How to Grow Hops in Your Backyard

You can grow hops by seed, but you can also get hops cuttings from someone already growing the vine. You can also buy them in a container at the garden center.

The vine will put on a lot of growth the very first year if you start with an actual plant, rather than seed.

Make sure you have something really sturdy for the vine to grow along. A trellis or fence is great.

Be sure to plant the vine where it will stay for years. You don't want to have to try to cut it back to move it again. Give it a strong support to grow against and it will do great.

In the early part of Spring and Summer, the vine will grow (a lot!) Trim it back to 4 or 5 shoots if you don't want it to get too wild.

As summer moves along, the actual hops flowers will start growing. This is the early stages, but they already look pretty! I love the two tone green of this plant. It really adds interest to my garden.

The vine still grows longer and the hops are getting bigger. Keep watering on a regular basis. But...they do not need watering every day!

Come over to Country Living in a Cariboo Valley to learn more about how to prepare for planting hops and how to tell when they are ready for harvest.

Hops can also be used to help with sleeping! Or making your own homemade beers. We grow them just for their beauty!

Look how many hops are setting on this vine!

Here are hops that we didn't pick off. We like to just leave them as they slowly die off. They add a lot of visual interest to our garden.

One day we hope to have a pergola in the yard. I think hops vines would look fantastic climbing a pergola! And a big bonus is that they would provide a lot of shade, which we need here in summertime.

So if you are looking for something a bit different, that will add a lot to your garden, why not think about planting hops?