Saving Seeds for Green Bean Bush Beans. 11.5.22

 This year I was able to collect maturing bean pods from the bush beans.  I have not saved the seeds in the past, because my late planting results in the pods not maturing.  This was a hotter hear, so some of them did mature.

I let them dry inside until the pods were crunchy.

Now the drying bean seeds shell out quite easily.

I shelled the seeds.  My estimate is I need roughly 80 seeds for an early crop, and 80 for a late crop.  I think I got that many.  There are also some later ones, still drying.

Here are the seeds so far.

They need to be kept in a paper or cloth package, so they continue to dry out.

I'm not certain of the variety.  Probably either Blue Lake or Contender.  I grew both, but can't tell them apart.

Preying Mantis. 10.29.22

 I found this little creature while working on the garden bed.  This makes me happy, knowing that my garden has a rich web of life, feeding me, the plants, the creatures, and the soil. 

Preparing Next Year's Tomato Bed. Marigold Treatment. 10.29.22

 This raised bed had the following succession.  Last year, onions.  This year, garlic, then bush beans.  I planted a row of French Marigolds at the end, which grew vigorously.

Marigolds contain a substance that is toxic to some harmful herbivorous soil creatures.  So, I thpughtbit might be useful to treat the soil with a marigold "green manure".

First, I cut off all of the beans and weeds.

I removed those.  I thought about mixing them with the soil, but it seemed like more effort than I could handle.  So the bean tops and weeds went to the compost heap.  Then I roughly chopped the marigold plants, and spread them over the soil.

Then I used the shovel to turn over the soil, mixing in the marigold choppings.

This bed was the only one not to get a treatment of biochar last winter.  Supposedly, biochar will help keep the soil healthy and  nutritious.  So I spread the remaining biochar onto the soil.

I also found a bag of chicken bone / woodstove ashes, in the garden shed.  So I spread those too.

Then I used the hand tiller to roughly mix it all together.

Now it's ready for the rain, and settling in, and the next couple of weeks of coffee grounds.  Then I'll cover with a layer of leaves, and it can rest until May.

Apple Graft Results. 10.27.22

 These are grafts I did in March or April.  

Mutsu on Geneva 222 rootstock.  I had left the rootstock dry out last year, and it still survived.  Whatever I had grafted on it did not.  So this Spring, I repotted it, cut off the top, and grafted it with Mutsu scion.  The graft union is kind of ugly, both because I didn't use a fresh razor blade to make the cuts, and because the scion and rootstock sizes were very mismatched.  Doesn't matter.  In a few years, it will be difficult to locate the graft union, as the trunk enlarges and they meld together.  I might replant this one into a container bed this winter.

 

Freedom Apple, on Redlove Odysso espalier. Odysso might be a dud. Still no ripe apples to taste. I decided to make the top two tiers into Freedom, a disease resistant old variety. Again, ugly graft and this was a cleft graft because I couldn't get a good whip and tongue.  Plus a size mismatch, again.  Didn't matter.    It healed great, and growth was phenomenal.

This will need some winter work, to make the tiers horizontal.  That is not a big deal.

Finally, Blue Pearmain on Redlove  Era.  Same graft issues, took great and the graft union healed completely over. I think this one actually was a whip and tongue, which makes a cleaner and faster healing graft union.

I guess I need to make some decisions about the Redlove trees.  I may overgraft some of the lower tiers with something more productive.

Covering Peach Tree To Prevent Peach Leaf Curl Disease. 10.27.22

 I finally got the genetic dwarf peach trees covered. 

I don't know if I did it on time.  Covering to prevent rain from getting into the buds, prevents peach leaf curl disease.  I has already rained a few inches.  However, one year I dug up a peach tree and pitted it this late, and kept it sheltered.  It did fine.  I also wrapped the branches in garbage bags one year in Novembet.  I think that worked too.  I'm not sure.