Garden: Green Beans

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Background:  Due to a variety of circumstances, we did not get our spring garden planted during the spring.  Planting occurred in early summer instead, and we are just now starting to harvest some veggies.  This is very late for a garden in Arkansas.  

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We must cover many crops -- like green beans -- with wire hoops.  The cottontail rabbits will destroy them if we don't.  The hoops did a great job of keeping the rabbits out, but couldn't keep the bean plants in.  Jo prepared for her first picking on Friday by removing all the beans on the outside of the wire.  Then, we lifted the hoops off the beans.  That worked well.  Most of the stems and leaves pulled through the wire just fine.
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Only after the wire hoops were removed did we realize how much the beans were depending upon them for support.  The beans sprawled all over the place.  (Bucket is unconcerned and waiting for Jo to start picking.  Jo shares a few beans with the dogs.  Bucket and Rusty eat fresh green beans as if they were dogs treats.  In fact, you have to keep an eye on the dogs or they will begin picking their own.)
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Jo picked almost ten pounds of beans.  Then, we replaced the wire hoops, tucking the beans back inside as best we could.  I hope the bean plants hold up to all the rough handling they received.  Under normal circumstances, the next picking should be even larger and then taper off quickly.
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Garden: Green Beans

Monday, 7/2/07

Green Bean: I'm really glad that Jo and I were able to get the majority of the green beans before they were discovered by the rabbits. It seems as if a veggie can do okay in the garden for a while, but once the rabbits begin eating it, the damage soon becomes extensive.

Sweet Potatoes: Our sweet potatoes have been covered with welded wire tunnels ever since they were transplanted into the garden. Deer love sweet potato vines and we wanted to make certain they were protect should the deer happen to get into the garden. We also hoped the welded wire would discourage rabbits, even though they can squeeze through its mesh. Evidently, our hopes did not come true. We noticed nibbling here and there on the sweet potato vines. So...... This afternoon we covered the welded wire with chicken wire, just like we had to do for the emerging corn plants. The chicken wire will need to stay in place until we dig the sweet potatoes next fall right before the first frost. Fortunately, the sweet potato bed is heavily mulched. We won't be needing to get into it to do any weeding. Getting that chicken wire off after the vines have woven in and out of it ought to be a really fun experience, though. Oh, well. We know from past experience that the sweet potatoes won't do well at producing potatoes underground unless they've got plenty of health, green vines on top of the ground.

Tomatoes: While I cut sections of chicken wire to length for the sweet potatoes, Jo tied up some of the tomato plants that were growing into the path. The tomatoes are in cages, but many have outgrown their confinement. The aisle between the two rows of tomatoes was become a tomato jungle. We had to do something or else I wouldn't be able to keep it mowed and weeded.

No rain: It didn't actually rain today, but you could have wrung moisture out of the air, I think. When we went on our afternoon walk around four o'clock, the temperature was 81º and the relative humidity was 79%.

Monday, 7/2/07

Wednesday, 6/27/07

Very little rain fell today, only .15 of an inch -- just enough to cut Jo's morning walk with the dogs short. There were several times during the day that it looked as if it might rain but didn't. We are right on the very edge of the weather system that's dumping so much rain on north central Texas and Oklahoma.

Jo picked green beans, but only got a little over three pounds today. Production is obviously winding down dramatically. There are very few blooms or small beans left on the plants in the garden, and the rabbits seem to have escalated their attack. They're not just coming into the garden and nibbling; a couple of cottontails seem to have taken up residence in the bean bed. I chase them out every time I go out to the garden, but they return. Still, Jo's managed to get 29 quarts of green beans into the deep freeze. That's a lot better than we've done in several years.

I cleaned a bunch of leaves out from under our north porch, shredded them with the lawnmower and applied them as mulch in the garden, plus some bed edging and weeding.

The newly emerging corn survived the night thanks to the wire enclosures Jo and I rigged. Those wire tunnels are a nuisance, but they get the job done.

Wednesday, 6/27/07

Garden Update

Corn: Jo bought some fresh seed on her trip to town Wednesday and replanted the corn for the third time Thursday afternoon. The third time had better be the charm -- or else, we're going to be getting our corn from the Jolly Green Giant.

Green Beans: Jo (and the dogs) did the first big picking Wednesday afternoon. They picked 18 and a half pounds. That evening, Jo and I snapped them all. (The dogs claimed that not having and opposed thumb made it impossible for them to help with the snapping.) Thursday, Jo got all the beans into the freezer.

Garden Update

Garden

Corn: We've pretty much decided that our problem with the corn is germination because the few corn plants that did come up haven't gotten eaten. I guess that's what we get for using some seed left over from last year. The seed was stored in the deep freeze, but evidently it has still gone bad. We'll have to get some more seed the next time we go into town. It's getting awfully late to be getting corn planted, though. It will be plenty hot and dry by the time it matures.

Squash: That's winter squash coming up behind the corn. The plan was for it to grow between the two rows of corn. The way it's going now, the squash may end up having that bed all to itself.

Green Beans: Jo still hasn't done that second picking. She says that Tuesday is the day for that. We did get the deep freeze defrosted and cleaned out, getting ready for all thos pints of green beans we'll put into it.

Garden

Green Beans

We can finally stop holding our breaths and start counting our green beans. For the first time in two years it looks as if we're going to get plenty of green beans to eat fresh and put into the freezer.

Saturday's first picking was light, but there will be a larger harvest in a couple of days. Then comes a couple of stay-up-half-the-night-snapping-beans harvests. These Contender bush beans do tend to get all their production done in a relatively short period of time.

In case you are wondering: "Yes" we did have fresh green beans with our supper. "No" it is not possible for Jo to pick beans without Rusty and Bucket "helping". And, "yes" Jo always wears longs white gloves when picking green beans.

Actually, those aren't gloves Jo is wearing; they're a pair of my old socks with holes cut in toes so Jo's fingers will stick through. Jo is allergic to the green bean plants. Wearing protection on her hands and arms plus washing thoroughly when finished picking is enough to keep her from breaking out in a rash and itching.



Bucket and Rusty are right proud of the green beans they picked.

Green Beans

Busy in the Garden

There's a lot going on and a lot to do out in the garden these days. The broccoli was looking a little wilted during its first full day out from in under the cloches so I decided to do a little watering.

The radishes are up.

Jo's trying to get our green beans planted before it gets dark.

The cauliflower is next on my to be mulched list.

Busy in the Garden