HARVESTING GREEN BEANS
Pick green beans when they are young and tender,
before the seeds inside form bumps on the pod.
The more you pick them the more they will
produce, so pick every 2-3 days. If you leave
the beans to ripen the vine will stop producing
and die.
Pulling the beans off might damage the vine or
even uproot the plant. Try pinching the beans
off between your finger and thumbnail. Don't
forget to remove and discard any over-ripe
beans you may have missed last time.
Shell beans should also be harvested often to keep
the vines producing. Pick them when the pods are
plump but still tender. Both snap beans and shell
beans will keep in the refrigerator for up to a
week.
If you would like to dry some of your shell beans,
wait until the vines start to slow production,
then leave the pods on the plants until they are
brown and the seeds rattle inside. The seeds are
ready for storage when they are rock hard. If
rain is forecast toward the end of the drying
period, cut the plants and hang them upside down
in a well-ventilated place to finish drying.
Once they are dry, place the beans in a mason jar
with a packet of dry milk to absorb moisture. They
will keep for 10-12 months.
Recipes:
Bushels of Beans
http://www.thefamilycorner.com/family/food
/inthekitchen/green_beans.shtml
French Green Beans with Lemon:
http://www.gardenguides.com/recipes/green.htm
Green Bean Relish:
http://www.gardenguides.com/recipes/gbr.htm
Minted Green Beans with Red Onion
http://www.gardenguides.com/recipes/minted.htm
Green Bean Salad With Basil Vinaigrette
http://www.gardenguides.com/recipes/gbs.htm
BERRIES
You may not be giving your strawberries,
blueberries and brambles much thought now, but
the growing conditions over the next six weeks
determines the size of next year's berries. Keep
the plants well- watered to prevent stress and
give them a good feeding. If you use a dry
fertilizer make sure it doesn't come in direct
contact with the leaves to avoid fertilizer burn.
Strawberries
Blueberries
Brambles
NIGHT GARDENING
Here's an interesting bit of information to
ponder. University researchers in Nebraska and
Oregon have determined that if you cultivate
your garden at night, you may have a smaller
weed problem. The research was conducted on
farm fields, but the principle would seem to
apply to the home garden as well. The basic
premise is this:
When you cultivate a garden bed, particularly
if you use a plow or a tiller, you pull up a
lot of weed seeds from well below the surface,
many of which get re-buried--after a brief
exposure to light. Since certain seeds need a
sunlight stimulus to start germinating,
daylight cultivation may lead to a healthy
crop of weeds before long. However, if you
cultivate at night, so the theory goes, fewer
weed seeds will get germinated because they'll
miss out on the sunlight they need to get them
going.
TWO WATERING TRICKS
FOR STRAWBERRY POTS
Last time, we mentioned that strawberry pots are
ideal for growing a collection of herbs. But no
matter what you grow in a strawberry pot, the
plants will need sufficient water--and you don't
just want it to run straight down through the
pot and ignore the top tiers of plants. Here are
two tricks you might consider when you're
preparing to plant a strawberry pot. In both
cases, start by putting a couple of inches of
soil in the bottom of the pot.
To try method number one, insert a cardboard tube,
like the ones that wrapping paper comes on,
through the center of the pot and down into the
soil at the bottom. Then, plant the pot as usual,
adding soil around the tube and putting your
plants in each pocket as you work your way up.
Continue adding soil up to about an inch shy of
the top of the pot. When you've finished planting,
fill the tube with small pebbles. Then, very
gently, ease the tube out of the pot. The stones
will allow the water to filter into the pot at all
levels.
Method number two works similarly, although the
materials are different. Cut a piece of 2-inch
PVC pipe so that it's the same height as your
pot. Then, drill 1/2-inch-diameter holes in the
pipe about every 4 inches up the sides of the
pipe. When you've drilled holes all the way up,
you can insert the pipe in the pot as described
in method one, adding soil and plants up to the
top. In this case, the pipe stays in place; just
water straight down the pipe and the moisture
will be dispersed through the holes you drilled.
