Out in the Garden, Beans 2015

It wasn't that long ago that we cleared a spot in the garden and silently planted green and yellow bean seeds into their neat little rows.  Dutifully weeded and watered when necessary, the bean plants have flourished.

We've planted four rows of each type, with each row planted just a few days apart from the previous row.  The reason for doing this was so that we could harvest beans thoughout the season rather than for just a few short weeks.  It's pretty neat seeing the different stages of plant growth.  The lovely purple flowers of the green beans with their tiny bean pods, compliment the delicate white flowers of the yellow bean plants.

It's so nice to be in the garden in the early morning.  The dew misted over the leaves and flowers.  The birds just starting to wake up.  It's a nice reminder of the real reasons why we keep a garden.

Seed Catalog season

Oh yes.  It's that time again.  That time when the seed catalogs come bursting out of the mailbox, enticing us with pictures of lushious tomatoes, gleaming ears of corn, and bushels of other vegetables, all mouth-wateringly presented.

It's hard to keep from getting carried away.  "Oh, doesn't that look pretty?  I wonder what that tastes like?  Maybe we should try a row of that."  It all starts innocently enough but quickly escalates to more seeds than one either has room to plant or energy to thin, weed, and keep healthy.  So how to decide.
I start by looking at what I had planted the previous year.  Some plants did really well.  Others, not so much.  Throughout the season, you note which vegetables were quick to start producing and which needed help.  Was this variety less resistant to the common diseases found in the area?  Did it have to be sprayed regularly or trained so that it didn't go wild and take over the garden?  These are all questions that need to be considered.

Young Butternut squash

Fresh tomatoes

Peppers: mild, spicy, hot, and explosive

Another question that tends to go on the back burner is what are you going to do with the fruits of your labor.  Radishes are really pretty when they come out of the ground and are surprisingly easy to grow.  If no one in your household will eat them, however, maybe radishes are not a good first choice to add to the garden.  Same goes for the farmers' market.  I would love to grow dozens of varieties of hot peppers but limit myself to those that my family will eat and the market will buy.  Introducing new product is very risky for a small farmer.  It's heart breaking to spend the time and energy on something that you feel is terrific only to find that you can't entice your customers to buy it.
My last step is to take a look at the list, edit and remove any plants that require too much TLC.  I know my limitations.  I don't deal well with high maintanence people or plants.  I then set the list aside for at least 48 hours before revisiting it and editing one more time.  Can I get the hardened seedlings from my local farmers' greenhouse?  If the answer is yes, I move the plant to the list of items for the garden yet off the list for seeds.  KISS: Keep It Simple Silly!  When it was all said and done, the list when from 50 items down to 12.  I can do 12.

What I didn't metion is I had ten other packets from last year's crop that were also set aside for use.  How are we going to do this?  That is yet to be figured out.  8D
 

Children of the Corn

No this is not a story about some creepy, spooky children in some isolated town in the country.  This is a little story about the first sweet corn of the season and how good life can be...
Although we don't grow sweet corn at My Happy Acres, we are happy to refer people to the farm stand just down the road from us for some of the finest, freshest, most delicious sweet corn grown in New York.
What makes this corn so good, is it's almost guaranteed that the corn you purchase right now, was picked less than just a few hours ago.  That means that those lovely complex sugars have not started to break down as the picked corn ages.  The reason some corn on the cob (aka Wally world) tastes bland and chewy is that it was picked days and days ago.  The other reason is over cooking.  Real sweet corn only takes about three minutes, plunged into rolling boiling water, to cook.  I like mine with just a touch of butter.

Although the girls would love some fresh corn, too much corn is bad for little goat tummies.  Instead they get something better: the green shucks and silks.  Fluffy and Franny dove into leaves with gusto.  Fluffy carefully picked out the silks to eat first, while Franny preferred the tender inner leaves. 

"Yum! Yum! Crunch! Chunch! Thanks Mom!"

Dorothy waited patiently, then helped herself to a bouquet, tossing it about to break off a few choice bits.  Little Jellybean watched her sisters, then took a big crunchy mouthful, bleating gleefully bite after bite.

"those goats are spoiled!"

 Not to be neglected, the girls out in Chickenland also recieved their share: when the people finish their corn, the cobs are given to Missy and her girls to pick clean.  Happy days for all the children in the corn!

Planning and planting the fall garden

Let me begin by saying that it's hard to think about planning for a fall harvest when one hasn't gleaned at least one ripe tomato from the summer garden.  The summer garden was planted later than I had hoped.  Although we have lots and lots of beans to enjoy and share, the cucumbers are just now picking up steam, and the other vegetables are slowly catching up.

What to plant?  The heat of the summer is now starting its transition toward cooler nights.  This is perfect for many root vegetables such as carrots and rutabaga.  this is also good news for leafy greens such as spinach.  If you do decide to plant a few leafies however, do keep to mind that when cool turns to cold, take care to cover the plants with sheets or row covers to protect them from the frost.  when do correctly, the ground heat will keep the plants warm while the cover will hold the warmth close to the plants like a welcoming blanket.

baby pumpkin

A few plants welcome the cooler weather.  Among them are those in the cabbage family such as cauliflower and broccoli.  Kohlrabi and rutabagas are some others that thrive in the cooler temps.  Although you may need to protect them from the frost, leafy greens such as spinach is also works well if planted for a fall harvest.

As much as we would like to plant some winter squash, some varieties can take over 100 days to mature and produce.  Unless you live in an area that is prone to a late freeze date, it may be too late for that thought (but there is always next year!).  Read the information tag on the seed or seedling's package for maturity dates.  For a little extra help, visit Mother Earth News and check out their planning guide. 

Don't forget the summer garden.  As I was taking care of other business, I missed picking a few cucumbers only to discover a few days later that they had transitioned from gherkins to footballs.  Fortunately these are a variety to stay tender no matter how large they are.

 Life outside is not without a few surprises.  While adding a bit more to the compost pile, I noted that we have a volunteer coming up.  I don't know yet what kind of squash this may be.  Since we feed our girls all sorts of vegetables, it's anyone's guess what this will be.  All I can say with certainity is that it is growing strong with its feet deep in the warm nutritious compost at the bottom of the pile.

Out in the garden, July update

Holy cow!  With all the rain and now the sun, you couldn't ask for better as the garden grows and thrives.  In just a few weeks, the cucumbers went from wee little seedlings to already producing cucumbers large enough to harvest for salads. 

 The tomatoes are also doing remarkably well.  Using the string trellis, which has proved to be both economical and practical, the tomatoes are heavy with lots of green globes slowly swelling in the sun.  As an experiment, we are using one of the cattle panels to train a couple of plum tomato plants.  So far, they haven't been very cooperative so we may need to find another method to get their faces out of the dirt.

The green beans are doing so well that we gleaned eight generous quarts in our first harvest this last Tuesday.  When inspecting the plants this morning, I noted that I will need to get out there an do another harvest Friday morning.  The yellow beans are coming along.  I hope to see them ready soon.

Side note about yellow beans: Some people call the yellow snap beans 'Wax beans'.  This is not to say that they taste waxy or have an oily texture.  'Wax' refers to the color.  Some of the old timers may refer to this type bean as a 'Butter bean', again because of color.  In the South, a large Lima bean is called a 'Butter bean' and you don't eat the pod.  I guess what I'm getting at is always ask if you're unsure what something is.  You might learn something.


Speaking of perfect weather: The squash, gourds, and pumpkins are all growing like mad!  It never ceases to amaze me at how fast these plants grow when planted in a place that makes them happy.  To keep the powdery mildew in check, I've continued to spray their leaves with diluted milk.  They reward me with lots of flowers and vine growth.

Nest Egg gourd

It will be interesting to see what kind of harvest we get this year.   The pictured nest egg gourd is supposed to be about the size of a chicken's egg however is currently the size of a goose egg and is still growing!!  Maybe this plant didn't read the seed catalog.  Or maybe it's from a place with some mighty big chickens...

Despite the late frost, the wild grapes are doing very well.  A couple of years ago, the wild grapes were so heavy and full we harvested 15 gallons, making pint after pint of wild grape jam.  Perhaps we'll be fortunate again this year.  We'll know more in late Fall, after the first hard freeze. 

Playing with your vegetables

Now that the weather has warmed, the cucumbers are taking off, sending their feelers and tendrils off in all directions.  Rather than pulling cucumbers out of the nearby tomato plants, I train them to grow up a piece of fence panel set upright where they are planted.
There are two ways to do this:
The Easy way: gently pick up the vine and weave it in and out of the fence panel gaps, wrapping the curling tendrils about the cross wires.  The tendrils are those little thin curly bits that shoot off the stem.
The fun way:
Cucumber tendrils are thigmonastic.  Like a Venus flytrap, although not as fast, they move when touched or disturbed.  (To read more, check out Wikipedia.)

First choose a vine to be trained with a nice long tendril.

Lay the tendril across the wire it is to wrap itself to and gently tap it so that the tendril softly bounces against the wire.  Within a minute or two the tendril will start to bend, then wrap itself around the support.

There are small hairs on the tendril that will hold it in place while it gets a firmer grip.  In about an hour, provided that it remains undisturbed, the plant will have a sound hold.

Pretty cool stuff, huh?  Squash, cucumbers, and all sorts of other closely related plants can be trained in this fashion.  Sometimes gardening is more than just grubbing about in the mud.  Have a little quiet fun.  Enjoy those little discoveries.