Successes and Failures

It happens to the best of us and those of us who are usually pretty good at gardening.  I think I have been beat this year and will not enjoy my own garden beans.  I did everything the way I usually do, but I have a few miserable sprouts coming up.  I have them fenced to protect them from the big critters and covered them for the little.  Still there are a few lousy plants and some that look like they were eaten by something.  This is unprecedented in my gardening years.  I will put more in, bush beans that are short season.  I hope to enjoy some fresh beans before the growing season runs out.  My pole beans and the elaborate growing structure appear to be a futile attempt at gardening.

Instead of tender sprouts, I have a bed full of purslane.  Purslane is edible, but they aren't beans.  On the other hand, peas were very successful.  I grew both sugar snap and garden shelling beans.  I enjoyed cooking up three different meals from the last picking of shelling beans alone.

I went out and picked again before work this morning and got almost a full pail of both types.  They are starting to dwindle in number so there is probably just a meal left to grow in on the vines.  I am leaving some on to try and get some for next year's crop.

I am also pretty happy with the onion crop.  The tops are starting to get brown tips so they should be starting to shut down and start hardening up for harvest.  We have enjoyed several pullings of fresh onions that I have cooked or used fresh.  Garlic is also starting to brown at the top. The leeks also look pretty good, but those are still growing.  I put in carrots, but only those shaded by the adjacent plants actually germinated.  I think they got too dry when they needed it most.  We have not been getting timely rains this month.
I also enjoyed the first four blueberries on my bush today.  It is not going to be much of a crop.  I just bought the plants last year.  They were in pots all last year and through the winter.  I have them in a large above ground planter now that is filled with peat and compost.  In our alkaline soils, we can only grow blueberries in an artificial environment like this.
Fencing of some type still needs to go up.  I did get down soaker hoses around the tomatoes and peppers last week.  I am also going to put some around the squash just to cover my bases since I do have a few left.  I haven't peeked at the corn coming up under the floating row cover, but I can see some shoots pushing up the fabric.  Okra is small and in desperate need of weeding.  I do have to get busy in the weeding department as I know they will need it again when we come back from our first vacation.
I try not to linger on the failures and enjoy eating the food that is coming from the garden.  Lettuce is at it's end, so I need to enjoy salads this weekend rather than send it to the compost pile for lack of interest.  It is also time to forage for berries.  Enjoy summer as it is short.

Work hard, play hard, garden in between

I feel as if I have been away for a long time.  There is so much going on as we use every hour of our summer as a precious commodity.  Work has kept me busy for more hours than usual.  Play has taken me away from the computer.

Play has been the best part.  My husband and I made a trip out to the western half of Wisconsin and enjoyed some time along the rivers.  Part of our vacation is the quest for dairy products, namely cheese and ice cream.  We had to look pretty hard for this in a zone that was not dotted with dairies on the Wisconsin cheese map.  (Yep, we really have one!)  Nelson Creamery did not disappoint us.  I enjoyed an ice cream on a 90+ degree day and filled up half of our cooler with cheese.  The place had such a charm about it, I had to share a picture from the building even if it isn't related to the usual stuff I write about.  I do love old buildings.  They are talking about replacing the basketball arena in Milwaukee because it is (gasp!) over 20 years old and so outdated.  Give me a break!  

We also took a long weekend away to spend some time on Lake Winnebago with my husband's side of the family.  They have a nice size boat, so they met us on the lake where we were able to camp.  The weather looked like this on Friday with wind and waves and stayed that way the entire weekend.  We never did leave the dock, but still had a nice time anyway.  I wasn't looking for it, but I found a very new and very cool goat dairy in Pipe, WI.  They sell the best cheeses from other dairies, Kelly's Creamery ice cream (butter pecan was soooo good!), and Wisconsin wines, beers and other beverages.  I would like to go back and enjoy some more of everything.

Back home the garden is starting to kick in gear.  The beans are coming in in almost all my plantings now.  It is so fun having 4 foot rows of each variety.  I am enjoying the filet type beans the most.  So slender and tender in all three varieties I have going.  I will have to look them up later to refresh my memory on what I put in.  Cukes are doing well in the tomato patch but struggling elsewhere.  I would like to put in more pickling vines next year, possibly behind my flower bed with a soaker hose running by them.  I have had my first tomatoes from the 4th of July bush.  They are small but satisfying.  The Sun golds are starting to turn yellow.

Most all the squash and pumpkins have set at least one fruit each.  I am still waiting on the Kiwano melon to even flower.  I have nipped the tips and am thinking it will need some fertilizer with less N and more PK to help it along.  

The peach has several fruits on it and some of them are starting to turn yellow from the hard green state they have been in.  I have heard peaches need aggressive pruning so I will have to do some research on that one.  The Honey gold apple set one fruit which is more than I expected for a new tree.  I wonder if I will enjoy it or if the squirrels we be there first.

My third crop of lettuce is coming along nicely considering the heat wave we went through right after planting.  I have pulled a few radishes from my last sowing.  I think the shade cloth and the soaker hose made the difference with this mid summer sowing.  I continue to mound the soil around the stems to help them bulb rather than stretch.  Kohlrabi is growing but not expanding at the waist yet.  The beds with soaker hoses are fairing much better than those without.  I think I will look for end of season deals on some as there are some that are starting to show their age with some cracking.  I would not garden without them.  My daughter did a fantastic job keeping things moist through our absence wherever she was able to let them run on their own.  Quick connects on each one also helped to make the job easier.

Well, it is time to sit back and seriously enjoy the mojito in my hand.  A mojito mint was definitely a good buy! Check out last year's post on making a mojito yourself.

First basket of tomatoes

I happily went to the tomato bed and FINALLY picked a full basket of tomatoes.  Yes, they aren't all rosy red ripe, but they also do not have chipmunk or squirrel teeth marks in them.  I was able to get some fresh cilantro from the West Allis Farm Market, so fresh salsa will become a reality.  The jalapenos are also starting to produce peppers of harvest size.  The long wait has come to an end.
I got the tomato plants in late this year to allow for room in the driveway with our graduation party taking place during normal planting time.  With all the heat we had, I was sure the tomatoes would be earlier any way. Not so.  The nights have cooled off quite a bit and have slowed progress.  I still have to get my first celebrity tomato this year.  My farmer friend from college was in town for Irish Fest this weekend.  She told me her sister-in-law lost their garden to a storm when one of the nearby trees landed on the garden in June.  It is still there among  the weeds.  I guess I should count my blessings that it is just a wait and not a total loss.
Even the cherry tomatoes have been slow to start.  Today was the first picking that I didn't put directly into my mouth. There are more to come.

I am planning on putting more into canning jars than the freezer this fall to save on freezer space.  We have half of a steer coming in October which will take up all we have.  Another freezer is in the near future, hopefully and upright to save on the digging and lost items in the bottom of the chest.  I have done dilly beans and cut beans which put several jars on the shelf.  I also have sweet corn canned this year (a first for me) which put nine pint jars in store.  There would have been 10, but one went "ping" and spilled into the pressure cooker water.  I was not happy to start everything over to get the corn out of the water.  More beans are ready for picking, so I think french beans are next.  Fall is an exciting time of year for a gardener.

A little of this and that...

The weather was beautiful on Sunday so I was able to open the windows and turn on the stove.  The first round of beans have been canned a dilly beans.  I have added the recipe from the Ball Canning and Freezing book which has been by my side for over 25 years.  It came with my pressure cooker and I use it all the time.

I ran across something somewhat alarming while out in the garden picking beans so I picked around the affected plants and did them last.  After some research, I decided I damage them while using the Weed Dragon to kill some weeds along the fence somewhat near the beans.  If anyone thinks otherwise, chime in and let me know.

The heat has been a killer and I dread what the water and electric bill will be from this heat wave.  I have been looking around at how other municipalities are dealing with tree watering, as Milwaukee has been trying to keep the new stuff going with water trucks.  I saw some water bags along the boulevards in West Allis on their new trees.  Alverno College had these water bins around their trees to do the slow soak.

The onions started bending over before vacation so I pushed them all down.  (See Onions post from 8/16/11) After a week or so of dying back, I pulled the plants, trimmed the roots and cut the tops to about 2-3" over the onion bulb.  I cured them in the trays in the garage for most of the period (it was just too darn hot for man and onion in that sun).  I pulled them out in the sun on the milder temperature days to dry them and now they are ready for storage.  Store onions in a cool, dry, dark location.  It is a beautiful crop that I am happy to have.  Now I have to get some lettuce in the ground for fall harvest.

A Red Letter Day in the Garden

The heat has paid off in the first summer crop.  The beans have been growing like crazy in the heat with the supplemental watering they have been getting.  I had two full quarts in my bucket on the first picking.  We like them small and tender so this was a good amount.  Nothing beats fresh produce from garden that goes right to the stove.

 I got a little distracted with other household stuff so I cooked them longer than I liked.  I made up for that with summer butter that I picked up from a small creamery over the weekend.  Some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper topped it all off for a simple supper.

My youngest enjoyed them without cooking.  She just snapped and ate right from the towel.
I did feel a bit of melancholy with the first picking as Jake was not there to enjoy it with me.  He enjoyed the beans just as much as the rest of us.  He would wait outside the garden gate waiting for me to toss a few over the fence for him.  I will always think of him and my mom while picking beans.  
The beans made yesterday pretty good, but it got better about 7 PM last night.  I saw the clouds coming when I was driving home at 6:30 but didn't hope for much.  When the wind came with the sound of water hitting the windows we were all relieved that we were finally getting some needed rain.  The storm was a good long one that left the streets still wet in the morning.  I was happy to see my rain gauge in the morning.

Glory be!  We have a real rain and the rain barrel confirmed the rain gauge with 55 gals of fresh water in it.  It was a red letter day.

Seeds have arrived!!!!

I am so excited!  When I got home from work tonight a large envelope was sitting on the kitchen cupboard for me with my Pinetree Gardens seed order. https://www.superseeds.com/home.php

For several years Pinetree has been my main catalog for orders because they have done such a good job of getting me what I want with only a couple substitutions to date.  I like the smaller quantity of seeds with a smaller price and shipping rates are very competitive.  

This year I am excited about starting several things.  I bought some wave petunia seeds.  The silver wave is in the upper right corner of this picture.  One plant covers a lot of ground by fall.  The blue wave is not as aggressive in growth but it is full and smells wonderful even on a sunny day when most plants shut down.  I also have Dolce Flambe which we grew in the city greenhouses when I worked out there.  I really liked them and would like to try my hand with them again.

I have several varieties of tomatoes again this year.  I am going to try growing my sungolds from saved seed.  I hope I don't regret the gamble, but I do want to become a seed saver and I have to start sometime.  Romas and Celebrities will be the mainstays as they are reliable producers in my garden.  I have not had much luck with heirlooms but I may find one at the garden center to try again in my new growing site.

Whirlybird nasturtiums are a must.  They look great and I love to munch them for a peppery treat.  I am also going to try growing agastache from seed this year.  I bought a single plant and it seemed like I needed more.  I have conflicting sources as to whether or not they will be hardy in zone 5.  The flowers kept up all summer long and the foliage smells like licorice when you stroke your hand across it.  It will go into the herb garden rather than a pot this year to see what happens.  I bought Zowie Yellow zinnias again.  They are a great plant and start easily from seed.  Asters are also wonderful and those will be direct sown into the garden.  Mammoth stock is another flower I have grown in the past and am going to go with it again.  The smell is great and the flowers on this variety look nice in a mixed bed.  I am also going to start my own Butterfly Mix impatiens and Accent White impatiens because I did not get my first color choice from the garden center last year.  These will have to be started indoors so I am going to have to make space for them under the lights.
My onion seeds have arrived just in time to get them going.  I am going with Alisa Craig again this year.  I remember them having produced well, I just don't remember if I had good storage with them.  I prefer to start onions from seed as they are better than sets.  They put more energy into the bulb and are less likely to flower.  I also do bunching onions from seed for salads and Mexican dishes.  Both are sown early, the Alisa Craig indoors and the bunching will be sown outdoors when I transplant the Alisa Craig onions in April.

I ordered flowering kale again this year.  I bought two varieties of the stemmed rose head that I grew last year.  I am going to have both sunrise and sunset to grace my fall garden.  With the mild winter we had I also carried this pot into my Christmas decorations with the addition of some evergreens and lights.  What a pretty and unusual porch decoration.  I am trying Dwarf Blue Scotch in the vegetable garden as my eating kale variety this year.

I have two varieties of pole beans (flat podded Italian Romas and Purple Tri Violetta on right).  Two bush varieties are both slender podded, Slenderette and Maxibel (French).  It does seem like a lot of beans but they fit the space well.  I also use about half the seeds one year and carry over seeds to the next with very little germination loss.  I also am going to put in soy beans for fresh eating again.  I need to have something to eat with a cold beer after work.  
I am going to get sweet peas in the ground early again this year.  I have two from Pinetree and another on the way from Select Seeds.  The flowers have been chosen for their scent and for their vining habit.  I grow them on a trellis behind other flowering plants.  Last year I had them on the same trellis with cucumbers.  They like cold weather, so after the cucumber vines were done, I pulled them off and the sweet peas went into a beautiful fall bloom.  Experimenting with the unexpected can sometimes result in wonderful discoveries.
I am going to wrap this up as I want to do a little research on growing microgreens.  I have two packages in my sweating, little palm that are begging for some water and light.  I look forward to letting you know how this new adventure goes.

Beans

Harvesting bean always reminds me of my mother.  She grew up during The Depression and their family lost one farm, moved to another and had two more children after she was born in 1928.  They had dairy cows, chickens, crops and a garden but there was still the need for coats and shoes that the farm did not provide.  Once the kids were old enough to work they pitched in.  This did not happen when they were 16 or 18 but in their single digit years.  The went to school and learned their lessons, but summer provided the opportunity to "farm out" the kids to others who needed the hands and paid for the labor.  My mother and her younger brother were particularly good at picking beans.  The worked quickly and did a thorough job of picking the plants clean so they were in demand by the neighboring farmer when he was in need.  Their labor in the beans fields meant there was enough money to get everyone a new winter coat.
The amount of beans I pick out of my 8' row of pole beans and similar row of bush beans is nothing in comparison to what Mom and Uncle Paul did. What they did was not for pocket change or last night's dinner.  Her story does come to mind each time I pick my beans in my own garden as a lesson in counting my blessings.  We are in our own recession now but I do not have to send my daughter out to work so she has a winter jacket.  She is saving up to maybe get a car someday and have some spending cash as she does not get an allowance from us for that.  She will also have some cash for her yearbook, dances, and sports extras that we don't cover.  She will not have to contribute that to the family income to make sure we all stay warm this winter.
I hear people complain about taxes, the cost of living and all the other things that are making them "tighten their belt".  I still see the same people take vacation, buy new cars, send the kids to camp, and finish decorating the house.  If this is what we consider rough times we don't know beans!

(Photos are of purple violetto pole beans raw and then cooked. They lose much of the purple coloring with the process, my kids always thought of them as magic beans when they did this>)