soaphouse's Blog
soaphouse's posts about: beans
Jun 20, 2008 | 6:17 AM PST
Tags: squash , tomato , beans , eggplant , companion planting , hot , weeds , birds , baby birds
Well, with record temps in the mid to high 90's for the last couple of weeks, the mid 80's feel cool! So, it has been a bit more enjoyable to get out into the garden lately. I am still just focusing on routine maintenance: weeding, pruning and mowing. I have decided not to do much planting this season...mostly b/c I did so much over the fall and winter and I think I should give it a bit of time to see how things fill in. Also, we haven't had much rain and I would really have to keep up on the water. Plus...time is limited with a toddler and an infant-HAH!
So,
I have enjoyed watching the results of my hard work over the fall and have been really enjoying to "fruits" of the companion plantings in the veggie beds!
The beans are producing daily and its fun to have to two different varieties. They taste about the same, but make a nice presentation on the plate :)
We have also had enough blackberries to get a bowlful daily and my daughter eats most of them before we even get inside the house!
We have already harvested 4 of the asain eggplants and there are a few more out there almost ready to go. The itialian eggplants are getting bigger every day:
We have a TON of little baby spaghetti squash on the vines - hooray!
And, here is a good shot of the companion system at work...
On another note, the crepe myrtles that were planted 4 years ago as a screen on our property line are really looking good this year and provide a great view from our sunroom and back porch:
And, our little birdie family in the dogwood is about to be all grown up...we have so enjoyed watching them! I will be sad to see them go:
This weekend, I plan to get the creek weedeated and do some more weeding and pruning. Hope you all have a great gardening weekend!
Jun 12, 2008 | 7:10 AM PST
Tags: great , gunnera , gunerra , companion planting , squash , beets , beans , bush beabs , pole beans , spinach
At the beginning of the season, I set out on my first companion planting vegetable garden. Well, some things are doing great and some aren't . So, I thought it about time for an update...
We had our first harvest of bush beans the other day. My girl helped me pick them :)
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The bed they are in is looking pretty good. The sugar snap peas that were supposed to grow up the teepee never quite made it (I think it got too hot too fast) So, I picked up some zucchinini seeds to try instead. I also have sweet potatoes, calendulas and radishes in this bed. The radishes are ready to be harvested, but I am still waiting on the other things.
The beet, carrot, okra, brussel sprout and broccoli bed is looking good. The marigolds in it are about to bloom. I picked up some spinach seeds to try to use to fill in the corners of this bed:
The Spaghetti Squash and Pole Bean bed is explosive. I think we may have squash growing all over the place - HAH!
No production yet, but lots of flowers! The corn is looking good too:
As far as the companion planting goes, most of the flower seeds that were intended to be the companions for pest control did not germinate, or if they did, they did too slowly so the veggies just crowded them out. However, so far not much is affected by pests. The most I have seen is ants and they never seem to do too much damage. I am missing the shot of color that I was hoping for with all the flowers though...maybe I should have bought more as plants.
The blackberries are starting to ripen and we enjoyed the first picking last night. Funny thing is that a thornless rasberry that I bought off the internet last year has fruit on it but it appears a though they are blackberries. HMMMM???
The grapevine that I planted last spring is growing nicely and I have high hopes for it!
I worked on some weeding back by the creek and did resort to using roundup of some of the privet and grapevines. Its proving to be a lot to keep up with back there and I can't let all of my hard work of clearing it out go to waste!
On another note, the Great Gunnera bulb that I purchased a few months back never grew, so the company sent a replacement and we got that replanted by the creek. This time, we planted it more in the water with a chicken wire cage around it for protection. Hope it works, I can't wait to watch this plant grow if it does.
Till next time...
