garden thread

[akane]

I took some pics of overall shape and size of planted areas. I didn't get close enough to ID everything. That's gonna be a chore. Taking a pic of a whole section was pretty much impossible so I just took them in order. Hopefully I can post them back up in order.

Front of the house


Side of the house



Back side of that fence


Going from the house outward:
Small compost section and we think rhubarb, lettuce, onions and the rest who knows






Other side of that wood dividing the garden
bush beans?


Larger compost bin, more bean like plants and carrots


Tomatos, peppers and "?"


Massive grape vine. I think I actually underestimated it's size.

 

[Marinea]

Gonna start with the second/third veggie garden pics: the mass of unidentified stuff looks like potatoes to me.

Fourth pic: definitely bush beans.

Sixth pic: on the left, squash of some type.

"Back side of that fence" pic: Japanese maple, lots of lilies, and a Nandina (maybe- hard to tell for sure from that pic).

"Side of the house" pic: not seeing anything special there- be careful when you weed, I could be wrong. The one under that has some stuff worth saving, it's just hard to ID them as they are. Maybe another pic after cleaning it up some?

"Front of the house" pic: some Hostas, and maybe...bleeding hearts? Not easy to tell, but worth saving.

Some nice stuff there. One more reason I totally like your new place. Congrats again.

 

[akane]

The side of the house is more hostas and what looks like daylily leaves but no flowers. There's plenty of other stuff mixed in. It's pretty dense up to a couple feet high and then there's the various flowers that are sticking up higher. Apparently hostas are edible. They are purposefully grown for food in large quantities in asia.

 

[Miss M]

Other side of that wood dividing the garden
bush beans?

Yes, bush beans of some sort, and squash.

Tomatos, peppers and "?"

Squash. Lots of squash.

Marvellous! Looks like you've got a lot to work with there! Are they getting all of the veggies, or do you get some too?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Whatever that plant with the enormous leaves is in the first garden pic would be worth growing for it's beauty alone, no matter what it produces!

But, umm... what were they thinking with the bush beans? How do you harvest those? Unless they are ones that you just eat the dried (cooked) bean itself? :?

The rest of the vegi garden looks great, though! Lucky you, to already have an established garden!

 

[Sagebrush]

I love bush beens, think green beans lol.

 

[akane]

I'm used to squash going everywhere across the ground. Not in a row.

I'm sure we can make off with a small amount of vegetables if we want. We don't use a whole lot of fresh vegetable though. We'll flavor things with garlic, onion, and bell pepper. I eat baked squash and sweet potatos. Never tried growing sweet potatos. It's kind of a short growing season here for them. This year we are still getting 60F weather with only an occasional spike much past 80. Maybe I will plant sweet corn for once. Love sweet corn but it's never been worth the effort to grow. I was reading that corn and pole beans used to be planted together so the beans grow up the corn plant with no need for a trellis. Not that I have a huge use for pole beans but they are cheap, easy to grow, and if they are not taking up their own space then why not.

Now herbs I don't know where to start. :lol:

 

[Marinea]

I have a bed of corn and pole beans- it's doing great.

For the squash- try it sliced, and fried with garlic and onions. Yummy.

Yeah, those bush beans are planted...oddly. Gonna be hard to harvest the plants that aren't on the outside edges of that planting.

 

[Zass]

Sweet potato tops are awesome rabbit food if you can grow them. I'm considering planting them just for the buns. I couldn't feed too much of that stuff last fall and nobunny had any digestive problems. Northern PA has a short season for them too, but on a south facing slope my neighbor manages to grow HUGE tubers on his.

If the stalks taste sour...its rhubarb

Those grape vines are good bunny food too....you might just have to get more meat rabbits :twisted:

Can I just have your garden? I'm working with a 70 degree wooded slope...

 

[Miss M]

what were they thinking with the bush beans? How do you harvest those? Unless they are ones that you just eat the dried (cooked) bean itself? :?

Yeah, I thought the same thing... how are you going to find the beans?

It only makes sense if they're black-eyed peas or something you harvest dried.

Love sweet corn but it's never been worth the effort to grow.

There isn't any real effort involved in this area. Plant it, harvest it. I'm doing staggered planting, so I've got 25 plants or so coming ripe at the same time, over and over.

 

[akane]

You harvest bush beans all at once. They don't produce over several weeks or more like pole beans. They produce 1 crop that ripens at a specific time. If you plant them all at the same time or plant in intervals so the first ones ready are at the edges you can tear the plant up after harvesting off it.

Sweet corn is soil picky. I couldn't grow it at my mom's house or the farmhouse we were renting. Both soils had too much clay. My mom's house was built when I was in junior high and they seriously tore up the soil building on the side of a hill so the top was gone. At the farmhouse the same patch had been gardened and turned up for too long. They heavily till the soil to break it up but it needs broken up because it has too much packed clay and it has too much packed clay from turning it up every year instead of building top soil. I redid a chunk with raised beds filled with compost but I only got one year out of it before we left.

 

[Miss M]

You harvest bush beans all at once. They don't produce over several weeks or more like pole beans.

We helped my cousin pick his bush beans last year, and they produced over a number of weeks. We picked the same plants over and over again.

Sweet corn is soil picky.

Oh, that explains it. It does well here. There is a lot of clay in the soil, but we've been putting compost in. Got a lot of it in this year.

 

[akane]

It seems some like to try to harvest multiple times but they don't produce as well after the initial crop so many simplify it.

If you've followed the rules up to this point, in 50 to 60 days you'll be ready to harvest. Harvest, not pick. "I don't pick beans -- too much bending over. I pull the plants as I go, harvest the pods, and then throw the plants on the compost pile.

http://www.iserv.net/~wmize/bushbn.html

 

[MamaSheepdog]

You harvest bush beans all at once. They don't produce over several weeks or more like pole beans.

We helped my cousin pick his bush beans last year, and they produced over a number of weeks. We picked the same plants over and over again.

We grow bush beans every year (our favorite are the burgundy colored ones!) and same thing here- they produce for weeks if not months. We like the bush beans because they don't require any type of support.

It seems some like to try to harvest multiple times but they don't produce as well after the initial crop so many simplify it.

Huh. :? Ours always have beans in various stages of growth- they don't all mature at the same time. I'll have to take a closer look this year when the first flush of beans are ready to harvest... but as long as we pick the beans before they get to the "woody" stage, the plants keep producing.

 

[Marinea]

We also grow bush beans, and get many pickings from them, over a course of weeks. As we are picking, we can usually see more blooms on the bushes. Ours are in a jumble like the ones in your pics, but we grow in raised beds and can get to all of the plants easily.

With as many beans as I can, I would HATE to have to do them all at once.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

If one stays on top of things, bush beans will produce a large crop followed by a few smaller ones. Climbing beans, growing up cornstalks and sunflowers actually help hold those tall fellas upright and in the ground when the wind blows a bit stiffly! Sweet corn DOES NOT LIKE cold, wet soil. My container planted sweet corn is waist high. The soil planted corn, 3 weeks older, in a sunnier location, is barely 6 inches tall. My neighb ors do not like my container gardening, but I do not have their extra income!

 

[akane]

I ordered end of the year seeds on sale to play with next year. A butternut squash, watermelon, carrot, super sweet corn, and some garlic bulbs. I resisted the herbs and flowers for now so I don't over extend myself getting back to gardening. Pole beans, sunflowers, and onions can be bought locally next year. Last time I used the pole beans from this local company I was picking them by the gallon bucket all fall.

 

[Marinea]

Sounds like a great start! I'd be happy to share some heirloom seeds with you if you like.

 

[akane]

I'm wondering if instead of weeding a ton around my melons and squash I could use a ground cover. Even better if I can plant it this fall to get started. Something that will suppress the weeds but not the vines. Phlox? Clover? Creeping thyme? A thickly seeded short flower?

 

[Marinea]

It might work, but whatever is planted is going to from sun to very shaded as the melons and squash grow.

We use grass clippings as a weed deterrent. We start the plants from seeds in cups, and go ahead and mulch the planting area with a thick cover of grass clippings. When the plants are ready to transplant, we just make a hole in the mulch and set them in. We do this for almost all of our garden beds, and I end up doing very minimal weeding.

It has the added benefit of helping to amend the soil, as we till it all in after the growing season.