In the meantime, I’ve begun watering in various gardens and the orchard. That’s in between putting tomato cages on a trillion tomato plants. Will has been busy mulching and pounding in steel T posts ahead of me. It’s been challenging as the temps have been in the 80’s with high humidity. I know that seems like winter to you folks in the deep south, but we’re spoiled here! Anyway, the tomatoes in the Wall O’ Waters are nearly twice as big as the ones planted without them, but even those look super good and stocky. We can’t wait for that first BLT!
I bought a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts on a very good sale, so tomorrow I’m going to get those canned up. They’re so handy for tasty, quick meals as the meat is already cooked so it’s fast to prepare.
Our lettuce is nearly ready to start harvesting. I planted a mixed row of various kinds so when I pick leaves for a salad, it will leave other plants to grow bigger, making heads of Romaine and Crisphead. That lettuce is so pretty with all the different colors! Right next to the lettuce are our first planted rows of Crawford beans. Each row is 32 feet long. Besides these, we’ve got two other rows in the Main and Sand gardens. As they are such good beans and also rare family heirloom beans, we want to be able to have plenty to eat and also save seeds. This last year we had only one row and didn’t get to eat enough of them — we also ran out of seeds for our customers. We don’t want that to happen again.
Our first roses and peonies are starting to bloom and boy, are they beautiful. They take over just as the spring bulbs are fading so we always have something blooming. It looks pretty nice around here, we think. — Jackie
I’ve planted favas several times, as they are supposed to like cool weather and we usually have that, especially at night. But they’ve never done much for us.
you can have ours n e ohio
Yep, I’ve heard what you’re getting. Even my son, Bill, in Moose Lake, MN got 4 inches at one whack a few days back. Too much is too much!
Jackie, how do you keep the birds from eating all the ripe cherries?
We’re lucky; we have lots of wild cherries out in the woods and (so far!) they usually leave enough for us IF we pick just as soon as they’re ripe.
Silly question, looking at your beans did you plant seeds in both sides of the fence for climbing? Or just one side?
We plant on both sides of the panel and get double the amount of beans we’d get if we only planted on one side.
Your garden looks amazing!
What kind of wire are you using for your tomato cages?
When I was in CA, I found some 6×6 wire at a big box store, but now that I’ve moved to rural MO all I can find are various field fences with graduated openings and 2″x4″ welded wire. Looks like you use cattle panels for the bean trellises, and there are plenty of those around here!
Thanks!
We use concrete reinforcing wire, available at most big box lumber/hardware stores like Lowe’s or Menard’s. I did an article for BHM a few issues back detailing just how they are made if you want to take a look. We LOVE the cattle panels for bean trellises as they are fast and easy to set up and take down, plus they NEVER sag or blow over.
Here in the Copper Basin Alaska we had 80 the last two days and expect 90 tomorrow. A real heat wave for south central Alaska. My tomatoes have been in pots in the green house since mid May but Ionly have 36 not 360. Have tons of blossoms and tomatoes are set on some plants. The transplanted beans (provider) in the hoophouse are starting to blossom. The out side stuff is behind because of wet ground and a cool spring. Good luck.
Wow! 90! So you’re crazy hot too. I’m more of a 65 to 70’s person, myself. 90 flattens me! Sounds good in the hoop houses; may the outside stuff catch up quickly in the heat.
I’ve been working with a student who has been researching Egypt. One of the crops they grew was fava beans. So, the two of us started researching what you could do with them food wise. There were a lot of youtube videos to watch, and they all seem like a lot of work. Have you ever grown them, is growing, harvesting, and preparing them for food as much work as it looks like? If it is, is is worth it?
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