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| sad looking row of beans |
This double row of bush beans has not done well all summer. It sprouted up pretty well then whole stretches of seedlings died off for no apparent reason.
No matter how much I run the soaker hose the beans always looked like they weren't getting enough water.
That double row is almost 25 feet long. I should have picked 10-15 pounds of beans already with more coming on. I haven't gotten a single bean. Time to cut my losses, rip it out, dig it up and start over.
This garden is on the creekside and part of it was filled in about 20 years ago when a flash flood took out the bank. It was a chicken pen for a few years before I turned it into a garden. I loosened up the beds as well as I could and piled compost on top. Every season saw more compost, but I have never actually double dug the beds like I usually do in a garden. So time to get busy.
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| shallow soil |
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| metal junk |
Besides tons of rock of all sizes I have been digging out strange metal bits.
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| sand and gravel subsoil |
The biggest issue is probably that the subsoil is pure sand and gravel, so what ever water gets down there just keeps on going. For that reason I'm digging this bed deeper that I normally would.
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| digging deep |
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| about half way done |
The subsoil I'm digging out is going into the path way. The final level of the bed will be below the path to help conserve water.
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| blow out |
I have 300 feet of hose that goes up to the chicken pens. It is several years old and has been doing great. But today there was a blow out. Fortunately I had what I needed to fix it.
I have not been so lucky fixing broken soaker hoses however. Once they have a blow out they just seem to keep on going. My cucumber row also had a blow out today. That is the 3rd soaker hose this year. In the future I will do strictly drip tape. If a drip hole clogs up I can unclog it with the point of a nail. It is easy to work with and hook up and seems to last forever, as long as the rats and rabbits don't chew on it.
As predicted, once the weather began to cool off those 11 foot tall Lima beans began setting pods.
Hopi Purple Pod beans, a Native American variety, have set thick clusters of pods. I love this bean because it sets bunches of pods, I can fill the bowl in a few minutes, picking fistfuls of beans at a time. Picked really tiny you _can_ eat them as green beans, but they are at their best as green or dried shelled beans. They look a little like red pinto beans and have a full bodied meaty bean taste.
These are the Princepe Borghese tomatoes. I’m afraid the blue jays have discovered them though. Now I have to buy more bird netting.
The west side of the patio is beginning to look like a jungle, potted potatoes on the left, tomatoes on the right. More potatoes in the background. The orange pots have pepper plants in them. They are sitting on the 55 gal drum which is the sand filter for the grey water from the washing machine.
Here’s a new compost pile. It is built over several tree stumps that I’m trying to get rid of. I’ve managed to kill an oleander by building a hot compost pile on top of the stump. This pile was built of horse manure and sawdust, topped off with some leaf litter, then some finished compost on top of that. I’ll be planting watermelons on it soon.
The Kabocha squash in the grey water tub is going strong. On the right is a canna lilly.
King of the Garden Lima beans on the arch trellis. The tallest one has hit 5’6″ and still climbing.
The new garden beds out front, with Bloody Butcher corn, popping sorghum, broom corn and quinoa. In the foreground are some madder plants.
The trombocino squash has hit the roof and started sideways.
The greenhouse looking from the outside in. The sugar snap peas have been pulled out and replaced with various beans. A volunteer squash plant is taking over the corner. You can’t see them in the pic but lots of Malabar spinach in there too. Left side of the pic you can just see part of Miracle’s sunflower and the bed of baby corn.
Another view of the greenhouse. Looks like I need to do a little housekeeping in there! The big green bushes are the huckleberries I grew from seed. They are beginning to bloom. I’ve never grown them before, but they are supposed to taste like blueberries.
On the right are large paste tomatoes. On the left Burgandy Okra. Some of the okra seedlings didn’t make it and were replaced with my 6 Beauregard sweet potatoe plants.
The Maxi Golt peas were done for, so out they came, to be replaced by Burgandy okra and several inches of sawdust mulch
Some of the Sugar Snap peas come out and are placed by Double Yield cucumbers [thanks! www.freedomseeds.com] and Kentucky Wonder pole beans
Chires Baby Corn seedlings. These are the little baby corns in Chinese cooking, or left to mature they make popcorn.
The strawberry bed is interplanted with purple bush beans.
The Elephant Garlic is blooming. We got almost 5 pounds!
A spell of cool rainy weather gave the Blueshokker peas a new lease on life.
A Grimes Golden apple grows with Mammoth sunflowers, asparagus, Swiss chard, cosmos and nasturtiums.
Super Italian Paste tomatoes in large cages. Despite a wind storm knocking them over and breaking some branches, they are doing ok.
A Lemon Gem marigold. It really does smell and taste of citrus.
On the patio looking down the SW side of the house. The big green bushes in front are some of the potted potatoes.
This sad looking Red Currant tomato nealy drowned. It’s planted in an old ice chest and I didn’t realize the drain plug got closed up. But it’s making a come back and even delivered up our first taste of homegrown tomatoes.
Yard long bean seedlings in a planter by the house. They’ll grow up to shade the laundry room windows.
The trombocino squash is taking off.
On the patio tomatoes grow in old ice chests and peppers in the orange pots.
!st big red tomato, an Imur Prior Beta, it weighed 1 1/2 ounces and tasted delicious.
The Kabocha squash was rudely pruned by a pack rat
The buckwheat is blooming. mmmm buckwheat pancakes, coming up!
The chickens enjoy scratching in their new spot.
A wild sunflower with very tiny seeds volunteers in the raspberry bed.
The Baba raspberries are showing some color.
The new garden area: paths laid, beds made, planted with popping sorghum, quinoa and Bloody Butcher corn.
Potatoes in the ground out front aren’t as big and lush as the potted ones on the patio, but doing ok under 6 inches of sawdust mulch.
Bloody Butcher corn seedlings. The sticks along the edge of the bed are guides to keep small children on the path.
King of the Garden Lima beans are taking off up their trellis.
Pencil pod yellow wax beans await transplanting.
Poppies and wildflowers bloom along the driveway.
A strong smelling sage blooms
WOW! look at those melons taking off.
Yippee! A baby watermelon
The Baby Blue Hubbards are blooming. That compost pile is still hot, 138 degrees!
More wild flowers, poppies, a corn flower and a baby apple along the drive way
A bee buzzes a bright red poppy full of pollen.