have sweet, moist flesh and smooth, thin skins. Yams are large, starchy tubers with a rough, brown, bark‑like sk...