Beans beans, the beautiful fruit!

Purple Trionfo

Part of the reason to plant pole beans (aside from their long-term, prolific yields!) is how stinkin’ pretty they are.

Pole beans usually lag bush beans by a 1 – 3 weeks for production. My bush beans have been giving for about 2 weeks now and the pole beans are showing signs of serious life.

Flowers. Pretty pinky, purply ones.

Pretty soon the whole teepee will be teeming with them. I’ve got borlotto (cranberry), kentucky wonder, and purple trionfo. The vines are hearty, adventurous (tentacling around random garden stakes, bush beans, the cat.. whatever they can latch onto) and really, really pretty.

Filed under: beans, vegetable garden , pole bean flowers, pole beans, pole vs. bush beans

View From Above June 1

The moment has arrived!  The much-anticipated mostly indistinct view from above!

Things are growing.  Almost everything is in.  There is room for another tomato and I will probably replace a few plants that just aren’t doing well.  In the back, the potatoes are going bananas.  I spent part of the day yesterday getting them hilled with lots of soil and I laid down the straw mulch.  The lettuces have been great with only the arugula not doing well.  It’s in an odd spot behind the peas and I thinned it yesterday to see if that would help.  (While thinning I noticed a crazy infestation of some kind of weird, small, round bug.. not good.)

The beans… well, they got in the dirt when it was too cold.  Germination has been slow and small.  I’ve got more beans ready to go and later today they’ll get replanted.

 

Filed under: aerial views, garden pests, vegetable garden , aerial view garden, vegetable garden

Topsy Turvy Tomatoes

Just a quick link.  Cindy Haas at Urban Garden Casual (same group who does one of my favorite blogs Tomato Casual) is doing an experiment that is right up my alley.  Can it be true that upside down tomatoes can produce better and remain more disease free than normal tomatoes?  She’s seeking to discover for herself by planting an upside down bucket tomato and a tomato set in the dirt.  Since I’ve got more tomatoes coming in the next week or so, I think I’ll do the same. 

She posts a great how to here. 

Filed under: vegetable garden , tomatoes, upside down tomatoes

Podchef’s Potato Video

Informative video here from the Podchef on planting potatoes.   (If you aren’t listening to his gastrocast podcast, you should give it a try…)

My potatoes are getting big.  Most are at or past the 4-inch mark and I’m going to do one dirt hilling to give the potatoes more room to become potatoes and then I plan on mulching with straw. 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: potato, vegetable garden , podchef, potato planting

Amazing, Annoying Nature

At this time of year, many plants turn their energies toward reproduction.  Just to the side of my garden sit three sugar maples who seem to be particularly intent upon making a fourth, fifth, and six hundredth sugar maple.  It falls on me to sweep up the manifestation of their efforts from my garden paths – hundreds of perfect gliders, each with one maple seed.

The sheer number of them is staggering.  At times, when the wind blows and shakes them loose from the tops of the trees or pushes them chaotically down from off of the roof, it looks like a swarm of spinning locusts intent upon a kudzu’s plan of world domination.  “Is that snow?” Kyle asks and I have to agree; it does look like a blizzard, the air so thick with them that we can hack with our swords and destroy them in eddies of jedi wind.

The garden beds are piled with them, maple seed mulch, soon to be hairy with the green sprouts of trees to be.  I can sweep them away, I can pluck them one by one by the thousands and still there are more.  It’s exasperating and fascinating at the same time.  What amazing patience we would need to have watched the evolution of this natural wing, weighted perfectly and it’s veiny wood angled just right to allow it to be carried on the same wind that finally coaxes it away from it’s fostering branches – scattered a few feet or hundreds of feet to fall into years and years of composting leaves from the same parent, generations of familiar genes that welcome it to the ground to begin again.

How infuriating!  How frustrating to stand beneath a pelting rain of them, all the while picking, picking a patch clear beneath it all.  How staggering!  How humbling!  How perfectly fulfilled!

How.. .much Thoreau have I read?  Whatever.  These things are cool. 

And annoying.

 

Filed under: vegetable garden , maple tree helicopters

Mesclun Mix Up

Greens are great.  Spicy, sweet, bitter -  I love them all.  I grow radishes and beets as much for their greens as for their fruity bits.  A good mesclun mix can be a real treat, but it’s getting harder to know what’s in the mix. 

Most seed companies seem to provide the mesclun mixes pre-mixed in a packet.  That’s good.  But what can be bad about that is that it makes you dependent upon their definition of mesclun.  These days you can grab a mesclun mix (or “spring” mix as it’s often called since nobody knows what mesclun means and it sounds vaguely narcotic) just about anywhere and in all kinds of pre-packaged conditions in the supermarket.  By most classic definitions of mesclun, what we get pre-mixed and packaged (in seed or bag form), is not often all that mesclunish.

Mesclun is a French and Italian thing.  The goal is to mix key flavors of baby greens together.  Bitter (perhaps from an endive or radicchio), mild (from some leafy type like oak leaf, red sails or ruby), piquant (spicy and pungent like mustard greens) and peppery (like arugula).  That’s right.. piquant AND peppery.

These days, in most bags of salad, you’ll find it’s high on the leafy and therefore low on the likey.  Are the seeds following suit?  This year I got two mesclun seed mixes from two different places.  Seeds From Italy, not surprisingly, seems to hit closer to the good ol’ european definition and I’m seeing some spice in my sprouts.  My other selection (can’t remember where I got it!) looks decidedly Dole – lots of red sails and not much oomph.

Caveat emptor.  Next year it’s time to be more discerning.  I want greens that clear my sinuses not ones that disappear completely on the tongue.

Filed under: greens, vegetable garden, vegetables , mesclun

Cheap Garbage Can Composter

I could spend a lot of money on a big compost tumbler and I’m sure I would love it.  But there’s a cheaper way.

I now proudly present Compostings Cheap Aerobic Composter Method.  (No patent pending.  This method has been done by billions of people before me and you can find it all over the place.)

What you need:

1. A cheap garbage can.  Mine is plastic with wheels.  The wheels come in very, very handy.  Get that kind if you can.
2. A drill.  Or a nail and hammer.  Or some kind of pokey thingy that can pokey through plastic (or aluminum if you go that route).  You’ll note from the pictures that my drill is hand cranky which makes me cranky.  Use a real drill and save yourself some labor.  I just couldn’t find mine.
3. Nitrogen contributors.  Green stuff.  Grass, veggie leftovers, etc.
4. Carbon contributors.  Brown stuff like cardboard.  Newspaper strips (not brown, but you get the idea).  I don’t like to use colored newspaper because I believe (with absolutely no science probably to back me up) that the colored ink is icky. 
5. Water.  Life-giving water.
6. About 30 minutes.  (Took me about an hour because I kept searching in between hole pokes for a real drill.)

The Incredibly Uncomplicated Process

1. Drill holes in the garbage can.  We’re trying for aerobic composting and the little buggies that will do the work need air.  Let it flow.  Get holes on all sides and the top and bottom.  The bottom holes will also allow extra water to drain.
2. Begin adding your ingredients in layers.  I started with strips of newspaper.  Then I added some cardboard and some leaves.  Then (and this ingredient is not necessary, but it’s like starter for bread dough) I added some fairly composted horse manure.  You should add your green layers like vegetable matter, grass clippings etc.  Since I used manure, I am going to let this compost for a long time.  I won’t use it until next year to be sure every pathogen is dead.
3. Build your layers like a club sandwich or a lasagna.  Keep alternating.  You want about equal parts of carbon and nitrogen contributors but don’t sweat it.  Nature finds a way.
4. You could fill it all the way up leaving 6 – 12 inches of space at the top at this point.  For me, I’m going to use this as an active composter throughout the next couple of months and I’ll be adding our kitchen scraps. 
5. Either way, once you’ve got it filled to where you want it, add some water.  Don’t be water stingy.  Get it good and wet.  It shouldn’t be swimming by the time you are done; it should be like a wet washcloth.
6. Put the lid on and tip the can over.  Roll that thing a few times to make sure the junk inside is getting to know one another.
7. That’s it.  Set it up someplace with some sun exposure but don’t sweat that too much either.  It’s also good to raise it a bit to let the air flow through the bottom.  Place it up on blocks.
8. Once a week, roll it and add some water.  The aerobic bacteria will consume the air, nitrogen and carbon and start to die off.  As they do that, the thing heats up.  You can check the temperature (160 f) and if it starts to drop, you know you are running out of your workers and the rolling will reintroduce air.  The goal of the rolling is to kind of get the outside parts that are rich in oxygen into the center.  Don’t sweat it.  Just roll the thing.  It will work.  Over time, as the nitrogen and carbon are consumed, the heat won’t be so heaty.  It’s all part of the composting thing.  It just means that the next round of organisms are rolling in to do their part.
9. In about 8 weeks you’ll have some nice compost.  Once the temperature has cooled, it’s ready to use.  It can be a good idea to actually let it stew longer now outside of the garbage can.  Put it in a pile and wait for the worms to come in.  They’re a good indicator of your compost.  If they’re in it, it means it’s not heating up any longer and it’s good to go.

Addition: Anthony from thecompostbin has a nice suggestion in the comments.  Drill the holes a bit bigger (3″) and cover them with a fiberglass screen to keep the pesties out.  Larger holes would certainly allow more airflow.. that’s a good thing.

Stuff You Need

Drill it

Newpaper layer 1

Cardboard in layer 1

Leaves layer 2

I added composted manure

I’m leaving room for veggie scraps

Added water

Roll it

Ready to get composting

Filed under: composting, vegetable garden , composting, garbage can composter

State Of The Stuff: What’s Growing

It’s May 18 and just about everything is in my garden.  I’m holding off on tomatoes and peppers for another week because it’s supposed to be pretty cold and wet for about 5 or 6 days.  I’ve got some tomoatoes just sitting out in the garden getting used to the place and I’ve still got several transplants under the growlights.  Can’t wait.

Beans checking out their pole

Beet sprouts

Broccoli (Gastrocast)

Started from seed 3/25

Green rows

Bean teepee

Potatoes looking pretty

Wasp is thirsty

Pole Beans: They’ve been in the dirt for 3 weeks and are just poking their little muppet heads out now.  I’ve got a few varieties.  Should be spectacular.

Bush Beans: Same story as above.  Just a few poking up now.  I’m a little worried, but we’ll see what the week brings.  If they don’t pop, I’ll just replant.  Plenty of time for beans.

Beets: 3 good rows have been in since May 4 and they are popping very nicely.  These are the ones I’m using for the Growing Challenge.  So far, so good.

Greens: Mesclun transplants have been made into many a meal already.  Delicious.  The staggered plantings I’ve done have all sprouted at various stages.  I’ve got about 3 successions.  Tom Thumb lettuce, chard, oak leaf, mesclun, tyee spinach, space saver spinach, arugula, miners lettuce are all doing well.

Peas: Carouby de Mausanne and Cascadia.  The peas in the earthbox are about 8 inches now.  They’ve been going since the end of March.  The peas in the garden are about 4 inches and were planted mid April. 

Carrots: Not a whole lot happening here.  They’ve been in since 5/4.   Just a couple of little peekers.

Radishes: Black radishes are doing great.  They’ve been in since 5/4.  Radish mix that I have going in a container on the deck (planted chaotically.. we’ll see) are doing well too.

Broccoli: Just a few plants.  Two are transplants and they are absolutely thriving so far.  Foot tall already.  The third is a transplant from the seeds I got as part of the Gastrocast’s seed special.  It was a bit sickly early on, but recovered very well.  I popped it into the garden yesterday.

Cucumbers: Just put in a Bush Crop.  Six plants.  I had so many cukes last year that I cut down a bit.

Potatoes: Bigger patch than last year and they have all sprouted.  The potatoes are approaching the 4 inch mark and I’ll need to get some straw going soon.

 

Filed under: Peas, beets, growing challenge, potato, vegetable garden, vegetables , beans, chard, lettuce, mesclun, Peas, pole beans, potatoes, spinach, tomatoes, vegetable garden

Beet Sowing

Truly accomplished gardeners – especially those who follow the intense market garden practices – would sow beets like crazy, scattered almost haphazardly without concern for the symmetry of rows.  Truly accomplished gardeners would use beets as part of a rotation of crops, interplanting them, thinning them, moving them, encouraging the overlapping of leaves for the cooling impact on the soil around the swelling roots.

I am not truly accomplished so I plant in rows.

Ultimately, you want beets to be about 3 inches apart from one another on all sides with the leaves brushing one another gently, fanning the soil and keeping the heat down.  Beets grow with their tops exposed (beets gone wild) just slightly and they are demure little things – keep em covered! 

Get the soil turned and loosened to about 6 inches with a pitchfork or shovel or your bare hands so that you’ll never get the dirt out from underneath your fingernails no matter how long you soak them in the tub while your son is in there.  Get rid of any rocks (I had lots) and make sure you’ve broken up any soil clumping parties. 

I used a stake to make a shallow indentation of about 1/4 inch.  Drop your seeds in (soaked the night before) and space them a few inches apart.  Cover lightly.  Go buy yourself some vinegar and wait…

These beets are what I’m using for the Growing Challenge.

Filed under: beets, growing challenge, vegetable garden , beets, growing challenge, vegetable garden

Cancel The Ark: Maybe Just A Dinghy

So the rain came down and down and down.  Everything drank it up – including my beds and my pathways.  It really seemed like extra rainy rain.

Garden seemed to enjoy it.  Some soil got washed off of my beds.  The trouble is that my beds are raised a few inches, but I don’t have them framed.  Once  the beds tighten up with more moisture and plant roots it should be fine.  Next year, if this layout works for me, I’ll frame the beds.  Probably.  If I’m not too fat and lazy.

Quick stroll out in the garden just now and the peas are coming up nicely.  Some chard just in front of them.  And a cat.  Sniffing around the peas to probably pee.  Shooed her away. 

Lettuce transplants look great and I tasted a leaf from one of them.  Very nice.

There is a frost warning for tonight.  Uh oh!  Looks like somebody jumped the gun!  We’ll see.  I think we’ll be okay.

So, cancel the ark.  Send a dinghy because it’s pretty much supposed to rain after tomorrow and never stop.

Filed under: Peas, soil, vegetable garden, vegetables , beans, frost warning, lettuce, Peas, rain, soil