Runner bean suggestion

I dont like copying others' posts, but as I'm using this blog as my garden notebook, I cant think of a better place to put it. So apologies for duplicating content, but here goes:
"I like to hedge my bets and plant both scarlet runners and kentucky wonders. That way, during the hot spell, the kentucky wonders go wild with production, while the scarlet runners don't like the weather, and by the time it cools down, the scarlets are taking off just as the kentuckies stop producing. and if we have a really hot summer, I get armloads of kentucky wonders to make up for the paltry harvest of runners; if we have a cool rainy summer, kentucky wonders don't produce, but the scarlet runners go crazy."

Picture: Robins just about to fly the nest. Next week, a dove took over the nest!

Scarlet Runner Beans in the Almaden Valley

Having experience form Europe of huge crops with runner beans, I thought I'd try these this year after a particularly disappointing experience last year with Kentucky Pole Beans. The last couple of weeks I have had lots of beautiful red flowers - this is one of the more ornamental veggies - but no pods are forming. So once again I trawl the internet, to find that its simply too hot here. To quote: "blossoms will drop - regardless of pollination - until day temps drop into the 70's"
So I can basically write this off for a couple of months. Perhaps thats why my Kentucky Pole Bean crop was so lousy last year, and further reading lets me know thats certainly why my Fava beans stopped setting beans earlier - Fava beans will not crop in warm weather. So overall, it looks like I'm going to have to rethink my planting times with these beans - perhaps sowing for a fall crop, or perhaps even a winter crop. I'll try out a few planting times and see what happens. Unfortunately I only have 5 runner beans seeds left, so I'll have to be judicious in my experimentation for now. However, I have lots of Kentucky Pole seeds saved from last years crop, so I can seed those liberally. I guess the trick will be to label each vine with sowing date, so if I get a good harvest on any, I can look at the label and read off the optimum planting time.

Other tips from the web:
"If you live in a hot climate, try yard long beans (aka asparagus beans.) They love heat."
"Insuk's Wang Kong (Runner bean)... is remarkably heat tolerant for a runner bean."

The Robins nesting have all fledged and flown, its a bit quiet in the garden now, but the Zucchini are cropping well, although they appear to be variable. The plants in some shade are healthier plants, but crop less, whereas the plants in full sun have more yellow and smaller leaves, but seem to crop more. From my dozen plants, I have harvested about 35 zucchini so far - enough to keep me scrambling for ways to cook them.

Here are some ways to eat Zucchini:
(1) In stews - Ratatouille, of course, but also any stew. Simply substitute for hard squash or turnips, etc., using them as filler.
(2) Raw: Either as sticks with a dip, or what I do for salads: Either coarsely grate, or peel them with a peeler into ribbons, and dress with lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper. I like to mix with 30% carrots for a colour/crunch improvement.
(3) The old standby: Fried. Slice into rounds and fry with a little olive oil, salt and pepper until golden on both sides. If you're not into oil, you can always simply microwave the zucchini, whole, for a minute or two, then slice into rounds. Either way, they should come out nice and sweet and juicy.

Dec28 2010: Update on shade/sun... later in the season - Sept/Oct - the shade zucchini were bearing well while the sunny zucchini were getting a little yellowed and tired. TIP! - Grow some in shade, some in sun, to stretch the season a little.

Mid-June harvests

The Zucchini are finally cropping, although irregularly, so far I have harvested about 16. Its going to become a regular part of meals from now on. A few of the cherry tomatoes have ripened, but mostly they are going to take another few weeks. Last week, I took out the Fava beans, with 2 meals from one packet of seed. Quite sad really, but if you count from the number of plants - about 12, I suppose its reasonable. Still, something seemed to stop them podding half way up. Perhaps a glitch in the weather? It did get occasionally hot and cold. The more tender leaves did give an interesting alternative to spinach - with an interesting fava-musty taste and chewy (but not stringy) texture. They went particularly well with Oyster Sauce.

The lettuce are starting to bolt (send up flower stalks), so its time to get those out of the ground before they get too bitter. Thats a function of the hot weather - even in Ireland my lettuce bolted when it got hot.

I've been able to clean out the tomato bed somewhat, by taking out some swiss chard (a decent crop, and useful in soups, but some leaf-mining bug destroyed many leaves) and the Fava beans, and weeds that came to light while doing so. That left room to put in some more runner beans that I had in pots waiting for just such an opportunity, and with the sunflowers starting to show some height (about 5 feet), they have something to climb, at least to begin with.

The bed against the house is now full of 4-foot high corn, which oddly, is male-flowering long before any cobs seem apparent. I hope there is still some male pollen around when its needed. The runner beans there are climbing nicely, some on sticks and string and some on the corn. So far, theyre about 5 feet and climbing fast.

Happily, a robin has built a nest beside the back door, and as I write, there are 3-4 hungry mouths gaping wide. Cute.