The Dawg Patch

[GoDawgs]

It's noon and with the heat index at 102 it's the the end of outdoor activity for now. So then why on earth am I going to plant beans this afternoon? Well, first the weather people are predicting possible t-storms later this afternoon as cool front starts moving in. It is supposed to stall over us until Wednesday. Rain chances are good and temps will be lower. Second, it's getting late to be planting fall beans if I want some before frost so I have to do it now. And third, the moon is right for planting above ground things.

The Native American peas are done so they got yanked from the fall bean bed. I raked back the mulch, turned in some 5-10-15, made furrows and filled them with water three times. So dry with no rain in two weeks plus it will cool that hot soil down. The plan is to keep watching the weather map this afternoon, then get out there and plant the peas before the rain comes in.



The other morning project was to get a strip of ground ready to test the Blue Ribbon bush beans I got in the MMMM. For whatever reason the idea came to just uncover a strip across the middle of the almost-finished (one melon left) watermelon patch. Pull back the leaf mulch and cut a path through the cardboard layer. And I did.



So that will get planted later today too. It's just an 11' strip but I didn't get the fert turned in or water trench made because the heat was getting to me. Despite frequent breaks and lots of water it felt like I was getting close to monkeyin' down. Time to quit.

After one more break I marked some pods for later seed collection from the stickless wonder-type long bean plants.



This afternoon I'm going to finish cleaning the zinnia seeds I didn't get done last night, start four new micro tomatoes for the fall and start the next round of some broccoli and cauliflower plants. Good indoor things to do in air conditioning!

[GoDawgs]

This afternoon the front started coming through as forecasted. There were thunder grumbles in the distance. No rain here but the temp plunged to the upper 80's. I got right out there in much nicer temps, planted the beans and watered them in. Contenders in the two-row bed and Blue Ribbon in the 11' row in the watermelon patch. DONE!

[PlainJane]

Wish we had caught a bit of the front you had come by. At least we’ll get rain this week what with Idalia on the way.

[GoDawgs]

I'm hoping that we catch a bit of Idalia rain too. We finally did catch a thunderstorm around 10pm last night and this morning there was 1" in the gauge. It's been two weeks to the day since we had any rain. It was a rare July in that we actually had periodic rain but come August 1st the rain tap shut off.

At least the beans and garden got a good watering and hopefully it will refresh the deer browse so that they stay out of the garden. And who am I kidding?

Yesterday mid morning there was a large doe out in the back down by the wood line. I got out the binoculars to see what she was munching on and it was Beauty Berry (Callicarpa). The bushes were loaded with berries and she was having a grand munch with them and the leaves. Better that than the okra and sweet potato vines!

[GoDawgs]

We ended up getting 2.6" of much needed rain from Idalia. She left us with some very pleasant and cooler weather. Last night the windows were opened for cool fresh air to sleep in. First time in ages!

The first sesame pods are ready for the taking. The foliage of one of the four plants (the tallest) is starting to go downhill. They start turning from the bottom up and what I've read says that's when you start looking for seed pods that have turned brown, again from the bottom of the plant up.



Some of the pods are starting to split open. I need to cut off all of them that are starting to open before they split all the way and spew their seeds on the ground. Their stems where they attach to the plant are very short and very hard.



Here are some I cut off last week. These pods are really hard! Unless they are starting to split on their own it's almost impossible to pull them open. But after a week or so on a paper plate they decided to open completely on their own. The seeds were tightly packed in a row on each side of each half.



This has been a fun little project, learning about something I knew nothing about. I love my "toys"! The next phase is to keep gathering seed pods as they mature and finally seeing how much seed was generated by four plants. Depending on the result I might have to see who has seeds of the white seeded varieties.

[GoDawgs]

Sometime late last summer I read about growing tepary beans as a source for having "green beans" in the hot weather that regular bush beans won't tolerate.

I finally found a source at nativeseeds.org and their general description said, "First grown in the Southwest during ancient times, tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius) mature quickly and are tolerant of the low desert heat, drought and alkaline soils. They are among the most drought and heat tolerant crops in the world. " These seeds are grown and sold by various Native American tribes in the Southwest.

I ordered two varieties, Pinacate and S'oam Pawi.



They grew really well. I was concerned that things that grow in the low desert wouldn't deal with the humidity here but it was no problem. Two 18' rows, a different variety in each.



Unfortunately the "beans" were very thin pods even when young and tough with a heavy string on one side so I let them go to dry beans.



Yesterday I pulled the vines from the Pinacate, shelled them out and got 8 oz of dried beans. They haven't been cleaned and sorted yet. We'll see how they taste when cooked up.





The S'oam Pawi made smaller pods and beans. There's not really enough to bother with so they'll get pulled out today. I'm thinking the return for the effort isn't worth repeating these in the garden lineup. But I'll save back some of both for seed anyway just because...

[GoDawgs]

What few tomatoes are ripening have split after the Idalia rain. Can't win for losing with tomatoes this year! Pretty much a complete bust. Very discouraging especially when posting on a tomato site.

However the fall beans have popped up! Two days ago I saw one little hoop coming up out of the soil and a few more cracks in the soil. Yesterday they were all popping up. That means yesterday was anti-deer netting deployment right from the start. Thou shalt NOT touch the beans!

Blue Ribbon beans in the messy watermelon patch. These were sown from beans collected from the MMMM sample I grew last year.



Contender beans in the main garden and their netting tunnel. I also had to put red ribbon along the base and sides of that piece of fencing I leaned against the trellis to protect the cucumber as I had caught my foot on it several times already!



Speaking of cucumbers, the other one that got munched has the will to live and needs to be rewarded!



So it got some Red Neck Protection. That means I went into the shed, looked around to see what could be used, grabbed one wire shelf and two fan covers. Ta-daaaaa! That's my "Ya make it up as you go along" theory in action. It will do for now.



And while there were still some okra plants left, their bed got surrounded with netting hung from nails in the top of the wooden poles. I left about a foot open at the bottom so butterflies and other pollinators can get in and out in case they can't figure out that the top is open. Otherwise I'll be hand pollinating flowers just to make sure.



At the far end of that bed are the two volunteer watermelons that grew there. Their vines were dead and got pulled out. Today when I clean up all the vines I've pulled out the last two days I'll add the melons to the cart and bring them up to the house.

[GoDawgs]

Happy Labor Day! For those of you who are still laboring, enjoy the day off. I was going to bbq a slab of pork ribs yesterday but when I took them out of the freezer and unwrapped them I smelled smoke. Then I remember that last month I bbq'd both slabs in the pack and froze one! That made yesterday's main meal super easy since 5th Gear had made some pinto bean salad and pea salad the night before. No muss, no fuss good eats with easy clean up and it will be repeated today.

To everything there is a season. It's time to be pulling more stuff out of the garden. Yesterday the other side of the tepary bean bed got the Big Yank. The deer-stripped sweet potato vines (to the left in the second photo) will be dealt with probably next week when the sweets are dug.





I also took down the Big Red Ripper cow peas from their trellis.

From early August...



... to now. Things are looking kind of bare. Behind the ladder in the photo is the zinnia bed. After a hard cut back it's looking better but still not far from the end it its world.



This morning I'll be prepping some planting holes and this evening be planting out the first of the fall brassicas. I guess since the fall bush beans are up and going and now brassicas are going in, it's officially the start of the fall garden. Time is moving on quickly! Before you know it the aroma of Thanksgiving turkey will be in the air.

[GoDawgs]

Two days ago I started forking up a bed at the top of the garden for planting carrots on one side and turnips down the other. It was the bed from hell. Being the second bed down from the top, it's too near the grape arbor and a big crape myrtle and LOADED with tough fibrous roots. By the time I got down one side and fighting roots that did not want to be pulled out, I was completely exhausted and just stopped.

This morning I finished the other side which went easier. The leaf mulch has been raked to the middle, some fert has been turned in on each side and right before rain moves in later today I'll sow carrot seed on one side and turnips on the other. The bed behind that has the munched okra plants that are recovering inside their netting fence and starting to produce again.



The other day the deer barged into the peas and went right down the middle row. I put a roll of fencing on each end to block those points of entry.



While I was taking a break on the garden bench, the solution for the deer/pea problem for next year came to me. The field peas always follow the corn. This year, to keep out the squirrels out of the corn I put up a tall netting enclosure around it.



Next year I will leave the enclosure up. Then I'll remove the spent corn stalks and then plant the peas inside the enclosure. Might as well make use of it while it's there! So take that, deer!

The first round of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower plants are in. The bed behind them has the Contender beans.



Meanwhile, over in the former watermelon patch is the 10' row of Blue Ribbon bush beans I'm trying out. I got some in the MMMM swap before the most recent one one and last fall grew some off in a bucket to get enough seed for this row. Gosh, they were planted the same day as the Contenders and they're twice as tall already with leaves that are a lot bigger! It will be fun to see what kind of beans they make.



Time for more garden cleanup. Things like pulling up the Ripper pea plants now that the vines are down, weeding a few beds and getting two more beds forked for more brassicas. And the sweet potatoes still need to be dug but we're having afternoon showers and I'll wait for a completely dry day.

I think I need a vacation...

[PlainJane]

Good grief that’s a lot of work!

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday I got the carrots and turnips seeded in that bed I dug the roots out of and a few daikon radishes in another bed. But I wasn't paying attention and sowed the whole row of turnips. The plan had been to put in one half now and the other half about three weeks from now. So much for preventing an avalanche of turnips later!



Soaking carrot seed overnight not only helps with faster germination but also the swelled seed is easier for me to handle. This time I was very careful trying not to sow too much turnip or carrot seed. Thinning later is a pain in the butt, or more like pain in the knees for me. Better to try to fix that right up front. I'll sow a second carrot bed in about three or four weeks.

But in the process I did accidentally find a helpful tool for soaking seeds. I didn't want the shot glasses with the carrot seed to slide around on the tray and spill on the way to the garden. My eyes landed on a discarded egg carton in the trash can so I cut off a section and it holds shot glasses perfectly!



This will come in handy next year when I'm saving tomato seed and have about eight shot glasses of different tomato seed going at once. They sit on the kitchen counter during the process and more than once there have been near disasters. Not any more!

[GoDawgs]

Good grief that’s a lot of work!

When the garden was started many years ago the grapes had just been planted and the crape myrtles (one at each top corner of the garden) were really small. Problems down the road never occurred to me back then. Now it's a chore I dread. If the first bed on each side isn't forked twice a year there's hell to pay. The bed I just forked is the second bed down on that side. The first bed has already been abandoned two years ago.

The first bed on the other side isn't as bad but still a chore. Besides, over the years a nearby pecan has grown too and that bed is pretty shady in the morning. I might keep that bed and stick some shade loving plants in there.

When Pickles strolled past during her morning walk I asked what she thought about just ripping out the grapes completely sometime over the winter. Between squirrels, birds and deer we never get any anyway and I'm not going to try a 50' long netting enclosure. Nope, not doing that huge hassle every grape season. The grape discussion led to a another of where we could put two new beds to replace the ones that would be lost. It also generated a whole list of destruction/construction of things that will keep us busy all winter.

But it's time to get a handle on stuff that has been let go for too long while we're still physically able to do it. Father Time is starting to take a toll. One example: I will cut down the Grancy Graybeard tree (Chionanthus virginicus) that has gotten so scraggly over the years.



There's a plethora of whips coming from the tree's base and I will leave those alone to see if they'll become a Graybeard bush. Much more manageable and heck, if it doesn't work I'll cut them all off, letting the largest one to become a new tree. If it dies, oh well.

Who needs a gym membership when you're a gardener?

[PlainJane]

I hear ya! And a year-round sport, thankfully. One thing I don’t miss are Massachusetts winters.

[GoDawgs]

Sometimes different smaller events just kind of merge into one big event. I've been thinking about how the netting enclosure worked for the corn and that next year I'll just leave it up to protect the field peas after the corn stalks are removed since the peas always follow the corn. Well, the deer barged into the field peas again two days ago.

Fortunately not much damage was done this time but I was going to be planting out another round of brassicas the next day and didn't have enough tunnel hoop anchors to put the netting over that new bed. I looked at the peas, saw two tunnels and decided to remove them and put up the enclosure now. So this.......



became this:



Problem solved. It's better protection and I now have a tunnel for the new brassicas and a spare tunnel until I can get to town and buy more pvc for the anchors.

Some of the stuff that went out to the garden, including four more cabbages and cauliflower, 2 more kales, two collards (a gracious plenty for two people) and four more broccoli.



Also six more kohlrabi (3 each of two kinds) for the garden plus arugula destined for a window box on the porch:


Yesterday afternoon I weedwhacked between the garden beds and won't wait that long again to do it. It took twice as long as usual so lesson learned (again) about the consequences of procrastination!

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday I got the window boxes for the front porch planted, one with arugula (for addition to salads) and one with parsley. The parsley will keep going all winter so I can always snip what I need for the kitchen. Already out there are rosemary, sage and mint. Soon to join them will be a new oregano I grew. My old thyme plant died this summer from a bad case of spider mites and I need to start a new one from seed.



Also potted up were three dwarf tomatoes that will eventually spend their time indoors under lights. For now they can enjoy the sun on the porch. If the nights dip into the upper 50's they'll come inside for the night.



These are from MMMM seeds and info I found says: 'Premus', the shortie on the right, will only get 1.5-2' tall. The one on the left, 'Sophie's Choice, is supposed to get 2' tall and 'Latah' the one in the middle, is supposed to be 2.5' tall x 1.5' wide "bushy and compact". We'll see.

As usual I'll also have a few smaller micro tomato plants for cherry tomatoes. Rather than do a mishmash of varieties and have gaps in ready cherry tomatoes, I think I'll do all one variety but stagger the start of the three plants trying to keep the flow going. Red Robin will be the one since it does so well for me indoors. I started the first one and it should pop up today or tomorrow.

[PlainJane]

Tomatoes look so happy!

[GoDawgs]

The last (I think) round of brassicas is under way. Four more of both cauliflower, broccoli and kohlrabi; one each basil, Red Robin micro tomato and Tangerine Dream pepper. Oops! I forgot one more round of cauliflower and kohlrabi is yet to happen in three days. The pepper will be treated as a house plant.

I cut off a lot of sesame pods. It seems like some were empty, having spewed their seeds on the ground already so there might be plenty of volunteers next year in that spot. There are three of these plates of seeds drying.



Here's a pod up close. On the left is how they split on the plant and on the right is half of a pod that I pulled apart.



Those pods are really hard inside. The seeds are in two tunnels that run down each side of the pod halves. I tried breaking the tunnels open to release the seed but found that was very hard to do without getting something metal to pry them open. Then I tried shaking out those tightly enclosed seeds and found that for the most part, they just pour out! Maybe when the seeds dry they shrink a bit to allow that.

So I've got the plates under the lights on the plant stand to let the pods dry more since I cut a lot of those that were just starting to split, not completely popped open and halfway turned from green to brown. Maybe I shouldn't and just let them finish drying on the plants and risk losing some seed. Since the pods grow vertically on the plant, I'm wondering how they can dump the entire load of seed without somehow turning upside down, which they don't do. A mystery of the universe. Plant toys are fun!

[PlainJane]

Do you try any snap or snow peas in the fall or are those spring only crops for you?

[GoDawgs]

I seem to recall trying those in the fall once and they didn't do well so I dropped them. I need to try again. What variety do you have success with and when do you plant them down there in Gator Land?

[GoDawgs]

The Jerusalem artichokes are blooming. Actually, they've been blooming for a little while now but I hadn't been able to get the right photo of them. I'm usually in the garden in the morning for sure this time of year and the flowers aren't lit right by the sun. Then I forget if I'm out there in the afternoon except for yesterday. The short plants in front of the blooming plants are more arties that were munched back by deer about a month and a half ago.



This is Homemade Pickles, one of the two cucumbers I'm growing in a bucket. This used to be one of the main cukes we grew before it stopped growing so well and we changed to another. I noticed that the catalog said the vines grew just 5'. That's not what I remember so I decided to grow one in a bucket to see. I don't know if the bucket will make any difference in growth habit or not.



The Red Ripper cowpeas are starting to make. It will be just a few days before I have to go wading through the plants to start picking. The plants haven't totally laid down yet but when they do I'll have to get a stick to gently push them aside to make a place for each foot as I go!



Yesterday I got one bed forked for planting scallions along the edges and mustard in the middle. The mustard is for hopefully chasing any nematodes that might be around. I also forked a third of another bed that will have carrots on one side, onions on the other and mustard in the middle. That needs to be finished today as I want to get the mustard planted tomorrow.

Fall snuck in a few days ago when we weren't looking. Before you know it, in the blink of an eye Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be history. Sometimes I think we're in a time warp.