One of my favorite features in the Butterfly Garden at the Youth Garden is the hops teepee pictured here. This is created from a few long bamboo poles tied together at the top, with the hops growing up the length of it. The vine is attractive, it smells heavenly, and it's great for attracting butterflies.
Kathy Jentz, of Washington Gardener Magazine, recently spoke on WAMU's Metro Connection (listen here) about growing hops and grapes in the garden, and I'm definitely feeling inspired to try this next year! Housemate Cortney and I have already been scheming to try to fit this fast-growing, sprawling vine into our tiny yard somewhere. The folks over at Homegrown Evolution blogged about their success growing hops in containers earlier this month, so I'm considering a set-up similar to theirs.
Housemate Cort and I just bottled our summertime IPA last week. Hopefully next year's will be made with our own homegrown hops!
If anyone knows of any varieties particularly suited for this area, let me know! Since some varieties are native, maybe this is also a good candidate for some low maintenance guerrilla gardening?
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2 comments:
GLad you caught the WAMU piece -- hops are the"edibles" subject in our Summer issue of Washington Gardener Magazine. Cindy Brown is the author of that piece and she is growing a marvelous hops arch at the kitchen garden entrance at Green Spring Garden n Fairfax, VA. My garden club friends and I have been trading Golden Hops around (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus') so I'd safe that one is a safe bet for success here.
Thanks for the advice! I'll keep an eye out for Golden Hops in the Spring. And it sounds like I need a take a field trip to Fairfax...
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