derald wrote:
songbird wrote:
....
are you back to your normal routine now?
I suppose so, if one accepts my definition of normality, which
varies.

uh, ya! :^)


....
picked the last pods of the scarlet runner beans which
could have used plenty more warm weather too. the pods
feel pretty squishy/empty like the beans are not very
firm so that will be another crop that didn't go great
this year for me. we can still eat them though even if
they aren't the best condition (as long as they aren't
rotting).

If the squishy pods are empty, then suspect insufficient
pollination, sez I. Peas and most beans are self pollinationg, although
some bean yieilds are increased by insect pollination and, of course,
that's how one gets crosses. Read this:
http://www.pollinator.ca/bestpractices/beans.html and ruminate on the
amount of digging you've been doing there at the Institute. Bumblebees,
as well as many other native solitary and semi-social bees (primary bean
pollinators), are ground-nesting. Honeybees get the press but native
bees carry the pollination load in most home gardens.

the pods had beans, but the beans were not fully
developed in some cases. that is true of almost every
bean crop this season. odd weather, hot then cold,
rainy then drought for months then right back to too
much rain, etc.

i shelled them out and they were mostly edible, but
not fully fleshed out and firm. i have enough from
earlier in the season and from my first time growing
them a few years ago that i won't be in any danger of
not having enough to replant. if i'm on my game this
coming season i can sprout some in deep pots to give
them a few more weeks. the first time we planted them
i had a pretty good crop and actually for planting
these late and all the odd weather the crop is acceptable.
so maybe i won't bother starts for them.

when shelling and sorting beans i keep a container
to the side for tossing in the edible beans that are
not formed fully or have some other blemish which
does not affect edibility, but it would be one i would
not want to give to someone else to cook or one i
would not want to cook in something more formal. the
beans which have spots of mold on them get tossed into
the worm food container. anyways, in past years i've
usually had one or one and a half containers full of
rejects by the end of sorting. this season i'm over
three containers full. they're mostly lima beans.
all are good cooked up as a mix. i like to celebrate
the end of bean sorting by the cooking of the rejects.
we already cooked up one batch.


i'll hope the cold doesn't get too far down there.
As do I. Unfortunately the White Hole Effect only dispels rain and
not cold fronts.

it has been rediculously wet here. i have mud if
i want to try to get any gardens put up. the other
day i hacked a huge honeysuckle bush out of the large
drainage ditch. i just could not talk myself into
ignoring it any longer since we were working on the
fence and putting up another section of taller newer
recycled fence someone gave us. the honey suckle never
should have been growing in there to begin with. i'd
like to clear the whole ditch of wild grape-vines and
honeysuckles and other trees, but i think i'm going to
have to let the other half go until next year. when
you are using loppers and a hand saw on a muddy clay
slope it can take some time. i only slipped in the
mud and water once. what's a garden project without
mud pies?

also i took some time to find the groundhog den
holes and plug them up and then put metal rebar
and rocks over them. i really don't like groundhogs
having a den right there next to the fence and all
those gardens. it was like a salad bar for them.
they have a half mile of large drainage ditch on
either side of us they can use for dens...

maybe this will discourage the deer and groundhogs...
hahahaha... ok, well, i can hope... i'd need a much
better fence than the stuff we have cobbled together.


we now have two days coming this week with forecasts of
possible snow. that's a four letter word i don't want
to hear already. it seems we've gone from summer to
winter in a week.

Hee hee: That's how we rip through spring into summer. Spring's
about ten days in late February or early March most years.

it was drought here for so long i was really in the
habit of being able to plan things. now we're back to
having to work around the rains and so i still have
gardens to put up. luckily world peace or prosperity
does not depend upon them getting done.

i may get a break today and tomorrow so perhaps one
or two of the raised bed gardens can get done. will
have to get out the mudwear again tho.


i have so much yet to get done before the ground thinks
about even freezing.

When is that? It doesn't happen here. The only time I'm concerned
with soil temperature is in timing the first planting of spring snap
beans and I don't always fool with it then but just wait for overnight
lows to get within a suitable range.--

if we get covering snows it may not freeze down
that far at all. if we don't it can freeze down
several feet. as for timing we are usually consistently
below freezing by the end of December most years, but
some wimpy years we've had lately has put that into mid-
January or even later.


songbird