MT. LEBANON, Pa. _ Rebecca Wanovich surprises her husband Steve by moving or replacing plants when he is on a business trip.
"He doesn't like to change much," she explained.
But even this veteran gardener was a little surprised last summer at the vigor of "Tromboncino" zucchini (Cucurbita moschata). Its thick vine curled from the side of their Mt. Lebanon home to the back, where it embraced the potting table before heading back the way it came.
This year, she started it in back, next to the table. By late August, it had climbed the stairs of the deck, snaked across its entire 20-foot length and headed back over the railing. It's 50 feet long and still putting out huge yellow flowers and curving trombone-like fruit that can be 3 feet long and 10 pounds in weight.
Giant zucchinis are only one sign of Wanovich's very green thumb, but it was more than enough to earn her thumbs up from the judges and first place in the small garden, summer category, of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Great Gardens Contest.
Staffers from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Botanic Garden found lots to love _ and eat _ in this small suburban garden. Growing next to the zucchini is a trellis filled with Malabar spinach (Basella alba), an unusual vining variety Wanovich learned about from the South Hills Interfaith Movement Facebook page. She also has pole beans growing on teepee trellises, eggplant, peppers, kale, Brussels sprouts, okra and kumquats that she overwinters inside. And her containers!
In the front of their brick home are troughs and pots filled with huge caladium, coleus, coxcomb and licorice plant. On the deck are eight types of tomatoes, including oxheart, grape, cherry and plum. The front beds are planted with sedum, irises, hollyhock, crocosmia, feverfew, columbine, daylilies, hosta, wild ginger and _ wait a minute, isn't that an invasive plant?
Wanovich now regrets putting in chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata). If left unchecked, it would quickly crowd out the wild ginger and 'Golden Sunburst' hosta she brought from her parents' house in Upper St. Clair, Pa. So she enjoys the chameleon's white flowers and multicolored leaves, then pulls out most of it. Even a great gardener can make a mistake.
Wanovich doesn't make many. She inherited her knack with growing from her parents, Nancy and Bill Polachek, who had a greenhouse, and from her grandparents, Madelyne and Bill Young, who had a 30-acre "retired" farm in Upper St. Clair.
"I'm one of four girls. We always weed-whacked and pulled weeds," she said.
For years, she had a plot in Mt. Lebanon's community garden but tired of other gardeners spraying near her vegetables. "I try to be organic."
Mrs. Wanovich has two composters containing red worms and a rain barrel. Every spring, her husband helps her mix compost with peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, bone meal and a little sand. It goes into her containers until the fall, when the annuals go into the composters and the rich soil is recycled into her garden beds. She also makes a tea from rhubarb to kill powdery mildew and sprays it on peonies, zucchini, dogwoods, lilac and phlox.
She even finds time to help her neighbor, Patti Cook, plant a pretty little bed around a bird bath in the center of their cul de sac. Other neighbors chip in for the flowers, which change each year. This time, it's 'Autumn Joy' sedum, dianthus, portulaca and coreopsis. There's also some ornamental cabbage.
"Some like it, some don't," she says.
But everyone likes to eat what grows in her beautiful, edible garden. Steve and their son, Will, like zucchini fritters, okra stir-fried or sauteed in a skillet and strawberry rhubarb custard pie with crumb topping.
After all, it's hard to stay mad about the huge zucchini vine on your deck when it tastes so good on your plate.
