The Gardening Everyday

This year my family planted several varieties of heirloom bean seeds we purchased from Seed Savers Exchange.   We tried Painted Pony, Calypso, Speckled Cranberry, and Brockton.  We planted the seeds directly into the garden in early June after our long, wet spring.  Since we only purchased one packet of each, we were able to seed a 10 foot row of each variety.  As with a lot of heirloom vegetables, the germination percentage was anywhere between 70-90%. 

Heirloom Beans: Painted Pony, Speckled Cranberry, and Calypso

After the beans were up for about two to three weeks we had a grasshopper invasion.  About 50% of our seedlings were eaten.  And if that wasn’t bad enough we had a loss of another 10-20% to disease within the next month.  At this time we were getting pretty discouraged.

In mid September, we were able to harvest a few dry pods from our Calypso plants (all three of them!).  Just a few days ago we harvested the last of our dry pods.  The Brockton variety, though our toughest and most prolific, did not have enough time before the frost set in to mature any seeds.  And, even though we did not have many Calypso plants, they ripened the earliest as I mentioned above.  We harvested just two pods of Speckled Cranberry, a late ripening type.  The Painted Pony plants, however, performed the best in terms of the amount of dry bean seed we were able to collect.

I should mention that all of the varieties produced fresh green beans in abundance.  But, since we were interested in collecting seeds only, I do not have an edible flavor comparison to share. 

In subsequent years we will probably plant twice as many as we want to grow to mature plants.  In addition, we will focus on shorter season varieties when we want to harvest dry seeds for saving. 

Overall our experiment with heirloom bean seeds was fun.  The best part was watching the kids open the dried pods to find the brightly colored beans inside….the simple joys of gardening at their best!

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Tags: grasshopper damage, heirloom seeds, heirloom vegetables

Last night my family and I paid a visit to the annual Pumpkin Walk in Hyde Park, Utah.  And, as usual, the kids (and the parents) had a great time.

The Pumpkin Walk is sponsored each year by local residents and businesses.  It is held in a park with a horseshoe shaped path that winds around the approximately half acre location.  All along the path are carved pumpkins on bales of straw.  On the outer side of the path are displays using pumpkins. 

All of the displays have themes.  For example, one had several life-sized soldier mannequins in camouflage gear.  Another display was of a scene from a Micheal Jackson video.  All of the characters were of equal size to an average man.  Now, making life size figures from clothes and stuffing them with batting or even plastic bags is not hard.  The real excitement of the pumpkin walk is that all of the heads are, of course, pumpkins.  The pumpkin heads are carved, shaped, and mostly painted to look real.  It’s obvious some displays employed more artistic talent than others, but each still had it’s own special qualities.

My personal favorite display is shown below.  I’ll let the pictures do the explaining.  Needless to say, this display used a lot of pumpkins and, if you look close enough, some oversize zucchini!

These people put a lot of work and a lot of pumpkins into this design.  It’s hard to see in these images, but they even used hosta leaves as the bottom leaves on the cabbage. 

If you live in the Cache Valley area of Utah or Idaho or even the surrounding regions, the Pumpkin Walk is only open through next Tuesday, October 27.  Don’t worry if you miss it this year, it will be there again next October with new pumpkin displays to welcome in the Halloween season.

If you liked this post and my blog, I encourage you to sign up for my newsletter using the form on the top, right side of the page.  You can also subscribe to the RSS feed using the orange buttons in that same area.

Happy Gardening!

Tommy

Tags: cache valley pumpkin walk, cache valley utah, pumpkin decorations, pumpkin walk

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how to grow herbs indoors. I like to encourage gardeners to grow plants year round for their edible benefits as well as their aesthetics. One of the easiest herbs to grow indoors is basil.You should remember that basil is a warm season, annual herb. So, when germinating seed, you’ll want to give them plenty of warmth and moisture. I suggest covering your pots with a plastic cup or bag to retain moisture until the seedlings have emerged. You can place the pots or flats on top of your refrigerator where the temperature is warm. This is especially important during winter when the temperatures in our homes tend to fluctuate and remain cooler than in the summer months.

Basil needs plenty of light to perform at its best. If you’ve ever started seeds indoors you are well aware of the tendency of plants to get “leggy”. While growing basil indoors will not make you immune to this problem, there are a few steps you can take to minimize the long stems.

One is to provide grow lights for your basil. These special fluorescent bulbs emit a wider spectrum of light that mimics true sunlight. The “legginess” of plants grown indoors is due to two main issues. The first, and most important, is low light levels. The second is due to the lack of air movement or wind. As the wind blows plants around, their stems and overall structure are strengthened. Thus, they remain shorter than those not subjected to a breeze. Grow lights can be expensive and are not necessarily in everyone’s budget.  I recommend CDGrowLight.com as a source for grow lights and related equipment.

A second way to reduce “legginess” is to provide as much direct sunlight as possible. Placing your plants in or near a south facing window will give them the most sunlight possible in your home.

If you’ve provided your basil with as much light as possible there is one other aspect of basil that makes it a great herb to grow indoors and will help keep it compact.

Think for a moment about how basil is used in cooking. Typically, only the leaves are utilized. When harvesting, you should not simply remove random leaves. If you pinch off the growing tips of the plant far enough down to remove approximately 30% of the stem, you’ll have leaves that you can remove from the resulting sprig you have in your hand. And, removing the growing point stimulates hormones in the plant that allows more buds to break on the plant which will produce more stems to be used later. This action will keep your basil more compact and bushier.

I mentioned the lack of air circulation above. This will make your basil plants more susceptible to soil borne diseases. Always allow the surface of the soil to dry out prior to watering. This will also reduce the infestations of those pesky fungus gnats.

If you apply a dilute fertilizer of your choice each time you water, you’ll be providing a great environment for your basil to thrive.

Try growing basil indoors and you’ll be delighted at the chance to use a fresh herb in your cooking…even in winter!

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Happy Gardening!

Tags: grow basil indoors, grow herbs indoors, growing basil indoors, indoor herbs

I am relaunching The Gardening Everyday’s newsletter beginning today.  As a reward to those who subscribe, I have revised and updated my Composting Begins In The Kitchen short report.  You can receive your free copy by signing up for my newsletter using the form on the right side of this page.  Below is a brief excerpt from the report.

Not all kitchen waste is suitable for the compost bin. Vegetable and fruit scraps work well. Meats and oils do not. Most material will break down over time. Meats, however, tend to attract many more flies and even animals to your compost. In addition, the odors they produce are much more foul.

The Gardening Everyday newsletter, emailed approximately every week, contains tips and gardening ideas you won’t always find on this blog.  In addition, I also keep you up to date on noteworthy posts and articles from TheGardeningEveryday.com. 

If you enjoy the gardening information on this site, I encourage you to subscribe to my email newsletter as well.  Plus, you’ll get your free copy of my short report too!

Happy Gardening!

Update: I have replaced the composting ebook with my special report on growing tomatoes.  You can still get the composting report as well by using the contact form on the About page. 

Thanks,

Tommy

Tags: Compost, composting ebook, gardening newsletter, kitchen composting

With winter just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about your vegetable garden. I know that sentence sounds like an oxymoron, but working on your vegetable garden this time of year will really pay off in the spring.

If you’ve already had a frost in your area, as I have, then your warm season vegetables are looking pretty sad. It’s time to clear those old plants out. You can pull all the dead plants out and chop them up for the compost pile. Of course, if you have some cool season vegetables in your garden you’ll want to leave those.

Fall is a good time to also apply amendments to your soil. Products such as compost, when added now, will have time to break down further and become an active part of your vegetable garden soil.

You might also consider a fall cover crop. Plants such as winter wheat, vetch, and clovers can be planted now in most regions. These crops will germinate and grow this fall and even during the winter. When spring arrives they can be incorporated into your soil as green manure. Nitrogen fixing types (clover, vetch, and peas) make a great addition to the fertility of your soil for the next growing season.

With just a little work now you can save yourself vegetable garden preparation time in the spring. Your crops will thank you!

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Thanks and Happy Gardening!

Tags: fall garden, garden cleanup, vegetable garden maintenance