"Today: A chance of rain and snow showers.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48."

"Tonight: Areas of frost after midnight.
Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low around 28"

good thing i got out and picked peppers and then i
went around and picked any lima beans that were left
as they make excellent shelled beans when they are
still green also. took me about an hour to pick them
and then another half hour to shell them out and Ma
cooked them up to go along with the rest of supper.
yum!

today i cleaned out the peppers so Ma can turn them
into stuffed peppers. we already have a bunch in the
freezer so some of these will be given away. while i
was cleaning the peppers from the leftovers and the
ones that weren't quite up to being stuffed i had a
large bowl full of cut up peppers. which means i
fried them up and had some to go along with my banana
and peanut butter for breakfast/brunch.

otherwise, it is life as usual here, picking beans,
shelling beans, sorting beans, and when the rain and
cold holds off long enough i'm getting stuff done
outside to seal up the house from the elements and
the mice.

we had an area in the crawlspace entry where the
mice could chew at the foam board that insulates
the foundation and so over the years they'd been
doing that and i kept telling myself to get that all
chipped out along the edge and then fill it in with
mortar so they couldn't get at it any longer. did
that and so it will be nice to have no more chewing
going on and the little bits and pieces won't be
around any more. i still have to seal up about 50ft
of gaps at the bottom of the siding, but that is
minor and i think we have some nicer weather coming
up next week i can get that started or finished.

the most vexing thing at the moment is that i
have a dead mouse in my car and i can't find it.
phew! looked all over, found one nest, but no
mouse in it. will have to be a warm enough day
out before i'll make much progress on that, but
i suppose if i don't it will be freeze dried
dead mouse eventually... trapped other mice from
the car and found entrance they were using.
hope this will take care of it for good. cars
that sit outside too much can be used by all sorts
of critters for homes (wasps, bees, cats, mice,
chipmunks, ...) luckily, no skunks, raccoons or
possums... yet...


songbird

On 10/17/2015 08:54 AM, songbird wrote:
lima beans

Lima Beans ?!?!?!?!? Oh no, no no no no no no no.
Please tell me you only jest!

What next? Kale!

T wrote:
songbird wrote:

lima beans

Lima Beans ?!?!?!?!? Oh no, no no no no no no no.
Please tell me you only jest!

no, we both love 'em! it is rare that i pick and
eat them when they are still fresh in the pod (like
green peas) because it takes time to both pick and
then to shell them, but they do cook up faster (some
i eat while i'm shelling them ).

they are a longer season bean so i was wondering
how they would fare this year since they were planted
a bit later than i'd like, but they seem to have done
well. could eat a lot more of them than we do but i
need the space to grow other beans.

as of yet i've not found many beans that i don't
like.


What next? Kale!

no kale here. Ma is not very adventurous when it
comes to greens. i don't mind it but i like spinach
better.


songbird

On 10/21/2015 06:40 AM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
songbird wrote:

lima beans

Lima Beans ?!?!?!?!? Oh no, no no no no no no no.
Please tell me you only jest!

no, we both love 'em! it is rare that i pick and
eat them when they are still fresh in the pod (like
green peas) because it takes time to both pick and
then to shell them, but they do cook up faster (some
i eat while i'm shelling them ).

they are a longer season bean so i was wondering
how they would fare this year since they were planted
a bit later than i'd like, but they seem to have done
well. could eat a lot more of them than we do but i
need the space to grow other beans.

as of yet i've not found many beans that i don't
like.


What next? Kale!

no kale here. Ma is not very adventurous when it
comes to greens. i don't mind it but i like spinach
better.


songbird


You are cheating! Fresh out of the garden is always
100 times better tasting.

:-)

I looked but could not find the name of the bean that
Italian cooks use instead of Lima beans. Apparently,
Italian cooks switches to Lima beans in the States
because they could not find the ones they used in Italy.

Thought they might be an idea for you to grow.

-T

T wrote:
....
You are cheating! Fresh out of the garden is always
100 times better tasting.

:-)

I looked but could not find the name of the bean that
Italian cooks use instead of Lima beans. Apparently,
Italian cooks switches to Lima beans in the States
because they could not find the ones they used in Italy.

there a borlotti beans, cannellini, (chickpeas aka
garbanzo beans), fava beans, and lentils common to Italian
cuisine -- i love 'em all but don't grow them (tried
chickpeas and lentils and didn't get much results from
them) as a substitute for lentils adzuki beans are a
close match for texture and flavor, but they also don't
grow very well here. the cannellini beans are white beans
and i'm not much into white beans (grew up on eating
great northern beans and navy beans - very hohum on eating
them now) except some greasy beans.


Thought they might be an idea for you to grow.

haha, i don't need more bean varieties to grow, but i'm
always happy to trade or send out beans to people who want
to try some of what i've got going here. at the moment
i've not updated my list of named varieties, but it's at
least 30, but the more fun is coming from the cross breeds
(around a 120 and going strong) that are showing up and
the work i'm doing to evaluate some of them for disease
resistance, suitability for our climate and also for
flavor/texture if i find some that seem hardy, prolific
and do well in our soils. with my limited space i can't
grow all of them out each season so i pick a few and see
how they do and try to get enough that i can cook some up.


songbird

On 10/23/2015 09:25 AM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
...
You are cheating! Fresh out of the garden is always
100 times better tasting.

:-)

I looked but could not find the name of the bean that
Italian cooks use instead of Lima beans. Apparently,
Italian cooks switches to Lima beans in the States
because they could not find the ones they used in Italy.

there a borlotti beans, cannellini, (chickpeas aka
garbanzo beans), fava beans, and lentils common to Italian
cuisine -- i love 'em all but don't grow them (tried
chickpeas and lentils and didn't get much results from
them) as a substitute for lentils adzuki beans are a
close match for texture and flavor, but they also don't
grow very well here. the cannellini beans are white beans
and i'm not much into white beans (grew up on eating
great northern beans and navy beans - very hohum on eating
them now) except some greasy beans.


Thought they might be an idea for you to grow.

haha, i don't need more bean varieties to grow, but i'm
always happy to trade or send out beans to people who want
to try some of what i've got going here. at the moment
i've not updated my list of named varieties, but it's at
least 30, but the more fun is coming from the cross breeds
(around a 120 and going strong) that are showing up and
the work i'm doing to evaluate some of them for disease
resistance, suitability for our climate and also for
flavor/texture if i find some that seem hardy, prolific
and do well in our soils. with my limited space i can't
grow all of them out each season so i pick a few and see
how they do and try to get enough that i can cook some up.


songbird


Hi Songbird,

30! How do you keep them from cross pollinating?

Also, months ago you told me raised beds were not a good idea
because you always wanted more space. Well ... I could ot
afford the cost of water this year so I let my back lawn
go. Now I have tomatillo and purslane growing where
grass use to grow. So, now the plan is to just do
as you said and turn the whole stinker into a garden.

Next year the game plan is to carve holes into the
decomposed sand stone (very very hard soil) and make
my own make shift pots (providing I don't need a jack
hammer to go a foot deep), fill them with compost,
and have my garden spread out all across the old lawn.

Since the cold weather started, my zukes now have
the white powder mold something awful. And on both sides
of the leaves. But, since I stopped watering the
lawn this year, it took an extra two months to hit.

I think it is about time to start pulling the worst zukes
out.

-T

T wrote:
....
30! How do you keep them from cross pollinating?

i don't. most beans will self-pollinate so most
of what comes in is true to the original. once in a
while a bumble bee or other pollinator will do the
honors for me and i will get cross-breeds (which is
why i now have so many that i no longer care to
count them).


Also, months ago you told me raised beds were not a good idea
because you always wanted more space. Well ... I could ot
afford the cost of water this year so I let my back lawn
go. Now I have tomatillo and purslane growing where
grass use to grow. So, now the plan is to just do
as you said and turn the whole stinker into a garden.

yeah, today i was out moving rocks and scraping
the crushed limestone away that forms a pathway
between two gardens. hopefully by next spring the
two gardens will be joined together and i'll have
several hundred more square feet of garden space.
we turned the neighboring perennial garden back into
a veggie garden and then are combining the two
gardens and thus removing the separating pathway.
i'm looking forwards to working in this new space
as it is much easier on me to weed and plant in
larger gardens and having more space also means i
can rotate within a garden space and have subplots
of different veggies.

and, well, having more space means i can have
spots to dig holes and bury stuff more easily too.


Next year the game plan is to carve holes into the
decomposed sand stone (very very hard soil) and make
my own make shift pots (providing I don't need a jack
hammer to go a foot deep), fill them with compost,
and have my garden spread out all across the old lawn.

good luck with that! sounds like a lot of
good vibrations will be coming your way if you
do need to use a jack hammer.


Since the cold weather started, my zukes now have
the white powder mold something awful. And on both sides
of the leaves. But, since I stopped watering the
lawn this year, it took an extra two months to hit.

as the sun shifts south it's just that time of
the year too when some plants take it as a signal
that things are done for the season. diseases
late in the season are not an issue i worry much
about as most of the production is done anyways.


I think it is about time to start pulling the worst zukes
out.

up until last week we'd not had a hard enough frost
to kill off most of the garden plants, but that is
no more. now everything that is not cold tolerant is
dead and most of them are buried. finished up burying
several loads of garden debris a few hours ago (before
i started scraping the abovementioned pathway out).

we had some powdery mildew hit the cucumbers and
squash plants this late summer but they kept chugging
along up until it started getting cold.


songbird

On 10/23/2015 01:22 PM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
...
30! How do you keep them from cross pollinating?

i don't. most beans will self-pollinate so most
of what comes in is true to the original. once in a
while a bumble bee or other pollinator will do the
honors for me and i will get cross-breeds (which is
why i now have so many that i no longer care to
count them).


Also, months ago you told me raised beds were not a good idea
because you always wanted more space. Well ... I could ot
afford the cost of water this year so I let my back lawn
go. Now I have tomatillo and purslane growing where
grass use to grow. So, now the plan is to just do
as you said and turn the whole stinker into a garden.

yeah, today i was out moving rocks and scraping
the crushed limestone away that forms a pathway
between two gardens. hopefully by next spring the
two gardens will be joined together and i'll have
several hundred more square feet of garden space.
we turned the neighboring perennial garden back into
a veggie garden and then are combining the two
gardens and thus removing the separating pathway.
i'm looking forwards to working in this new space
as it is much easier on me to weed and plant in
larger gardens and having more space also means i
can rotate within a garden space and have subplots
of different veggies.

and, well, having more space means i can have
spots to dig holes and bury stuff more easily too.


Next year the game plan is to carve holes into the
decomposed sand stone (very very hard soil) and make
my own make shift pots (providing I don't need a jack
hammer to go a foot deep), fill them with compost,
and have my garden spread out all across the old lawn.

good luck with that! sounds like a lot of
good vibrations will be coming your way if you
do need to use a jack hammer.


Since the cold weather started, my zukes now have
the white powder mold something awful. And on both sides
of the leaves. But, since I stopped watering the
lawn this year, it took an extra two months to hit.

as the sun shifts south it's just that time of
the year too when some plants take it as a signal
that things are done for the season. diseases
late in the season are not an issue i worry much
about as most of the production is done anyways.


I think it is about time to start pulling the worst zukes
out.

up until last week we'd not had a hard enough frost
to kill off most of the garden plants, but that is
no more. now everything that is not cold tolerant is
dead and most of them are buried. finished up burying
several loads of garden debris a few hours ago (before
i started scraping the abovementioned pathway out).

we had some powdery mildew hit the cucumbers and
squash plants this late summer but they kept chugging
along up until it started getting cold.


songbird


I have heard there is a such thing as "cold weather" vegis.
Do you do any of that and do they survive the snow? Never
been able to find any reliable details. I do have a row
of garlic awaiting the snow. (Garlic from the garden is
unbelievable.)

After the first freeze, my zukes look soooooo pathetic. And
the club size fruit that was hiding from me show up.

I don't know if any got away from the this year as it is pretty
easy to push stickery leaves aside with the watering wand
you had me get.

I think the stinkin' squash bugs over winter under my house.
I find a few every now and them at my foundation vents.

On 10/23/2015 01:22 PM, songbird wrote:
yeah, today i was out moving rocks and scraping
the crushed limestone away that forms a pathway
between two gardens. hopefully by next spring the
two gardens will be joined together and i'll have
several hundred more square feet of garden space.
we turned the neighboring perennial garden back into
a veggie garden and then are combining the two
gardens and thus removing the separating pathway.
i'm looking forwards to working in this new space
as it is much easier on me to weed and plant in
larger gardens and having more space also means i
can rotate within a garden space and have subplots
of different veggies.

and, well, having more space means i can have
spots to dig holes and bury stuff more easily too.

Do you share the bounty with the neighbor?

How exactly does that work? You do the work,
he gets half? Hmmmmm. :-)

On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:38:00 -0700, T wrote:

On 10/23/2015 01:22 PM, songbird wrote:
yeah, today i was out moving rocks and scraping
the crushed limestone away that forms a pathway
between two gardens. hopefully by next spring the
two gardens will be joined together and i'll have
several hundred more square feet of garden space.
we turned the neighboring perennial garden back into
a veggie garden and then are combining the two
gardens and thus removing the separating pathway.
i'm looking forwards to working in this new space
as it is much easier on me to weed and plant in
larger gardens and having more space also means i
can rotate within a garden space and have subplots
of different veggies.

and, well, having more space means i can have
spots to dig holes and bury stuff more easily too.

Do you share the bounty with the neighbor?

How exactly does that work? You do the work,
he gets half? Hmmmmm. :-)

Probably not. We do not expect anything from the neighbors when we
give them some of the harvest that we cannot or don't want to use. You
usually get a helping hand with something that is too large or heavy
to move alone. Sometimes keep an eye on the house if you are going to
be away. Most neighbors will help any way they can if you need it.
And why not give it to them if you can't use it.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a

On 10/23/2015 3:22 PM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
...
30! How do you keep them from cross pollinating?

i don't. most beans will self-pollinate so most
of what comes in is true to the original. once in a
while a bumble bee or other pollinator will do the
honors for me and i will get cross-breeds (which is
why i now have so many that i no longer care to
count them).


Also, months ago you told me raised beds were not a good idea
because you always wanted more space. Well ... I could ot
afford the cost of water this year so I let my back lawn
go. Now I have tomatillo and purslane growing where
grass use to grow. So, now the plan is to just do
as you said and turn the whole stinker into a garden.

yeah, today i was out moving rocks and scraping
the crushed limestone away that forms a pathway
between two gardens. hopefully by next spring the
two gardens will be joined together and i'll have
several hundred more square feet of garden space.
we turned the neighboring perennial garden back into
a veggie garden and then are combining the two
gardens and thus removing the separating pathway.
i'm looking forwards to working in this new space
as it is much easier on me to weed and plant in
larger gardens and having more space also means i
can rotate within a garden space and have subplots
of different veggies.

and, well, having more space means i can have
spots to dig holes and bury stuff more easily too.


Next year the game plan is to carve holes into the
decomposed sand stone (very very hard soil) and make
my own make shift pots (providing I don't need a jack
hammer to go a foot deep), fill them with compost,
and have my garden spread out all across the old lawn.

good luck with that! sounds like a lot of
good vibrations will be coming your way if you
do need to use a jack hammer.


Since the cold weather started, my zukes now have
the white powder mold something awful. And on both sides
of the leaves. But, since I stopped watering the
lawn this year, it took an extra two months to hit.

as the sun shifts south it's just that time of
the year too when some plants take it as a signal
that things are done for the season. diseases
late in the season are not an issue i worry much
about as most of the production is done anyways.


I think it is about time to start pulling the worst zukes
out.

up until last week we'd not had a hard enough frost
to kill off most of the garden plants, but that is
no more. now everything that is not cold tolerant is
dead and most of them are buried. finished up burying
several loads of garden debris a few hours ago (before
i started scraping the abovementioned pathway out).

we had some powdery mildew hit the cucumbers and
squash plants this late summer but they kept chugging
along up until it started getting cold.


songbird

We're still getting goodly amounts of eggplant, sweet chiles, and
cucumbers. Probably won't be long before we get our first frost though.

The fall spinach, cabbage, beets, and carrots are up and growing too.

George

On 10/23/2015 5:06 PM, The Cook wrote:
On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:38:00 -0700, T wrote:

On 10/23/2015 01:22 PM, songbird wrote:
yeah, today i was out moving rocks and scraping
the crushed limestone away that forms a pathway
between two gardens. hopefully by next spring the
two gardens will be joined together and i'll have
several hundred more square feet of garden space.
we turned the neighboring perennial garden back into
a veggie garden and then are combining the two
gardens and thus removing the separating pathway.
i'm looking forwards to working in this new space
as it is much easier on me to weed and plant in
larger gardens and having more space also means i
can rotate within a garden space and have subplots
of different veggies.

and, well, having more space means i can have
spots to dig holes and bury stuff more easily too.

Do you share the bounty with the neighbor?

How exactly does that work? You do the work,
he gets half? Hmmmmm. :-)

Probably not. We do not expect anything from the neighbors when we
give them some of the harvest that we cannot or don't want to use. You
usually get a helping hand with something that is too large or heavy
to move alone. Sometimes keep an eye on the house if you are going to
be away. Most neighbors will help any way they can if you need it.
And why not give it to them if you can't use it.

That's what our huge grandsons are for Susan. Luckily we have a 6'5",
200 lb grandson about two blocks away and he's always willing to help.
Today he got a bag of sweet chiles, eggplant, and cucumbers. Walked away
grinning. I also help him butcher his deer and feral hog kills. Plus we
get a small share there.

Possibility of a foot of rain tomorrow. So far we've been getting
millimeters frequently, very low millimeters at that.

On 10/23/2015 03:24 PM, George Shirley wrote:
We're still getting goodly amounts of eggplant

I got one final greenish yellow eggplant. Something's
wrong with that boy!

What is your trick to growing eggplant? I only
get littles ones and very few at that.

On 10/23/2015 03:06 PM, The Cook wrote:
On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:38:00 -0700, T wrote:

On 10/23/2015 01:22 PM, songbird wrote:
yeah, today i was out moving rocks and scraping
the crushed limestone away that forms a pathway
between two gardens. hopefully by next spring the
two gardens will be joined together and i'll have
several hundred more square feet of garden space.
we turned the neighboring perennial garden back into
a veggie garden and then are combining the two
gardens and thus removing the separating pathway.
i'm looking forwards to working in this new space
as it is much easier on me to weed and plant in
larger gardens and having more space also means i
can rotate within a garden space and have subplots
of different veggies.

and, well, having more space means i can have
spots to dig holes and bury stuff more easily too.

Do you share the bounty with the neighbor?

How exactly does that work? You do the work,
he gets half? Hmmmmm. :-)

Probably not. We do not expect anything from the neighbors when we
give them some of the harvest that we cannot or don't want to use. You
usually get a helping hand with something that is too large or heavy
to move alone. Sometimes keep an eye on the house if you are going to
be away. Most neighbors will help any way they can if you need it.
And why not give it to them if you can't use it.


Actually, he is sharing part of their land. I was not
talking about neighborliness. I wondered what the
arrangement was for use of their land.

T wrote:
....
Do you share the bounty with the neighbor?

How exactly does that work? You do the work,
he gets half? Hmmmmm. :-)

i think you misread what i wrote? i was
combining two gardens next to each other
separated by a pathway. there is nothing
but farm field around us except for out back
which is a field. all of our neighbors are
quite a ways away (quarter mile or more).

(from a few years ago, but this is the
general layout):

http://www.anthive.com/flowers/Way_Up_2013.jpg


we used to have neighbors that would take extra
produce, but they have moved away and then passed
away. some friends get stuff when i have extra,
usually strawberries, the rest of the time we put
stuff up.


songbird