A Field of ...Beans:

I love dried beans: refried beans, bean soup, baked beans, pasta e fagioli, but I have never developed a real taste for green beans. Probably because we didn't have them much when I was a child. My mother thought that the two vegetable groups were corn and peas. (Oh, did I mention I also don't like the squeaky sound and squish that cooked beans make in my mouth?  TMI?). But, green beans are good for the soil, grow prolifically, and are really easy to grow here in central Virginia.

So I've tried to grow several different kinds of beans over the years, to no avail. But this year (hope springs eternal) I'm trying an heirloom variety, "Chinese Red Noodle," an "asparagus" type" bean from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  It is supposed to have a less beany taste, is thinner than a standard green bean, is beautiful, and grows over a foot long. The flower is a pale lavender and the bean is a deep mahogany red. We are starting to harvest and eat it (mid-July). So far it is less beany in taste, though the mouth squeak remains. I'll continue to the harvest and try them in a variety of dishes. One way I have liked green beans in the past is in a stir fry with chillies, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and the Korean chili paste gochujang.  I will report back!

Photo on top: The bean in my garden.

Photo below: The bean with two types of okra (to report on later...)

Been Awhile...

(Rosa Eggplant, Colored Pencil and Mixed Media, fall 2019. © Judy Thomas)

It has been awhile since I have worked on this blog. Various things derailed me, health, family, work,  but I am back into gardening in a big way. Flower bed renovation, new raised bed vegetable garden, and a new emphasis on native plants, and heirlooms.  I won't post this until I have several posts ready to go...stay tuned! Edit: See you tomorrow!

7th Graders Give Me Hope

I recently received and inquiry from a 7th grade class about their project on natural pesticides in the garden, and here is my reply:

I am delighted to hear that you have a school garden.

I think it is clear from my blog that I do not like artificial, petrochemical, synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.  Here are some of the many reasons why:

1. They often kill more than the target pest: they kill bees, ladybugs and butterflies, and other insects that are beneficial to plants.  Bees are in decline, and without them, we loose most of our food crops!

2. In addition, amphibians and reptiles are harmed when these chemicals enter water.

3. These substances can build up in the soil.

4. Soil is pretty important to plant growth, and an important part of the nutrients in soil come from various soil organisms including fungi, that these chemicals kill.  When the soil is "dead," you have to rely more and more on chemicals.

5. These chemicals are poorly tested. Many were derived from leftover stocks of nerve agents used during WWII and have never been fully tested.  We do not understand their long-term affects.  We do know, for example,  that people whose job it is to spray lawns often have cell damage, which can lead to cancer and other illnesses.

6. Our standards for approving chemicals are the lowest of developed countries. Lawn and garden chemicals determined to be unsafe in Europe are sold here.

7. Homeowners routinely overuse and misuse these products.  Misuse can harm animals, plants and the person using them even more!  (If you ever read the label on roundup, the most commonly used yard chemical, you would want to avoid it!)

8. Manufacturing these chemicals is dangerous, and causes pollution.

Sometimes, just doing research and telling people about these dangers will change their behavior.

The only "pesticides" I use are natural, like Surround, a fine clay that pests do not like, mixed with water and sprayed on plants.  I use other things too: floating row covers, to keep bugs off my plants; yellow sticky traps to catch cucumber beetles; cardboard collars around the base of my veggie plants to stop cutworms and: beer trays to catch slugs.

What if you made and distributed some cards or posters to homeowners about some simple steps they can use to reduce pesticide use?  

One favorite thought I have about weeds: "weeds are plants in the wrong place."  Also, did you know that dandelion flowers in early spring often are the only flower to sustain our most important pollinator, bees, until other flowers bloom?

Good luck with your project!

Long Island Cheese

 

This winter squash is, hands down, the best I have ever grown.  Called Long Island Cheese, it got its name from its resemblance to a wheel of cheese.  It passed my first and most important criteria, that it is easy to grow. In addition, the flesh of this pumpkin is dense, sweet, and absolutely delicious. It is perfect for pies, pumpkin bread, and other desserts, but I've also used it to make a pumpkin curry with wonderful results.  Squash vine borers (which seem to be at epidemic proportions in my garden) made absolutely no headway with the squash, nor did cucumber beetles. It kept producing fruit all the way through the season. From one vine, I got about seven small to very large squash, more large end than small.  This is definitely a squash I will grow again!  I ordered it from Pinetree Garden Seeds (www.superseeds.com) but many heirloom seed houses carry it.

Happy garden planning! Order your seeds yet? I did!

This Season 2016

This was a very bad season for my garden, so bad, in fact, that I have not posted much on it. I was unable to spray my zucchini plants with clay spray, so the squash vine borers got them very quickly. The tomatoes did OK, not great, though the eggplant  went gangbusters.  We had early spring, warmth, then a hard freeze, so that meant no figs, no strawberries, and no apples this year. In addition, the squirrels completely stripped my beloved persimmon tree of all the persimmons, even while they were green.   In mid spring, we had so many rainy days I could not keep up with the garden, then scorching heat throughout the summer, so ditto.

 So, I do not have much to report, but hope to be back with a few successes I had: two marvelous winter squash. Back to you soon.

Early Tomatoes

Remember those three tomato plants I set out on March 26th, protected by (the trademarked) "Wall-o-Water" protectors? Well, here is a photo of the plants that were protected, and two "sibling" tomato plants that were started indoors on the same day, but planted on May 8th.  I think you can tell the difference!

 

Tomato update

Remember those tomato plants I set out inside protective Wall-o-Waters a couple weeks ago?  Well, they did just fine in the two hard freezes we experienced!  Down to 25 degrees!