Beans

I have never had great success with beans.  I don't know why.  I have tried but what I have gotten from my efforts wouldn't even serve my family of 4 one meal. 
Stupid.
I hate putting major effort into something (not to mention money and water) and not get something out of it.

 

 

So this year I decided to over kill on the beans.

 I started back in April and put beans in my garden window to get an early start. I used last years empty containers from my annuals, a simple planting mix and

Kentucky Pole Beans seeds, um, beans, um, seeds, you get the idea.

Anyway they came up so fast that I was concerned that it wouldn't be warm enough in the garden for them before they out grew the containers. You can see next to them by comparison my heirloom tomatoes that were barely up.

 

 

On to garden prep. I am a 'square footer'. Maybe there is a club for people like me or an institution :) But because I am a 'square footer' my prep is easier that it has been for years. I used to be dragging out the rototiller at this point. But this year I started with putting new compost over the entire bed and working it in. Added a couple of extra squares (planting potatoes in those) and an old garden swing to use for my stringing up the beans.

I love recycling stuff.

 And yup, that's me in the picture

(shades of peter pan, just wish I could lose my shadow for the pictures).

 

 

More of me in the picture - Also cleaned up the planting bed and put in the beans. I planted them with a mix of bone meal/Epsom salts/crushed aspirin/egg shells to give them a boost right off the bat. This was their first day out in the garden by themselves.

'Sleep well little beans'  

See in the back my lettuce/spinach/chard box still going strong.

Just a note here that the box that the beans are going in is one of my part shade boxes. I have a huge apricot tree in the middle of my garden (poor planning but really no where else I could put the planting boxes). So this area of the garden gets only 4 - 5 hours of sun per day. The corner box where the lettuce/spinach/chard is gets maybe 3 hours which is great for them.

They are totally not sun worshipers.

 

 

 

 

Okay so not so good of a shot but you can see the progress. I ran the string around the back bar of the swing and then over the top and then looped it under the grid work for the square foot garden. That's Pippa butt in the picture. My Lab-Hound mix. She's barking at Taco, the chi-weiner, next door.

Are you allowed to say butt on a blog? Butt.

 

 

 More beans. And yes I did put more bean seeds in the front about 2 weeks ago once the one's in the back got rolling. Some 'purple beans' and a breed called 'rattlesnakes'. I'm experimenting.

If I don't get beans this year then I'm going to shoot myself.

Maybe.

The old swing works pretty darn good.  See in the upper left hand corner that blue bottle hanging there.  That's bug spray.  When the little buggers are eating my beans I have recourse at hand. 

'Die you bugs'.

So far I haven't had any bug problems but I am prepared :)

 

I've been fertilizing every two weeks with fish emulsion.

Makes everything stink but doesn't burn my plants.  They seem to be loving it. 

Biggest challenge is Pippa thinks it smells wonderful and tries to eat my dirt or roll in the plants. 

She is now exiled from the garden.

 

 

Just a couple of shots of my potato box hiding in the back.

 

 

Happy Gardening

 

Planting a Herb garden

Okay, you know those wonderful things you see on Pinterest where they make old used stuff look amazing by just planting something lovely in it.  Well we're putting that to the test.  I bought this used something or other (have no idea what it was for) at a garage sale.  I love the fact that it has wheels, is two tiered and is black metal.  And have decided to make it my herb extravaganza on the top and put beets on the bottom. 

 

 

Next stop our local Home Depot and a roll of burlap. I decided not to by those bird nest things made of Cocoa strands they sell since my size needed to be customized. Normally I think I would do the bottom tier first and then the top. But I'm showing pictures of only the top process since it's easier to photograph. Anyway I put the burlap in first and then (because it gets heck-a [yes, I said heck-a] hot here).

 

 

Yes, that picture is fuzzy.  It's not your eyes.

 

 

I am lining it with a heavy plastic that I had in the garage that I use for painting. I try to buy everything in rolls since I end up using it all at some point anyway. After lining it with the plastic I carefully cut the plastic in several spots so that there will be drainage from the 'Pot' I am creating. Then I flip the burlap over into the 'Pot' to line it and make it look nice.

 

 

 

Now I fill that puppy with potting soil. I avoid the name brands but this time I picked up a bag at OSH usually I go for something basic since I do my own fertilizing. Then I add my own mix of planting medium. I found this on Pinterest and am giving it a go this year. I use 2 cups of bone meal, 1 cup Epsom salts, 17 crushed aspirin with no coating and a couple dozen egg shells (that have been washed, vitamixed small and then dried). About a 1/4 cup of the mix is added to the bottom of each hole for the plants. This should give them the vitamin burst for their new growth.

 

 

 

 

Then from my kitchen window where I have been experimenting with growing from seeds.  My herbs.  I have just Basil, oregano and rosemary.  I already have mint in it's own pot and it's so invasive that I didn't want to include it in the 'Pot'.  I finally decided a needed a few more and added Thyme and Sage.

 

Update:  So after a month it's doing really well.  The lining idea was a plus and it doesn't dry out to quickly.  But I left the bottom open still.  I will probably still put beets in it later.

 

Happy Gardening!

Potato Box Time

So I love potatoes.  In every form.  And thought I'd just go ahead and plant a few in my garden.  So the first year I dropped a couple of red potatoes into the front square foot garden area and got potatoes.  Wonderful, crunchy, flavorful, red potatoes.  The next year I was over joyed to find that I had volunteers coming up.  Obviously I missed a couple of small ones when pulling them out the year before.  Well I'm into my 3rd season and once again I have volunteers.  Enough.  Time for them to move out and get their own place. 

Welcome to my potato box.  A simple square unit that stacks on top of it's self to create a space for all my potatoes to grow.   I found this idea on another website and then created my own.

Potato Box!

The first year started really well.  Created box, check.  Get soil, check.  Buy and plant Yukon gold potatoes, check.  Marvelous growing commences and then they die.  What?  What do you mean they are the wrong variety for a potato box?  Really.  Crap.  So back to step 3 this year.  Created box (yeah, I already have that).  Get soil (well I just re-composted what I already had).  Buy and plant red potatoes, check.  Marvelous growing has already started.  Now we wait.

When I was cleaning the box out from last years catastrophe I found a couple of Yukon gold babies so I am trying them in another experiment in another part of the garden.  Stacking boxes on my existing square foot garden.  We have to wait on this one too.  Don't you just love my shadow :)  And yes that weird green thing around the box is my old swing from last year.  Rather than dumping it we are recycling.  This year it will be the support for my beans.

 

 

In the mean time - how to make a potato box. 

 

 

Your going to need 6 2"x6" 8' boards

I used redwood so that it would be with us for a lot of years

Your also going to need 2 6' 1"x1" boards

These are the corners that your seeing above. 

These are also redwood

A bunch of 3" deck screws

A saw (obviously)

A drill

You'll note too that my top box in the picture has a clasp on it.

This is so I can access the box bottom when the rest of the box has been stacked. 

It's a cheater way of getting to the potatoes sooner.

 

 

You are going to make 6 squares.  Cut your 8' boards into 4 equal parts.  I won't give you an exact measurement since all boards are not created equally.  Measure your board and kick in your 5th grade math and divide into 4.

 

Now drill all the boards before trying to assemble.  Pilot holes will keep your boards from splitting open.   We lined the boards up so that the end of each board went up flush against the side of the board that it was to be attached too.  So our boards made as perfect a square as possible.  We made 6 of these boxes.  Note here!  One of our boxes has a clasp.  You can easily get a hinge and clasp and install on one of yours if you wish.

 

Now to get this stacking thing rolling you are going to take those 2 - 1" x 1" board and cut them in half - giving you 4 - 36" boards.  In the corners of the two bottom squares you are going to (again with pilot holes) attached the uprights.  We attached them to the bottom square first then stacked the next on top (the one with the clasps) and then screwed that one on too.  Note* the other 4 boxes behind the box.  Those are for adding later as the growing continues.

Once the potatoes are about a foot tall then you are to put on another box and add mulch, straw or whatever to the top.  Only covering 1/2 of the plant.  Then wait - it will continue to grow and you will continue to stack and add more mulch, straw or whatever till you reach the top.

Keep the watering consistent.  Harvesting begins when it starts to die.

Happy Gardening!