Beans like sun. Just give them mulch, and plenty of water when it's really
hot. For the mulch, take a ride in the country and buy a couple of bales of
straw. Not hay. Straw. Pull it off the bale by hand and spread it loosely as
needed. For the peas, you've got the right idea, as far as shading them. My
late crop always crashes into those unpredictable early heat waves. Another
thought: I'm sure you've seen the lightweight black plastic mesh sold in
garden centers, intended for climbing plants, and keeping birds out of the
berries. Buy some wooden stakes and attach that black mesh like a flat roof
over the plants that can't stand lots of heat. Now, buy some cheesecloth at
a fabric store and clothespin it to the black mesh. The whole thing's
lightweight. Just be sure to use lots of clothespins so the cheesecloth
doesn't blow away. Plastic pins are better for this than wood.

Fertilizer: Just go buy some basic 5-10-5 granular stuff. It's the easiest
thing to find. For plants that need 1-2-1, use less fertilizer. Keep it
simple. Meanwhile, see if you can get a serious compost bin into operation.
It'll lessen the need for other additions.

The book: I'm not aware of any online addition. Why would that be more
useful than the paperback????? Incidentally, the book is organized
perfectly. Each chapter represents a month of the year, and within each
chapter, the plants are alphabetical. So, each chapter corresponds to what
you should be doing that month. James Crockett gardened in Boston, so you
may have to adjust slightly for your climate. Just go buy the book, will ya?
Trust me.




"Jim Carlock" wrote in message
. ..
I've been making soil by using 1/5 sphagnum peat, 1/5 sand, 1/5
cow manure derivative, 1/5 organic humus derivative and 1/5
perlite. I've been told that seaweed is good to use in place of
some of one or two of the above.

I'm currently mixing some beans and peas in between some of the
corn stalks, and I'm worried about the heat that is starting to
develop. The nights are around 70º F, the days between 90º and
100º F. I see the way the heat is affecting the tomato plants and
pepper plants. The pepper plants die very easily when they lose
their shading cover tomatoes. So I've started placing some basil
around the area to provide cover as well as deter some bugs. I
don't know currently if basil will be able to withstand the heat
though. But the corn, is doing very well as long as there's not
another corn stalk placed to close and the watering is kept up
on a daily basis.

The peas are placed in a mostly shaded area, as the packaging
indicates that they are susceptible to heat and don't like too
much heat.

And I've read that legumes and all plants in general require NPK
in a 1-2-1 ratio. So I'm thinking that I'll probably need to buy
some bonemeal but is that the best way to go ?

The beans and peas are to be used as Nitrogen fixing, but that
leaves me to wonder about the current soil situation and the
amount of phosphorous in the soil (sand). It would be really
convenient if there was a "tea" or some sort of solution that
could be applied on a daily basis.

How would one determine the contents (NPK) of the current
soil (sand in my case)? I think I've seen some kind of gizmo
at Home Depot that determines the acidity of the soil, and it
was advertized to do something else as well, but I'll have to
take a run back there to see what it was.

Thanks, Doug Kanter, for your response about the Tomatoes.
Once my sister returns my car to me... :-) I'm wondering if there
is an online version of that book, "Crockett's Victory Garden",
anywhere ? Would be more useful in a digital format for me,
than a paperback or hardcover version.

--
Jim
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