Fall Plantings

Alas, Summer is drawing to a close. While there are still plenty of tomatoes wandering in, its clear that no new ones are forming. Most (but not all) of the Zucchini have been pulled up, and the space has been used to sow some new seeds (see last post). Of that planting, so far the radishes have emerged, and I think a carrot. But its still early days on that. Today I started some Black Kale, Parris Island Kos Lettuce, and a small amount of "Five color Silverbeet" Swiss Chard and Lovage. Of the Lovage, I only need one or two plants, because its quite strong tasting. Its very useful though in soups and stews, with a very strong celery-leaf flavor. The Chard, like the Carrot, Brussels Sprouts and Kale, should hopefully provide meals through the winter. I'm hoping also for Leek (if they ever get bigger) and perhaps Broad (Fava) Beans. Now that I have saved my own Broad Bean seed, I have plenty to experiment with regarding planting times.



The Insuk's Runner Bean, above, is over now, and the only thing keeping me from tearing it all up is that I'm waiting for a few more seeds to ripen for next year. I have fully replenished my stocks at this point, but given the hardship I had this year in starting plants, the more the merrier. I also want to plant them more thickly next year. While I did get about 10 meals, I'd really like a few more. I'm also hoping that the steadily improving soils will help in yields.

I threw three buckets of home-made compost in the hot dry bed (about 5 feet by 3 feet), and its looking quite good. About 5 buckets went into the radish/lettice/carrot planting, and another 2 into the Brussels Sprouts by the door. More will be going into the ground wherever I prepare for a new crop. I know I said I was trying a no-till system, but I do want to get the fertility and texture of the ground up a bit more first. Then it will be top dressing only, I hope. I do notice a major improvement in soil texture this year, so previous compost additions have been working well.

If anyone in the area is reading this blog, feel free to give suggestions for Fall and Winter plantings.

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.

"Alaska"

Here is an image of my first pea, taken today. You can see the pea pod at bottom center. The variety is Perry Morse, "Alaska". Its supposed to be "wilt resistant", but I bought it as "one of the earliest peas", "Days to Harvest" 58. Frankly, if I had known they'd be doing so well, I would have planted half the bed in this.