Germinating Home Saved Bean Seeds. 5.30.2012

 These are seeds from a bean cultivar that I've been saving for two decades.  Some times I miss a year and have to use an older batch.  I saved this batch in 2019.  These are a pole beN, making very large, meaty wide green beans.  Apparently they are traditional in Northeast China, Jilin Province.  I'm soaking them for a day before planting.  That seems to encourage germination.  I hope they grow.

Garden Update. 11 Aug 2020.

 Lots of food and collecting seeds.  Shirley poppy seed heads are becoming light brown, so I cut them off and place them, pod down, into glass jars.  The dry seeds fall into the jar for collection.  It works out almost the same for garlic chives.

Harvest:  beans, potatoes, cucumbers, a few peppers, blackberries, a few figs, Asian pears.

Here is a cucumber salad I made, all but onions from the victory garden.

Here are some Roma beans.   I love these.  They are great, stir fried or air fried with a little seasoned salt, garlic, oil.

Here are some Chinese beans, from many (20?) years of home-saved seeds.  Tasty and "meaty", similar in a way to Romas but a more distinctive flavor.

Lots of big cucumbers.  Next year, try one or two plants instead of three.  These might be hybrid so 

I'm not sure if I want to save seeds.

Triple Crown Blackberries.  Of the ones I've grown, more productive, better flavor, juicier than almost any other.  This year I will cull out the inferior Arapaho, Babycakes, and maybe Prime Ark Freedom.

I big Brunswick fig.  This tree's production is miserly, but requires almost no maintenance and I have room, so I leave it there.  The figs are huge and sweet, when they ripen.

Still lots of summer squash.

More Vegetable Seeds. 6.2.2020

I planted some more vegetable seeds.  Something seems to be eating a lot of my planted bean seeds.  Several rows vanished completely.  Something also eats some of the plants after they germinate.  I'll try again, Landreth and Roma varieties.  I also planted some more dill and cilantro, which seem to be slow germinating, and the third batch of sweetcorn, this time Ambrosia hybrid.

The garden is very lush.  As usual, I was over-enthusiastic and planted too much.  Photos may follow in a day or two.

Vegetable Garden Update. 5.13.2020

I planted some bean seeds, Landreth Bush Bean, shown.  These are some of my newest seeds, actually packaged for this year.  I'll soak the Limas overnight and plant tomorrow.

I think some of the other bush beans I planted two days ago have started to germinate.  I saw a couple of beans sticking above the soil.  It could be that rain washed the soil away, but I'm hopeful.  That was the Dragon's Tongue bush bean.

I think the soil temp is OK for about everything now  Today was overcast and drizzly, with soil temp 68 F in the afternoon.

Soil Temperature today, 5.13.2020

I cleared most of the rest of one of the messiest raised beds.  My inclination has always been to garden organically, but now I don't feel like I have that luxury.  Still, I'm not using pesticides, just Osmocote and a little Miracle Grow here and there.  For these, I treated the soil with Osmocote at the instruction amount.  This is not the Jalapeno bed, with two slicing cucumber plants at the back.  I raised all of these from seeds, planting last month.  For peppers, it might have been smarter to start in Feb or March, but I wasn't up to it then.  They are small, but I think they will do OK as the weather heats up.

Jalapeno Pepper Plants in a Raised Bed.  5.13.2020

I wondered if it was too cool a couple of weeks ago for planting pumpkins and squashes in the vegetable garden.  I did cover them at night for two weeks.  Since I stopped covering them a few days ago, they are really taking off.  I'm most interested in the Pink Banana Squashes, for nostalgic reasons.  It's growing nicely.  Those French Pumpkins are good too.  There may not be enough room for all of these, depends on whether the vines grow faster than the potatoes grow to clear out that area for spread.  It might work out OK.

Galeux d'Esynes Pumpkin.  5.13.2020

Pink Banana Squash.  5.13.2020

Kitchen Garden. 8.23.15

Late beans.  8.23.15

Onion Wells.  8.23.15

Beans growing ok.

Added well aged chicken compost to barrels, and more of the EWO scallion starts into those.

Tomatos, getting an excellent crop this year.  More than we can eat.  Time for some more salsa.

Tomato Cage.  8.23.15

More seeds for Kitchen garden and bee garden.

Another order, seedsavers.org. 

Bean, Dragon's Tongue PKT
Bean, Pencil Pod Golden Wax PKT
Pepper, Hot Portugal PKT
Pepper, Maule's Red Hot PKT
Squash, Golden Zucchini OG
Tomato, Cherokee Purple OG
Tomato, Italian Heirloom PKT
Tomato, Mexico Midget OG PKT
Flower, Four O'Clocks PKT
Flower, Bee's Friend PKT
Flower, Starfire Signet PKT
Sunflower, Titan OG

Image from vintageprintable.com

All of these are in the "Master Plan".  The garden beds are planned and all but one are built and filled; that last one is built but needs a chicken-wire bottom for moles and to be filled.

The 4 O'clocks are reported as deer and rabbit resistant, and may be a bee forage flower.  Phaseala ("Bee's Friend") is considered a great forage source.  The signet marigolds will be used in companion planting for vegetables.

I have a lot of seeds from last year.  I may try some of those too. 

This helps keep me going until late winter when I can start planting.  Especially cold days like today.

Today's harvest

 

 

 

Today's Harvest

I was happy with today's harvest.  A zucchini, a cucumber, a nice batch of tomatoes, pole beans, and the first two okra, ever.  Tomorrow:  Barley / tomato soup with home-grown okra, home grown garlic, and home grown onions.

Kitchen Garden

 Today was too hot to do anything.  Plus I felt sick.  But I did plant the beans I started 2 weeks ago.  These are Ning's Chinese pole beans.   Other than that I don't know what kind.

Starting them in containers work'ed nicely.  There were 10 containers, each with 2 or 3 plants.  I planted them were I dug up the onions.  Watered well.  Kept the straw mulch in place.

I didn't have the energy to build a rabbit/deer cage so they have a temporary chicken wire cage.  Might work.  Might not.

Also planted seedlings of the "Minnesota Midget" Cantaloupe.

 Nice roots on these beans.  Not too rootbound.

 The White Potato multiplier onions are the biggest I've grown.  All were the same size, both the first bed planted in September and the second planted in November.  I think - need to check back in this blog.

 The onions and German Porcelain garlic are drying in single layers in cardboard boxes in garage.  I didn't want to cook them in the sun.

There were also a couple of nice looking turnips.  First time I grew these.

Kitchen Garden Plan

This is the plan for the kitchen garden for next year.  I used a high-tech method called "writing on an old mailing envelope using a pen".  Bio-powered system.

The three beds on the eastern side are planted as noted. When the alliums are done, in July, I can prep those beds for crop rotation, adding in compost and start fall-planted radishes, cabbages, turnips, mesclun. Another option is late-planted bush beans. I'll build the two late-winter beds next. That will give the coli/compost/supplement mix a chance to settle and "cure" before planting. Probably late feb. Those are fast growing. When they are done, the warm-requiring solanums (eggplant, chilis, tomatoes) and Okra can go in. The taller ones will go to the back. I can build the other beds through the winter and prep them in early Spring, March and April, before they need to be planted in May or June. By then I'll be tired of building raised beds and, especially, hauling soil to them. The soil hauling is heavy work.

One great thing about planning on paper is, I can continue changing it as I think of better choices.

The raised beds now. The soil pile and compost pile are in approx locations for two of the beds. I hope people don't think someone is buried there.

It's great to have company, even if they are sleeping.

Saving Seeds

Collected more seeds today. Saved them in regular postal envelopes. My seed box is a small wooden file box that I bought at a yard sale, good fit for the envelopes.

Yellow pod bush beans. These are a tasty bean that grew well this year. I "think" they are open pollinated, and they are the only beans that I grew at the time, so they should grow true.

Daylily seeds. These are some of the results from my hybridizing. I'll have to look up how to grow them. My plan is to find a place to grow them out to bloom, and keep anything I like, throw away hybrids I don't like. No way to know until I see them grow and bloom. Just for fun.

These are "Oriental Snow Pea Sweet Taiwan". Similar for the beans I haven't grown any other pea, so unless they are a hybrid, they should grow true.

Beans are ready

These are the beans I planted in tubs April 14, so roughly 90 days from seed to bean.

There are lots more beans on the plants, ready or barely formed.

The beans themselves aren't visible until you get right into the plant.

Kitchen Garden

The containerized beans are growing great, and now have their first flowers. I guess I didn't start them too early.

Ning set up this raised bed. The potatoes were volunteer - I don't know what type they are. They are so vigorous. He used compost that came from the chicken bedding.

The tomatoes are starting to bloom. The first is Better Boy. I guess I didn't start these too early either. Despite the rain and rain and rain and rain.

Kitchen Garden Progress Notes - Container Gardening

The yellow wax bush beans that I planted a 2 weeks ago. There appears to be some slug damage, so I added Worry Free organic slug bait.

Egyptian Walking Onions, multiplier onion, loves this method of growth. I planted these Oct. 29th. We did not eat many scallions this year, so these will go mainly toward eating onions and starts for a larger number for this fall. I don't know why we didn't eat more scallions, I love eating them.

German Garlic from Southern Exposure, also planted Oct 29th. They are also flourishing in the tubs. There should be some great garlic this summer.

Tomatoes I planted in a tub last week. The temp today is 49 - probably too cool, although last week it was in the 70s. The tubs warm up faster, so may be OK. This tub has seedlings from mesclun that should be ready to pull out in a couple of weeks. The sticks are mulberry prunings, an attempt to see if they grow by the "stick it in the ground" method that I use for figs, grapes, and forsythia. And roses.

More from the raised beds.

The strawberries are doing great! I thought everbearing types might give one or two strawberries a month, but these are really productive, sweet, great flavor, red all of the way through. The deeper half/barrel has bigger and more berries compared to the shallower containers. That may be due to not drying out as fast.

The container grown beans are also more productive compared to the ones in the ground.

Kitchen Garden Progress Report

I pulled the multiplier onions ("yellow potato onion") and garlic from a small bed south of the house. This bed got out of control with weeds, and it looks like most of them died. Or someone ate them. I think I have a dozen to make a new start next year. These are an heirloom variety and I don't want to lose them. Plus they taste really good, but there won't be any to eat this time. I will have a special raised bed or garden box for them next year.

So

In the place of the onions I planted 2 types of bush beans. The seeds are a few years old. If they don't grow, no great loss. But I think they will. If they do, that should mean beans in September.

Container Gardens Progress Report

These beans are growing like crazy! They are blooming great! These are an Italian pole bean. The container is a plastic basket, with holes drilled in the bottom. This is working great! It does need almost daily water though.  I can't reach the top growth now!

Peppers! Before barrels, I could never get them to bear. I can't beleive they are almost ripe.  This is great!  I had garlic plants in this barrel too.  It was the largest garlic I've grown.

More peppers. Cool!  The onions are spring bunching onions.  I planted the seeds in this barrel just to see what would happen.

A few late fall flowers, and kitchen garden produce

Late summer planting of Roma bush beans. These are very good stir-fried with mushrooms, garlic, and peanuts, along with some stir fry noodles. Yum!

A few last roses showing me they're still here. They are mostly such a mess, I'm looking forward to pruning them back this winter. Weeds took over. That is largely the job of kitty cat, who decided that the mulch was the worlds biggest and best litter box, stirring up all of the mulch with weed-seed-laden soil below, and fertilizing as she went along. Still no solution for this challenge.


Nice Dahlia. It's survived many years in that location. I thought it was dead, but there it is.

I keep saying it over and over, but best pepper crop ever!