Ready to Go!

Last week I was able to get out into my garden most mornings, while my grand-kids slept in. I got all of my green beans chopped up and left in place; then, I covered them up with mulch--a green layer covered by a brown layer (composting in place). I did leave my regular cucumbers (took out my pickling cucumbers), and my dill. The dill is nearly ready for harvesting the seeds.

My Apologies . . .

I can't believe it's been over two months since I last posted! Life got busy, I forgot to post, and then I was out of the habit of posting--I will do better this time. My veggies are growing like weeds, and the harvest is going on like crazy. I have had a lot of tomatoes (made into chunks, and sauce, and then canned), a big mess of green beans (also canned), and lots of chard. The chard had volunteered the last few generations, growing willie-nillie, and I finally cleared it out. Now I have a box that I will plant my Summerfelt beans in. I found the Summerfelts several years ago in the Seed Saver's catalog; they are a dry bean, great for soups, and a little sweeter than Navy beans. My grandmother's maiden name was Summerfelt, so when I found the beans, I just had to have some! They originated from a man with the last name of Summerfelt, in Germany, in 1810--he could be an ancestor of mine!
This is a picture of my husband's tomato plant (I sure wish I could remember the name of it!)---it's about 6' tall. It has produced a lot of tomatoes, more than I expected, and has kept growing and producing (it's indeterminate, which means it keeps growing until a killing frost). The tomatoes are kind of mealy and don't have a lot of juice, so they are making some good sauce! My Roma tomatoes are producing well (they are determinate, they stop growing at about 3').

These are my green beans, with cucumbers on the trellis behind them. I have made dill pickles this year--it's been years since I made them. I love dill pickles, and they are so easy to make! I will have to post my recipe, so you can see how easy they are.

Bed of Summer Vegetables

Here's the garden bed that I started working on a few days ago (it has the cucumber seeds). Today I put the soaker hose in position, keeping it in line with the sticks; and then I planted other seeds. I continued along the back with my pickling cucumber seeds, along the left end of the box is dill, and the rest of the bed is in Blue Lake green beans. There are three 8' rows of green beans, a lot of beans for fresh eating, but these are mainly for canning. I will be thinking they are a lot of beans when it comes time to pick them!

Here's the bed all set to grow! I did see that one of my regular cucumber seeds has sprouted, so they are on their way! I watered the newly planted seeds in, but the ground was really dry to start with, so I have the soaker hose going--I want the soil to be perfect for sprouting all of the seeds.

Green Beans

I grow bush green beans because the are ready to harvest at the same time. Pole green beans grow and are harvested over a longer period of time. The texture of the beans are different, too, with the pole beans more "meaty". To see which you prefer, grow both kinds! Because I want to can my beans, I grow the bush variety.

Bush beans are easy to plant and grow. They are planted 6" apart. For each square foot of garden space, plant 4 beans evenly. Divide each square foot into 4 by drawing a big "+", creating 4 smaller squares that will hold one bean each. Push the seeds down about 1/2" and cover with soil or finished compost. Water well and they should pop up in about a week. Depending on variety, they will be ready for harvest in about 56 days or so.

Pole beans are planted 6" apart all along the base of a trellis. Pole beans need some sort of trellis system and there are many different kinds. Trellises are easy to make at home, using a couple of wood poles, then drape (snugly) string between the poles for the beans to climb on. You can use PCV pipe or metal poles in place of the wood--anything you may have on hand. Pole beans may need a little assistance to find the trellis at first, but once it starts it will climb on its own. Pole beans will start maturing beans about 56 days later and the harvest will go on for about 12 weeks (although it may be shorter towards winter).