♪♪ -Hi, I'm Alan Smith, and welcome back to Moss Mountain Farm.

As a garden designer of many years now, one of the things that I look forward to create visual interest in a space are vertical elements.

And on these vertical elements, there's a special class of plants that we all know that can help us out.

And those plants are the vines, and there's so many of them for us to choose from.

As we walk around the farm today, we'll focus on the morning glory and that unlikely cousin that yields something very delicious and sweet.

And then we'll take a very close-up look at Boston ivy and actually how it clings so closely to brick or stone.

In the art studio, we're going to explore some designs of tuteurs, those structures that help give vines some support.

And finally, we'll go into the kitchen and we'll create one of my favorite desserts, a delicious sweet potato pie.

So, come on, let's get started.

-Funding for P. Alan Smith's "A Sense of Place" is provided in part by... -Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.

Since 1998, growing, saving, and sharing rare heirloom varieties.

Seeds with stories and a sense of place.

Seeds worth saving.

NARRATOR: And First Community Bank, where community comes first.

♪♪ -For me, there's something really marvelous about being in a garden in the morning.

Just the serenity.

It's just fantastic.

The dew on the flowers and so forth.

And there's some flowers that you really can appreciate the best in the morning.

And probably the best example I can think of is the morning glory itself.

And you can see here how it's conspiring with the hyacinth bean on this tunnel.

I just love the chaos.

It's a beautiful thing.

You can just look up here and see how the vines are intertwined with one another.

You know what's so interesting about flowers is the Victorians in particular assigned symbolism to flowers.

And you see it throughout all kinds of art in the 19th century.

And morning glories were very popular.

They represented the notion of life as ethereal, because what you get with a morning glory, if you've ever grown them, you know that this is the perfect time of day to see them.

They open in the morning.

And by the end of the day, they close.

So you have this opportunity for life, and then, the ephemeral nature of life, they close in the evening.

So it was symbolic in that way.

These are morning glories that I started a few years ago.

We've got different colors of them around the garden.

A lot of people consider them weeds.

You know, weed is just defined as a plant in the wrong place.

So when I see morning glories that are close to my trellises and these hoops and tunnels and things, I just leave them because, well, you get this kind of effect, and it's effortless.

And that's the marvelous thing about nature.

I could have never come up with this.

I just sort of set it in place and let nature do its thing.

For me, one of the most important and compelling things about nature or the garden is making connections.

You know, for instance, right here we have the morning glory, and then we have it's more productive cousin, the sweet potato.

And if you look down here, you can see the relationship here with the leaf, heart-shaped leaf, just like the morning glory.

Look at those gorgeous blooms.

Did you ever see a sweet potato flower?

Well, there it is.

So what you might think about here is the sweet potato is the more productive member of the family.

Where the morning glories are maybe the show horse, the sweet potato is the workhorse.

If you think about morning glories, we grow those on the vertical to appreciate.

I suppose you could grow sweet potatoes on the vertical, but they're traditionally grown on the ground like this.

But they're very much a vine.

We haven't harvested any of the sweet potatoes yet this season, but I may scratch around and see what's under here, and who knows, may come up with a little surprise for you.

♪♪ Thinking about the integration of a few vertical elements in a garden can really add a little pizzazz to what you're creating in that special space for yourself.

I find this time of year in early fall delightful because I just give up control.

Control is an illusion anyway, right?

And the garden just kind of takes over.

And it's illustrated best in a place like this here in the vegetable garden where we have planted for the pollinators.

But the cypress vine, I think, takes the cake.

Years ago, I started planting them, just the red one.

It's called cardinal vine because of the red flowers, and the little hummers love it.

Oh, by the way, the cypress vine is a cousin to the morning glory.

You can see the similarities with the little flower.

And then I found a source for white seed.

So we have little white ones now.

And then, this past year, I found pink ones.

It's an annual vine that's native to the tropical Americas.

So Central America and South America.

And I have to plant the seed every year.

But these, for the most part, now come up as volunteers.

We don't have to replant them.

As a designer, I'm always looking for ways to create a vertical accent in a garden.

Maybe not always, but I think that when it's appropriate, they can create visual interest in a space.

And that's what we have here.

From the beginning, I've had these rustic tuteurs just made of cedar that we've gathered on the farm, and we've created them just with a crisscross pattern.

And you can see it's the perfect support for this pink cypress vine this year.

These vertical elements create a sense of drama, and if you look across this edible garden, you'll see how these vertical elements really change the dynamic of the space.

The energy of the space really changes with it.

♪♪ One of the most extraordinary vines this time of year here at Moss Mountain Farm is this creature.

Glorious, isn't it?

Well, this is called the hyacinth bean vine.

I understand why they call it a bean vine.

Look at it.

But, hyacinth, I don't quite see it.

Although I guess one could stretch your imagination and think that these pealike flowers are hyacinth-like.

But this is a wonderful plant that's been grown in gardens in India and Africa for well over 2,000 years, and they were brought to Europe and the Americas in the 1700s.

In fact, Thomas Jefferson is believed to have grown these at Monticello in 1812.

So, what I love about this plant, which is called Lablab purpureus, which I just love to say, is that it has so many ornamental qualities.

First comes this glorious vine, which is veined.

You can see purple on green, and the underside of the leaf is actually a work of art.

And from there, you get these marvelous flowers, as I just pointed out, on these glorious purple stems.

And then, soon to follow, what you get are these handsome pods which are full of seed.

And I saved some seed from last year.

And I just want to show you how beautiful just the seed are.

They have these gorgeous white bands on them, and I like to take these and dry them.

And then, the day before planting, I really like to soak them in milk.

Why milk?

Well, milk has lactic acid in it, and it further softens the outer hard coating of the seed.

And I find that I get greater germination, but I just save these seed from one year to the next.

We've been saving seed here of this plant for maybe 15 or 20 years, and it always performed so beautifully.

The other thing that I should point out about hyacinth bean vine is that the flowers are delicious.

They have a very sweet sort of taste to them.

And I think these are beautiful on salads.

From the standpoint of floral design, they're great in flower arrangements.

And I particularly like the pods because I think they're extraordinarily striking.

The contrast of these dark purple pods with other things that are blooming at this time of year are really stunning.

From a cultural standpoint, what I've learned is you can start these seed in a greenhouse or a warm place to get a head start.

If you plant the seed or the plant in soil that's cold, they'll just sit there and sulk.

They're very unhappy.

So what I like to do is let the soil warm up.

These things love the heat, So it's perfect for southern gardens because, as you can see, it grows with great unbridled abandon.

Now, the thing that is important to note here from a design standpoint, what we've done is every -- I don't know -- interval of 20 feet, we've put in a pair of posts, and then I've got these arches made of just concrete reinforcing metal.

The idea is to create a tunnel of these.

And then, if we give them a little nudge of something, a little fertilizer, about midway, when they begin to climb up these poles, they really take off like a house afire.

So if you're looking for something dramatic that will create a beautiful, robust vine, I would put hyacinth bean vine right at the top of the list.

♪♪ ♪♪ Climbing plants can add so much to architectural elements in the garden, whether it's the main house of a building or, as you see here, these piers that take you into the center of the rose garden.

And what I wanted to do was to just talk about how these climbing plants attach, because I think it's really important.

A little story here.

This is a little Boston ivy, and it's a miniature form.

I brought this back from a trip.

I'm always bringing plants back.

I always carry an extra suitcase for plants that I find.

And over on the main pavilion, you'll see just the regular Boston ivy growing on it.

But also, go back to the point of how vines go vertical.

You can see, if you go in very closely, that this Boston ivy and Virginia creeper, another type of climber, actually have these little suction cups that attach to the masonry here.

They don't really cause any problems with the masonry.

And if you look, you can see the reason I wanted to show you some of these that had died, because you can really get a good view of how those little suction cups work.

It's a fascinating evolutionary advantage that this plant has gotten.

Here we have the native wisteria, Wisteria frutescens.

This is Amethyst Falls.

And you can see this one attaches by tendrils.

So you can see a tendril here.

And then, the third way vines will connect would be like English ivy, evergreen ivy, or climbing hydrangeas.

They have little rootlets and they get into sort of mortar joints and things like that to hang on.

And those can be a little more damaging to masonry buildings and walls and so forth.

But what I love about this is that the leaves of these, both the little duckfoot Boston ivy and the regular Boston ivy, have such beautiful color in the fall, and they soften the masonry so beautifully.

And that etching or tracery of vines just adds another layer and dimension.

♪♪ One of the things that I love to do is draw structures of various forms, and I like to go out onto projects.

I carry a little book like this and have doodles and drawings.

It seems like, when you draw something, it locks it into your memory.

I'm today going back and working on this idea of a tuteur.

This idea of growing things on a vertical comes up over and over again in our garden design, and we're working with a client presently that is interested in what they saw here at the farm, where I've got these three tuteurs lined up on either side of the terrace garden.

That repetition is really captivating as you go through a garden.

So at some point, you have to kind of bring the idea of what does that vertical element look like?

I mean, what's it made of?

And, presently, I'm just working on some metal ones with this idea of a curve at the top.

And it's slightly wider at the bottom and slightly narrower at the top.

And this curls around with sort of an elegant curve of metal.

And, so, you get this kind of thing going.

And we're thinking this may be, you know, total height about 10 feet.

So you could really grow some marvelous roses on there.

And then, comes this idea of breaking this up a little bit.

It's sort of a classic X like this.

And the middle one much more elongated.

And then, by just having this kind of classical crisscross design you can see here, you can grow anything on it.

Roses will attach beautifully, hops, which we like to use here, particularly those golden hops.

You could grow beautiful wisteria on here and maintain it quite easily on a vertical element like this.

These tall, vertical elements add such a dignity to a garden.

So, anyway, it just gives you kind of an idea of how I think about things.

I sketch it out, usually with a pencil first, play around with some dimensions.

So I talk about, you know, you're taking something off Olympus and you're bringing it down to the ground, an idea, you know, that's out there and you want to seize it so that you can move forward with it and then bring it forth into the real world.

♪♪ Do you love fragrance in a garden?

Probably no better plant to demonstrate this attribute of fragrance than roses.

When I designed this rose garden, I created this sort of bowl so that it would contain these fragrances.

This rose is a marvelous rose called Milwaukee Calatrava.

It's really a new Johnny-come-lately rose.

But I got it because everybody was squealing about how fragrant it is, and I couldn't believe it.

So I bought one, and it was, and so I bought more.

And it's been here, gosh, probably 10 years or longer.

The point here is that it's on a tuteur, and I designed these three- legged tuteurs out of metal, and the idea is for them to grow up through it.

And this is an example of a climber climbing roses.

They have no way of attaching unless you give them something to lean against or be tied to.

The name tuteur, by the way, is a French word that comes from the base word "tutor," where it's training something, and that's what's happening here.

You're just giving it a structure to train the growth upon it.

And of course, there's always an opportunist around.

And that's what we have here.

You can see one of our friends, the morning glory, who's always a social climber, trying to outstrip the rose.

As a companion to this fragrant beauty, I also have some 19th century roses.

This is one of the Noisettes, the first American class of roses that were developed here in the United States in the first decade of the 19th century.

They're very fragrant, and that's why I like to grow them.

And then, in the background, we've just got a knockout rose who's gotten very tall.

But I think the pinks, particularly this time of year, all play well together.

Just wanted to share this beauty with you today.

Just walking around the garden, noticed this.

And well, it was the fragrance that caught me first walking in here.

It knocked you over, and then, of course, it's visually arresting, as well.

♪♪ ♪♪ I always like to grow a few sweet potatoes every year.

There's so many varieties to choose from.

What's interesting about the plant, it's a New World plant that really wasn't introduced globally until after Columbus' voyages to the New World.

They're originally from Peru.

The way we grow them is I like to throw up a ridge, and you can kind of see a sense of a ridge here, a mound about this high and about that wide.

And we place the slips, which is a little rooted sweet potato plant, bare root, in the ground.

And if you water them in as soon as you plant them, they'll take off.

And it's this time of year that we dig them.

And what you do is you just go down to the origin of the plant, and I just pull back the vines, the foliage, like that.

And then, I try to back off a little bit so I don't cut any potatoes, and I just kind of ease in there and just see what might emerge.

It's always kind of exciting here to see what we might have produced this year.

Here you go.

Gives you a little bit of an idea of what this one's yielding.

Some small sweet potatoes there.

Nice little ones.

Beautiful color to them.

There's some more over there to the side.

Oh, yeah.

Look at this one.

Yeah.

That's a big boy there.

Look at that.

That's a beauty, isn't it?

There's probably several others under there, but I just really wanted to show you how we dig them.

I don't really like to wash them off.

I'll let them just sit and dry like this.

We'll put them in a cool, dark place.

Let them dry first.

They need to dry completely before you store them.

One of the things you want to be careful of with sweet potatoes, not that you can do anything about it, but if you have uneven watering or rainfall, what can happen with some varieties is they'll split.

It makes them, I think, look a little unattractive, but it doesn't impact the nutritional value.

They'll keep just as well.

So it's just something to keep in mind.

If you're watering them in your garden, you don't want to overwater them.

And toward the end of the season, before you start digging them in September, you want to maybe back off the water a little bit and let the potatoes mature.

I think, if they sit a while, the sugars begin to form in them and they're sweeter.

So, just some things I've learned along the way.

I've probably planted 15, 20 varieties of sweet potatoes here.

I just love growing them because they're so easy and the plants are very disease resistant.

All right, so I'm going to dig a few more.

♪♪ This year, we grew four varieties of sweet potatoes, and I like to use them in lots of ways.

And one way, of course, is the sweet potato pie.

Something I grew up with.

So I just thought I'd share this very simple recipe with you.

Use a special bowl here.

It was my great grandmother's mother's bowl.

I like to use it this time of year when I'm baking.

And what I've done here is I've just taken a variety of sweet potato.

This is a Beauregard, one that my family's eaten for generations.

And what I'm going to do is take 2 cups of sweet potato.

And what I did with these, I roasted them.

They're still a little warm, hot out of the oven, and I mashed them.

What you want is about 2 cups.

And then I'm going to add a half a cup of butter with this.

Sweet potatoes are a seasonal favorite.

We're going to mix all this together.

Make sure that the butter is fully integrated with the sweet potatoes.

There we go.

It's a beautiful thing.

You can see these potatoes, they're not -- I mean, there's still a few little lumps in there, but that just says it is homemade and made with love.

Now I'm going to add the other ingredients, which is a half a cup of milk... ...and 1 cup of white granulated sugar.

And then, you can use 2 eggs.

I use 3.

And the third medium egg.

These are from our buff Orpingtons, which is a wonderful heritage breed, an English breed.

They're a favorite here on the farm.

We let them run around the gardens.

I'm going to add a half a teaspoon of nutmeg and a half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

And that's it.

And the batter looks like that.

Beautiful.

All right.

I've preheated the oven at 350, and I have this, um, pie crust that I've put into a 9-inch deep dish.

I like deep dish.

And now it's just a matter of transferring the batter over into the... ...crust.

All right.

I'm getting the last bit of that batter in here.

There we go.

That's it.

So, the oven, 350, preheated.

Bake this for about 55 minutes.

♪♪ ♪♪ All right.

I'm going to add a little whipped cream now that it's out of the oven and it's cooled a little bit.

I like it slightly warm, and I like a lot of crust, very much a crust person.

And, um, let's see how this tastes.

Mm.

It's so good.

Mm.

And I don't want to beat up on pumpkin pie, but the sweet potato pie is pretty divine.

A vine is always reaching toward light, air, possibility.

A vine treats an obstacle as an opportunity to grow, claim, survive, and maybe show off a little.

Vines can teach us something deep about ourselves.

We rise higher with support.

We grow better with patience.

We become our most beautiful when we have something to hold on to and when we hold on to each other.

That's why vines and you matter.

Now, that is a sense of place.

I'm Alan Smith, and I hope you've enjoyed our time together as much as I have.

I'll see you next time.

-Funding for "P. Allen Smith's A Sense of Place" is provided in part by... -Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.

Since 1998, growing, saving and sharing rare heirloom varieties.

Seeds with stories and a sense of place.

Seeds worth saving.

Learn more at rareseeds.com.

NARRATOR: And First Community Bank, where community comes first.

-Behind every episode of "A Sense of Place" is a story that extends beyond the screen.

Allen's companion coffee table book brings those stories together through more than 500 photographs he selected of the house, gardens, flowers, and animals that define life at Moss Mountain Farm.

Available at pallensmith.com.

-Learn more at my website, pallensmith.com, and dig a little deeper with our weekly newsletter and make sure you follow along with our social media.

♪♪ Now that's a plant that's a native here.

That's Campsis radicans or the trumpet vine.

And if you saw it in bloom, it'd have a beautiful sort of orangy red, deep salmon-colored trumpet flower, and the hummingbirds love it.

And then it sets these gorgeous seed pods.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪