Help! The runner beans have staged a coup! 19 August 2009

They have taken over the front garden!

Runner beans compared to the shrub (in background) - they're about the same size!

As you may have noticed in the previous photo, the runner beans have even taken over a tomato trellis!

blooms and a baby bean on runner bean 'Painted Lady'

A third runner bean has joined the bloomfest, this one known as 'Potato Bean.' Some people say Potato Bean is synonymous with 'Aztec Half Runner' but at least for my source, this is not true, as Potato Bean is much taller. Its flowers are just as large as Scarlet Runner and its cultivar 'Painted Lady,' though as you can see, being white, they are not quite as stunning to behold to most people.

One more (maybe not actually very) brief garden update 8 July 2009

…and then hopefully a bigger post, say, finally that photo post maybe.  It had been so beautiful here after all the dreary weather that I’ve spent much more time outside enjoying it than indoors typing at my computer!  (Yesterday it was extremely rainy again, but I started this post two days ago.  Today is cloudy and sporadically rainy, though right now it’s just crisp.)

I harvested my first “wild blueberry” (lowbush blueberry – it’s not really wild if it’s in a garden, is it?) this week, and was very excited about it!  I planted a lowbush blueberry at my old garden, but I got something off about the cultural requirements – possibly too much sun, possibly the wrong soil, I don’t know for sure – and it never produced a single berry.   There are very few of them on the one bush, and none on the other one, but given that they were both still in their nursery pots at flowering time and that blueberries often don’t produce berries till the second year or beyond, I am pleased to have any berries at all.  I had never had wild blueberries till my first visit to New England and they’re something that still charms me after all these years living here.  The taste is so different from the “cultivated” blueberries.

Some of the peas look to be yellowing.  Unfortunately they started to do so after I’d already harvested the last peas I think are forming on those plants, so I don’t know as I’ll get to save seeds from those plants.  Others of the pea plants look just fine, though.  ‘Golden Sweet’ is still putting out pods regularly (I’m definitely keeping that one around in future years and future gardens!), and some of the other cultivars are putting out smaller numbers.  The fava/broad bean plants all still look healthy as of now.  Today it is quite cool, in the low 60s with a strong breeze, and it was the same yesterday (plus regular downpours and some thunderstorms), so I’m a bit surprised the peas would pick now to quit, but so it goes.  The beans that are up to flowering size are mostly putting out flowers like mad, and super early bean ‘Yellow Arikara’ still has cute little pods forming on its plants (I haven’t seen it put out any more flowers this week).  It’s interesting that most of the purple-podded beans seem to also have purple stems and flowers that are some shade of purple.  The first scarlet runner bean has reached the top of its five foot pole.  It’ll probably loop around back down another one; that’s what they usually do. The scarlet runner beans haven’t started flowering yet; I don’t know if they’re waiting for a string of sunny days, or…

The peach-leaved bellflower ‘Telham Beauty’ has put out a fresh flush of blooms after all this rain, even though I didn’t deadhead it.  The coral-flowered penstemon is still making the bumblebees go crazy (and still putting out a rather unbelievable amount of flowers and buds), and the gaillardia ‘Tokajer’ is proving quite popular with the smaller native bees. (The latter two plants are new this year.  So far I’ve been quite pleased with both, and the bees don’t seem to mind their tendency to flop over on my windy site [they were both already starting to bloom by the time I planted them, so they didn’t have as much of a chance to adjust to the windy site, which perennials often do by not growing as tall as they would under less windy circumstances].)  The cup plant budded up quite abruptly and its big buds look like they will bloom soon.  The sweet alyssum I seeded in myself has finally begun to reach flowering size, and some of the plants have their pretty little white blooms now.  (Still no annual candytuft blooms as far as I’ve seen; typically they start to bloom around the same time.)  The sweet alyssum cultivar that the nursery carried this year smelled like honey, as the white ones seem to always do, but it was a total dud with the bees, who just LOVED last year’s nursery cultivar. So I’m happy to finally have sweet alyssum flowers that they actually like.  (As I’ve posted here before, since sweet alyssum is quite cold-hardy for an annual, I always start out with nursery seedlings and seed in my own sweet alyssum to take over with their blooms as the nursery seedlings get straggly in early summer.)  Elsewhere in the world of direct-seeded annuals:  The nasturtium seedlings (oh, how many there are now! with leaves in so many beautiful colors!) are growing fast with all the rain, and the love-in-a-mist has budded up with it.  The clarkias are still putting out new flowers (though not as many as a week ago), but the annual poppies, corncockle, and baby blue eyes seem to be about through.

Today I planted the two perennials I bought at the nursery on my way home on Monday, a second sea holly – this one with psychedelic lavender-y stems – that I planted near the original (which has been in my garden since my first year here, two years ago), and another anise hyssop.  Sea holly and anise hyssop are two more plants that the bees go crazy for.  Just make sure that you buy hybrids that aren’t sterile.  One reason I like going to nurseries is to see what plants the bees are attracted to – both to find new plants they like, and to see which cultivars are most popular of plants with numerous cultivars.  With the perennial salvias, for example, there are some cultivars they definitely prefer to others.

That was a small bit of planting (though they were in big pots so it took a while to dig the holes!), but since I last updated, I’ve done heaps of other work in the garden.  I’ve transplanted some things that seemed unhappy or that I just thought could be happier elsewhere, and I’ve planted a lot.  I planted the rest of the tender(-here) salvias and agastaches, the lemon verbena (I eventually gave up on the farmers’ market having it this year and bought one at the nursery; it’s a good thing I did, as nobody has plants there as of today, and nobody ever did bring lemon verbena – this is the first year I can recall in my eight years going to this market that nobody sold it), the little celosia plants (a dwarf variety that will never get much taller than it is now), the variegated Felicia, the last tomato (‘Black Cherry’), the flowering tobaccos that I bought in Select Seeds’ sale to plant in the front garden (two ‘Mirabilis,’ one ‘Bella,’ one lime-flowered, one ‘Crimson Bedder’ – the last two are significantly shorter than the others; ‘Mirabilis’ is a mixed-color cultivar, and I received one white one and one that’s a medium pink fading to palest pink – the rest of my flowering tobaccos are in back, which is where I’d always planted all of them till this year), the last petunia ‘Rainmaster,’ six hardy lavenders, three echinaceas (the ones that have been in my garden for two (2 of them) or one (1 of them) years now are heavily budded with the first bloom about to open), three gauras, a Santa Barbara daisy (not hardy here, and something I’ve never grown before, but it came in a mixed plant pack that was super cheap so I thought I’d give it a try; it’s in the fleabane genus, which tends to be another one that bees adore), and… other things.   I also finally planted the poor gladiolas; I’d been afraid they’d rot in the cold, wet soil, and waited for a warm, sunny day, but unfortunately now the soil is cool and wet again!  I’d hoped to also finally plant the poor dahlias, but ran out of time.  I did most of my work over the long holiday weekend.

I also finally planted that gorgeous handmade pot that I got as a gift earlier this summer.  On the two ends (it’s sort of rectangular), I planted the two tender-here sweet violets that I bought expressly to put in the pot, and in the middle, I put the yellow rain lilies (AKA Mexican lilies, as they are native to the Yucatan).  Potted rain lilies are supposed to do well in cactus mix, so I edged the pot with regular potting soil for the violets and filled the middle with cactus mix.  The violets are so thrilled about their new home that they’re creeping into the center of the pot and cascading with abandon down the edges of the pot, nearly to the ground already!   I also, also finally brought out the tuberoses that had overwintered in their pots in an eastish-facing room, figuring once it was warm and sunny it was finally good weather to bring them out.  The room had been getting sun finally (on our rare sunny days) in the early morning and evening, and to my surprise, the tuberoses had already sprouted in their impressively dry pots (they hadn’t been watered since they finished flowering inside shortly after our first frost).  I put them in a sunny patch in the back yard and the sprouts have quadrupled in size just in the last few days. (The glads and dahlias had/have also sprouted in their paper bags)

Yesterday I finally planted some of the beans I hadn’t planted before for the same fear as the glads – that they’d just rot in the cool, wet soil.  I’d intended to plant them all, but a downpour started so heavily so abruptly that I was soaked in the time it took me to run up the stairs to the porch with the seed packets and things, run back down, and crouch to plant the handful of seeds that I’d been holding, their tag having already been stuck in the ground.  In the past I’ve grown mostly green beans, wax beans (which I suppose some people consider interchangeable with green beans), Roma beans (which I tend to think of as a marriage between a green bean and a shelling bean), and shelling beans, but this year I’m trying some dry bean cultivars, which I haven’t done in ages. In some countries dry beans are all that are grown, and there are some dry beans that are still quite popular here in New England, especially ‘Soldier’ and ‘Cranberry’ (the latter of which some people use as a cultivar name, others as a particular shape of dried bean with multiple cultivars).  I planted some ‘Soldier’ this year.

Slug predation of my bean seedlings has been so, so bad this year that I put more seeds of each cultivar in than I normally would, assuming some of them will be lost to slugs.  It’s too bad birds don’t much like the front garden since it’s so noisy with traffic and pedestrians, as they’ve been eating a fair portion of the slugs in the back garden.  In happier news, though, I regularly see ladybugs in the front garden now.  The aphid population has definitely been more sharply declining.  I also saw a winged insect eating a green aphid.  I think it was an antlion, but I’d have to check in a book to be sure.  It looked so ferociously cool sitting perched atop a leaf, holding an aphid in its front legs, the bright green aphid so stark against its black legs and body.  I’m always telling other gardeners here to have patience when a pest with natural predators comes – that there have to be a certain number of the pests before the predator(s) will come, as otherwise it’d just be a waste of time, you know?  But gardeners here see their plants being attacked and just can’t not do anything, so very often, they just go ahead and spray.  Be they organic or not, sprays still tend to kill insects rather indiscriminately.  I wish more gardeners had the patience to wait for nature to take care of its own. As the book I’ve been reading points out (and which both I’ve heard and experienced many times before), insects tend to attack the weakest plants first, and “solving” it just by spraying doesn’t do anything about whatever underlying problem brought the insects in in the first place.  (In fairness to slugs, though, they really DO seem to attack plants indiscriminately!  I suppose there’s something different about their strategy at least in part because they aren’t insects and because they can’t fly like most pest insects can.  By the way, did you know that slugs spend the majority of their lives underground?  For all the destruction they can visit upon plants, they also create tunnels, helping to aerate the soil just like earthworms.)

Hyacinth Beans and Yard-Long/Asparagus beans 27 June 2009

This morning it was already brilliantly sunny when I awoke.  Enthused by the pleasant weather and the beautiful sunshine, I headed out into the garden to get some work done while the city was still fairly sleepy on this lovely Saturday.  I started out by sowing the hyacinth beans and yard-long/asparagus beans I did not get around to sowing yesterday.  (Descriptions follow the main entry.)  After that, I planted the things that were blooming or about to bloom – the six-pack of robust marigolds I got at this week’s farmers’ market, the three Gloriosa daisies I got at the plant sale at the historic estate, a heliotrope I got from Select Seeds, and the second rudbeckia I got from last week’s market (the untagged one, so I don’t know if it’s another ‘Indian Summer’ or a different cultivar).  I also moved the butterfly delphinium that had become entangled in the bean patch and looked increasingly sad.  I noted that the cucumber, though still only a couple feet tall, already has a bud.  I also noticed that even more morning glory seedlings have come up since yesterday.

The Downy Woodpeckers particularly like my street tree, the honey locust I’m always complaining about, because the same things that cause its penchants for dropping twigs/branches on my garden also mean that it’s got several dead or dying branches (though it is huge and most of its branches are still alive).  As so often happens, this morning one of them (the male this time) was searching the tree for breakfast as I was working in the garden.  It was nice to hear its whinny, and occasionally hear a responding whinny (presumably its mate) from what sounded like perhaps half a block away.   It was so quiet that early here in the city that I could hear the response even with my less stellar human ears.  In my experiences, Downies are extremely curious; in my old garden, they would sometimes sit in the neighbor’s tree (that hung over my garden) and watch me work in the garden, and in this one, sometimes they pause in their locust search to appraise me and my activities.  I think they are quite nifty birds.

After some days of not seeing the ladybug larva, and wondering if perhaps it had turned into an adult ladybug or had been eaten, I spotted a ladybug larva while working, hanging out on the bud of a tender salvia that I planted yesterday (and which I think I forgot to mention at the time).  Of course it may not be the same one – yesterday I also spied a few ladybugs in the garden, so they seem to be reacting to the terrible aphid problem I’ve been having this year now that it’s been nice enough for them to do much flying.  (I hope they eat leafhoppers too, though I doubt it.  The leafhoppers were so bad earlier this summer, though I’m not seeing as many now.  I’m also seeing a lot of slugs since it’s been so rainy, but I know ladybugs don’t eat those!)   May the ladybugs have laid many eggs in addition to doing their own munching away.

I was also right that there are caterpillars (or maybe just one mobile one) on the calendulas that I planted from the farmers’ market earlier this summer.  (I believe they came with the plants, as the problem started nearly immediately after planting.)  They are especially affecting flowering, as they seem to either eat part of the bud or do something else that causes the bud to stop production when partly formed.  They also seem to attract ants, or maybe they attract aphids that then attract ants.  I’ve never seen a caterpillar on calendula before, and did not realize that any ate it.  (I have tried to find out what kind it is, but have only found references posted by other gardeners who also did not know the name.  It is a very pale green that quite successfully matches the color of calendula leaves/stems, making it difficult to spot them for those who don’t have ants clustered around the caterpillars.)

“They” say it may thunderstorm this afternoon, and indeed, by now huge cumulous clouds – bordering already on cumulonimbus – are massing on the western horizion.  I hope it does.  I’d like a good thunderstorm; it’s been so cold we’ve hardly had any yet this year.

I took advantage of High Country Garden’s sale selling off their spring stock (which they, and many other US mail-order companies, do before ceasing shipping till late summer) last weekend, but my plants didn’t ship till Tuesday or Wednesday.  They had the misfortune of being delivered yesterday, which as I mentioned yesterday was the hottest day this month.

Now that it’s finally been sunny again, I need to take some new photos of the garden while the sunshine lasts.

Here is the other lima I sowed; I’ve added it to the previous post as well, but am pasting it here in case anyone already read that one.  I got it from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange this winter, and am not sure why they already removed it from their website.

VIOLET’S MULTI-COLORED BUTTERBEANS 80-90 days [Banks County, GA, saved by 4 generations of Violet Brady Westbrook’s family.] A rainbow of colors – cream, beige, red-brown, and violet-purple, with speckles and swirls. Small seeds have great flavor, good both fresh or dried. 3-5” pods. Semi-bush plants have good disease- and drought-resistance.

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Hyacinth Beans AKA Lablab Beans

As regular readers likely remember, last year was my first one growing hyacinth beans.  I was astounded at the vigor with which they took off once hot weather set in, and how they seemed completely undaunted by the hottest, most humid days my climate could throw at them.  Gorgeous plants usually grown as ornamentals by Americans, they most often have purple stems, purple veining on the leaves, purple flowers, and purple pods with a velvety feel to them, though variations exist (as can be seen below).

Hyacinth Bean (species) The Hyacinth Bean is featured on the arbor in the Monticello kitchen garden and draws countless questions from visitors every year. In the Garden Book in 1812 Jefferson mentioned, “Arbor beans white, scarlet, crimson, purple . . . on the long walk of the garden.” This tender annual vine grows to twenty feet and produces attractive purplish-green leaves, showy rose-purple flowers and pods, and unusual black and white seeds. Although not mentioned by Jefferson, Hyacinth Bean was sold by his favorite nurseryman, Bernard McMahon, in 1804.  Plant seeds in sunny garden soil after the last frost, and give the plants plenty of room. A native of tropical Asia, the unusual seeds and pods are also very ornamental. (Monticello)

Moonshadow (Dolichos lablab) Beautiful purple pods are used in Asia as a curry and stir-fry vegetable. Pick when small and tender, as old pods and dry beans may be poisonous! The long, rambling vine is also very ornamental with lilac-colored blossoms and purple stems. Thomas Jefferson planted this fine bean at Monticello. (Baker Creek)

Akahana Fujimame This hyacinth bean is a beautiful climbing bean that is grown for ornamental purposes as well as for eating. This red flowering Japanese variety is particularly popular. The pods are flat, thick and curved. Young pods can be sliced or used whole, and either boiled or stir-fried. Warning: Hyacinth beans naturally have cyanogenic glucoside (a plant compound that contains sugar and produces cyanide). Hyacinth beans should never be eaten raw. Always cook hyacinth beans well before eating. (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Shirohana Fujimame This popular climbing hyacinth bean is grown for its beauty as much as for its beans. The fast growing vine produces elegant white flowers that give way to thick, but flat, curved pods. Stir-fry or boil these beans, which can be sliced or used whole. (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Ruby Moon Exotic looking ornamental climber with gorgeous sprays of amethyst blossoms followed by glossy deep purple pods. Show stopping on fence or trellis! (Renee’s Garden Seeds)

Purple Moon [Another bean that’s been taken off the site that was selling it just this past winter! Here is the description from the seed packet:] This popular climbing hyacinth bean vine is grown for its beauty as much as for its beans. The plant growth is vigorous producing brilliantly colored red-purple flowers. The bean pods [are] also red-purple in color, with a flat, thick and curved shape. (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

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Yard-Long Beans AKA Asparagus Beans

Red Noodle The unusual purple-red color of this yard long bean is familiar in southern China. The beans can grow up to 22″ long. The plant is heat tolerant and grows vigorously. The bean will lose its red color when cooked. These beans are stringless, sweet and tender. Cut into 2″ sections and deep fry, stir-fry, steam or add to soup. (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Mosaic The variety name, Mosaic, describes this bean’s color. The pod’s purple, red and green colors create a mosaic pattern. It generously produces 16″ long beans that are crisp. These beans are most familiar in Southern China and are highly prized because of their sweet, tender pods. Cut into 2″ sections and deep fry, stir-fry, steam or add to soup. (Kitazawa)

Tsu In Yard long beans have been cultivated for centuries in India and China. This variety is unusual and recognized for its beautiful purple color pods. A generous producer of 16″-20″ long beans that are soft textured. The bean’s purple color is retained even when cooked. These beans are tender and stringless, and can be used with meats or with other vegetables in quick stir-fry dishes. In addition to the pods and seeds, the young leaves and stems are also edible when lightly steamed. (Kitazawa)

Kurojuroku This fast growing and generous producing variety of yard long bean thrives in the heat. Each vine yields dark green slender pods 14″-18″ long that contain 10-20 black seeds each. One of the most popular varieties grown, these stringless beans are highly prized in Asia because of their sweet and crunchy pods. (Kitazawa)

Planting plants, planting seeds / Cowpeas, Lima Beans, and more 26 June 2009

African daisy (yellow bloom) with lantana 'Citrus,' marigolds, annual ice plants (succulent foliage), Felicia heterophylla (blue blooms), foliage of Swan River daisies (ferny), and Mt. Atlas daisy (white blooms). This area is one of the very hottest in the garden, as it's where the retaining wall corners meet and it gets a lot of sun. I often move things out of here as their seasons pass. It had already gotten too hot for the African daisy before today and I've moved it. Mt. Atlas daisy is one of the very best groundcovers for searingly hot spots (I've no idea why it's so little-known here in the US!), but its bloom period is up by now. And Felicia heterophylla has its season, from spring to early summer, and then it's over; most of them have already set seed and died (though the one pictured is still alive). In the African daisy's place, I've planted one of the dwarf sunflowers and rudbeckia 'Indian Summer,' the latter of which did extremely well for me in that spot last year after I made sure it got adequate water for its first few weeks.

I planted some plants and some seeds today.  Our warmest day yet this month clocks in at a normally-not-hot-for-late-June low-80s F.  I put in replacements for the stolen plants – a santavila, a Swan River daisy (the fifth in the garden this year), and a plant that seems to only be known by its botanical name, and which I’ve never even grown before, but figured I’d try, as there were so few annuals left in small pots at the nursery (just like with the perennials, they sized up to almost all huge pots by mid-June this year, which I don’t recall them doing [with either kind] in previous years).  I also planted another tender salvia, another penstemon, the sunflowers grown for seed (4 of the 5 ‘Mammoth’s), the dwarf sunflower I picked up at this week’s farmers’ market (a second ‘Big Smile’), the sad-looking six-pack of salvia ‘Marble Arch’ (mixed colors in white, purple, and rose) that I picked up at last week’s market but hadn’t had the chance to plant,  a silver thyme, and, um.. some more stuff.  I also moved a few more things to new spots.

After taking a break, I went back outside and finally planted most of the warm-weather-loving beans, as with our average temperature for the past month having been an astoundingly low 59 F, I’d been worried the seeds would just rot in the cold and frequently wet soil.  I planted my four lima beans and several cowpeas, as well as one tepary bean (haven’t grown them in a while), a gram bean, and a moth bean (have never grown either of them).  As I’ve mentioned here in recent months, this is my last try with lima beans here in the North.  I’ve planted them in a different location than in the last 2 years in this garden, so we’ll see if that makes a difference.  I planted the other beans near them as well, as they all have somewhat similar cultural requirements and all prefer less water than the rest of my crops.  In addition, I planted the sword bean (also haven’t grown that before), the winged bean (ditto), and two edamames (soybeans), one that had accidentally gotten stuck in with the warm-weather beans and which I thus hadn’t planted, and one that I ordered with my autumn seed orders since the edamame plants are still so small anyhow.  I’d also meant to plant the hyacinth beans and yard-long/asparagus beans today, but I found that after all the work involved in expanding the bed to make enough room for all the cowpeas (including digging up two giant rusted panels, which took an incredibly long time and quite a lot of effort in a patch of sunlight on this hot, humid day), I was just too tired to snake my way into the middle of the bed (a delicate process) to plant them close to the scarlet runner beans.  I like planting things of similar size together, and hyacinth beans and yard-long beans are just as prolifically huge as scarlet runner bean. (Well, I’ve not actually grown yard-long beans before, but that’s what I’ve read.  Hyacinth beans sure are, though.)  See the end of this post for descriptions of the beans I planted today.

I also did some work yesterday, this time in the back garden.  I finally put up the bird netting, using metal plant tags to anchor it (that’s why I hadn’t done it before; I had to go out and buy them), and plant supports (the hooping kind for stalks) to hold the netting up off the largest seedlings.  As of this morning, when I last cleaned and refilled the bird bath, it was still working to fend off the super destructive squirrels from digging in my crop pots, but I haven’t checked on it since.   The process involved in doing that was much longer and more painstaking than I expected, and ate into my gardening time.  After completing it, I finally planted the nemesias, browallias, and most of the (back garden’s) violas, all of which had been growing (and blooming) in pots since I bought them in the spring.  This year my nursery started carrying a white browallia, and I just don’t get the point.  I’ve always thought that everyone else loved browallia for its pretty bluish flowers, just as I do, and I don’t get why anyone would want to plant a white-flowered cultivar.  Unless they’re using it for contrast with the blue ones, I guess?

This is our 17th day in a row with rain.  It rained again overnight, and then again during the day, though it was sunny before and after.  Now it’s clouded up again and it looks like thunderstorms are headed this way.  The newly planted plants sure appreciated the rain (it occurred between my two stints in the garden today) and I imagine the seeds would like a good soaking now that they’re in as well.

The morning glories are abruptly coming up.  The majority were seeded in near where I cleared the cowpea patch today, and I saw several tiny seedlings coming up.  I seeded in nasturtiums a couple mornings ago, but I have yet to see any nasturtium seedlings.  Though I seeded in the zinnias at least a few weeks ago now (possibly longer), I’ve yet to see a single zinnia sprout.  Perhaps they are like the morning glories, waiting for a warm day.  I also noted while out there today that the scarlet runner beans and the cardinal climbers appeared to have grown at least a foot each on this sunnier, hotter day, and that many things had put out new blooms.  Additionally, the first buds appear to have developed on one of the morning glories I planted as a young plant.  And the beans ‘Yellow Arikara’ are still flowering (they actually seem to have even more flowers now than before).  Pea production has slowed but not stopped, and the fava/broad bean production seems to be continuing apace despite the weather. Perhaps they are provided some extra shade by the now-taller pea plants on the trellis.  It would be interesting to see if it could be replicated in another garden – the supposition being that the favas are bushier at first than the peas, and thus though planted on the north-by-northeast side of the main pea trellis, they still get a good amount of the sunlight coming in, and then, as the pea plants start to bush up and reach their full size, the more dappled amount of sunlight actually helps prolong the favas’ lives.  Is this supposition correct?  I don’t know.  I guess we’ll see how the upcoming days go for the favas.

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Today’s Legume Seed-Ins

Miscellaneous

Tepary Bean ‘San Felipe Pueblo White’ Large white seeds mixed with enormous (for a tepary) light tan, flattened seeds. White and lilac flowers, large leaves. A collection from 5200 ft. in New Mexico.  (Native Seeds/SEARCH)

Sword Bean ‘Akanata Mame’ This sword bean cultivated in Japan produces pinkish-red flowers and beans. The beans, which have a ridged edge, are harvested when they are still immature, or when they are roughly 4″ long. Prepare these beans as you would snap beans. Maturity: Approx. 70 days (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Winged Bean Every part of this climbing tropical bean—from the leaves and flowers to the pods and tubers—is edible and high in protein. The winged pods are best and most sweet when picked very young, about 3″-4″ long. Cross-sectioned pods have four corners. Prepare these delicious beans as you would snap beans. Maturity: Approx. 75 days (Kitazawa Seed Co.)  Adding the description from Baker Creek’s catalog:  (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) This is one of the most unique beans; it produces delicious pods with four winged edges, the leaves are cooked like spinach and the roots have a delicious, nutty flavor. This high-protein bean is an excellent crop and is so useful in the kitchen. The plants are tropical and do best in warm areas. They will not produce well when the days are long, so it may not yield until fall. Soak seeds 24 hours before planting. We have had a hard time keeping any winged beans on the shelf ever since Mother Earth News ran an article on this bean.

Edamame ‘Envy’ Early 80-day variety is great for the North. Perfect for Edamame, fresh shelling or dried; nice green-colored beans have good flavor; developed by the late Prof. Elwyn Meader, UNH.

Edamame ‘Davis Family Blend’ 75 days.Vigorous 3 foot plant. Harvest plump, green pods before any yellowing from late August into September. Pale green or yellow seeds. Can be boiled in the pods when young and tender. Called edamame in Japanese cuisine. A favorite of the Davis family’s community supported farm. (Turtle Tree)

Moth Bean Phaseolus aconitifolius (Mat Bean, Mother Bean) Indigenous to India, and highly drought resistant. The sprawling mat-forming plants do well in very hot weather (to 100-120 deg. F) and protect the soil. Small pods 1-2 “ long,1/2” wide contain 4-8 /tiny beans. In India the young pods are a vegetable and the dry beans are used like lentils as “dal”. Very high protein at 22-24%. It alone did well in drought-stricken north Kenya. In California trials as a green manure it smothered all weeds except milkweed. (Bountiful Gardens)

Gram Bean/Mung Bean ‘Black Pod’ (Vigna radiata) Gram or Mung beans have so many uses. Popular in all of Asia; can be used in soups, stews, curries, breads, fermented, for sprouting and so many other uses; so easy to grow. This variety produces pods that ripen to black with small, green seeds.  (Baker Creek)

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Lima Beans (AKA Butter Beans)

Jackson Wonder (Bush) 66 days. Standard southern variety. [Introduced 1888. Originated by Georgia farmer, Thomas Jackson]. This popular heirloom variety yields well under hot, dry conditions. Contains 3 to 5 seeds per pod. Seeds are buff-colored with purple-black mottling. Good especially as a fresh or dried butterbean. Also does well in northern areas. (all my limas are from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)

King of the Garden (Pole) 88 days. The most widely grown heirloom lima. [Introduced in 1883 by Frank Platt after selecting 5- and 6-seeded pods of ‘Large White’ pole lima.] Produces 4 to 7 in. long by 1-1/4 in. wide pods, containing 4 to 6 large creamy-white seeds with honey-like flavor. Vines grow to 9-1/2′ and bear heavily over an extended season. An old favorite of excellent quality. (SESE)

Worchester Indian Red (Pole) The hardiest lima we offer. [Introduced in 1990 by SESE. Reported to be of Native American origin, pre-1868.] Produces medium-sized limas on heat and drought-resistant plants and is a prolific producer under adverse conditions. Seeds range in color from dull red to dull maroon-red. This variety still exhibits a wild trait: a few pods spring open (shatter) when the pods are completely dry. (SESE)

Violet’s Multi-Colored Butterbeans (Semi-Bush) 80-90 days [Banks County, GA, saved by 4 generations of Violet Brady Westbrook’s family.] A rainbow of colors – cream, beige, red-brown, and violet-purple, with speckles and swirls. Small seeds have great flavor, good both fresh or dried. 3-5” pods. Semi-bush plants have good disease- and drought-resistance. (SESE; no longer listed on their site)

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Cowpeas (AKA Black-Eyed Peas, Southern Peas, and more)

I had no idea just how crazy I had gone with the cowpea acquisitions this year until I sorted my beans this spring!  It just goes to show that I should really keep a running list of what I’ve bought/swapped after each purchase/swap (or better yet, write out everything I’m planning to buy/swap beforehand), but hey, at least life’s interesting this way.  We’ll see how the cowpeas do with their own patch this year instead of being planted on the edge of the pole bean patch as in the last two years here (without the greatest success, or I wouldn’t have changed it – although they’ve done better than the limas).

Corrientes Collected in Nayarit, Mexico. Extremely hardy and prolific, with dark red seeds. Excellent as green beans or shelled. (Native Seeds/SEARCH)

Texas The color of red sandstone, this cowpea is from the Eagle Pass area of Texas. They were described as a heat tolerant ‘pole bean’ with superior flavor. (Native Seeds/SEARCH)

Haricot Rouge du Burkina-Faso An heirloom from Burkina-Faso, West Africa. Colorful, red-purple pods have deep red seeds. This pretty variety produces well even in extreme conditions.  (Baker Creek)

Sugar Cream Delicious, cream-colored peas are great dried or as snaps. Robust, yellow flowered vines produce heavy yields of this southern heirloom that has been grown for generations. (Baker Creek)

Cream 40 (Texas Cream 40)— 65 days Texas Cream 40 is a distinct, early variety. The semi-bush growth is very prolific. The pods are six to eight inches long, medium sized, and slightly curved. The seeds are small, kidney-shaped, and white with an orange eye. (Victory Seeds)

Big Red Ripper (Mandy) 70 days. [Heirloom from VA and NC] Large number of peas per pod. A good flavored table pea with 10″ long pods containing as many as 18 large peas per pod! Reddish-green pods are borne high and are easy to see in the foliage. The vines are resistant to very hot, dry summers. Use fresh or dried. Very popular with our Texas customers. (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)

Peking Black 80 days. Flavorful, large black peas. [From the collection of the Southern Seed Legacy via grower Harry Cooksey.] There is a bit of mystery about this variety’s origins. But there is no doubt that it produces an abundance of delicious black crowder type peas on vigorous disease free plants. (SESE)

Whippoorwill 85 days [Brought to the Americas from Africa during the slave trade, grown by Jefferson at Monticello.] Once the standard for southern peas, this variety is drought-tolerant and will grow in almost all soils. 5′ vines produce loads of 7-8″ green pods with a purple tinge. Mature seeds are small and light brown with black speckles. Seeds are good eaten green or dried. (SESE)  Editorial note:  This is a legendary cowpea, considered one of the oldest still in cultivation in the US.  There are said to be two types being grown now in the US, one the true heirloom, another a more modern variety with the same name (possibly originally developed from the heirloom, but I’m not sure).  There is a way to tell which one you have, which I am currently forgetting the entirety of, though I believe part of it is the size of the leaves.

Colossus 58-65 days [1972 Clemson U. release] One of the largest and best of the crowder peas. Light-brown seeds in straw-colored, purple-tinted 7-9” pods. Very prolific, easy to shell. (SESE)

Arkansas Razorback [1960s U. of Arkansas release] Very colorful red-and-white calico peas with good flavor. Yellow pods on moderate 3’ vines. (SESE)

Peas, favas, and Arikara beans 23 June 2009

Pods of pea 'Golden Sweet' ripening on the 12th: One of the most unique things about this pea is that the areas of the plant right around the flowers/pod are also a golden yellow, as you may be able to tell in this photo.

I harvested 11 peas this morning, the most yet (by 1 pea).  There were 10 more snap/sugar snap peas as well as the first shelling pea.  This cool, rainy weather has slowed flowering, but there are many peas already ripening on the vines.  It looks like there will be several more shelling peas ready soon.  The weather seems to have especially negatively affected ‘Golden Sweet,’ and I am wondering if this is because my stock came from a market in India (according to Baker Creek’s catalog) and perhaps it finds this weather especially unfavorable as a result.  There are also many fava/broad beans ripening now and it looks like the first couple are almost ready to harvest.  The fava beans seem completely undaunted by the weather, still putting out flowers daily and they appear to have more pods ripening each day as well.  The Arikara beans (cultivar ‘Yellow Arikara’) have started flowering!  I noticed it this morning, but spent very little time in the garden yesterday so it could have begun then.  They are only a couple of feet tall.  (They are bush beans)  I hope the coming heat wave does not kill them before they can produce anything like happened last year.  For those that have not read previous entries (or missed the relevant ones), Arikara beans are rare in that they actually prefer relatively cool weather despite being beans.  Hot summers typically kill them.  They were developed by the Arikara tribes of what are now the Dakotas in the US to produce in the short seasons there.  They can be planted earlier than any other garden bean I’ve yet found.  I have no idea why sources (even most of those selling them) typically do not mention this fact as I find it the most valuable thing about them.

My plans to work in the garden like mad (before the coming heat wave) have been hampered by this weather.  It’s so incredibly humid and misty that I got sticky just harvesting the peas and checking on the other crops!

Runner beans 6 June 2009

Yesterday I went back to the nursery to stock up on bamboo poles/stakes.  Making the trellises for the peas and the (ornamental) flowering vines, and the support thing for the fava/broad beans (which consists of a bunch of poles with a single length of garden twine looped around them to help keep the fava/broad beans from falling over) used up most of the stakes I had from last year, and since all those things are still growing quite well in this unusually cool weather, I couldn’t recycle any of the stakes yet.  I was just outside staking the rest of the runner beans and pole beans that have already sprouted, and I’ve already used up nearly all of the 4 ft. and 5 ft. stakes I bought!  (The 4 ft. stakes come in packs of 25 and the 5 ft. in packs of 10.)  I also bought a pack of 2 ft. stakes (also 25 per pack) for dwarf plants that might need some support, like my edamames (soybeans) which are still slowly sprouting (unfortunately I think the hot day lulled them into beginning to sprout and now the cooler day has quite slowed it down) and the bush runner beans.  The nursery’s bamboo stakes come painted in a greenish-blue color, which I guess is meant to make them blend in (gods forbid that a pole actually appear in the American landscape), but which I actually find rather irritating because it tends to rub off.  By the time I finished staking, my palms were coated in blue-green!  It took five washings before my hands were free of paint.  The hardware store used to carry unpainted bamboo poles; I wish they still did.

Doing the staking allowed me to take stock of what’s going on with the new sprouts.  The scarlet runner bean (species) and runner beans ‘Potato Bean,’ ‘Four Corners,’ and ‘White Aztec’ appear to have had 100% germination or nearly so (depending on the species).  Runner beans ‘White Emergo’ and ‘Painted Lady’ are partially sprouted but not fully yet, and the one I got from another local gardener later than I planted the rest, ‘White Aztec Half-Runner,’ still has the tiniest of sprouts (I suspect that, like the edamames, the hot weather fooled it).  The purple-podded beans have similarly had erratic germination, with some having more plants up than others.  (See recent entries for descriptions of the purple-podded beans; see the bottom of this post for descriptions of the runner beans.)  The garbanzo bean still hasn’t sprouted, so by this point I am wondering whether it’s going to do so.  One plant of the ‘Aztec White’ appears to have had some damage to its leaves, but there was no pest visible so I don’t know what it was.  Some sites allege that ‘Potato Bean’ and ‘White Aztec Half-Runner’ are the same thing, but I don’t know if that is true.  I also don’t know if my ‘Aztec White’ is the same as the ‘White Aztec Half-Runner’ that I was given.  We shall see!

Yesterday I potted up the two daturas I mail-ordered (‘Ballerina Yellow,’ a double yellow, and ‘Evening Fragrance,’ a single white) and the old-fashioned petunias that I also mail-ordered (Petunia integrifolia, ‘Old-Fashioned Climbing,’ and ‘Rainmaster’).   I’ve nearly used up the outdoor potting soil.  I’ll have to find someone to give me a ride to get some more, as I’ve still got some plants to pot up, and some of the ones I overwintered could also do with larger pots.

Yesterday I noted that there were many more sprouts of mesclun – all four pots are now showing many sprouts – and that there were signs of life in the first of the seeded-in big pots, the one with miscellaneous greens (basically, any green that isn’t lettuce or baby leaf).  I haven’t checked on them yet today.  [Edit after checking More mesclun and miscellaneous greens up, amd the first sprouts in the huge pot of lettuce.]

I’ve been more diligent about cleaning and refilling the bird bath at least once a day, and have found the birds coming more frequently to it as a result.  Sometimes they get so impatient for me to leave the back garden that they give up while I’m still out there and come back at a later time!  I’ve found the American Robins, Blue Jays, and House Sparrows seem to especially like it so far.  I have an on-the-ground bird bath that simulates bathing in a big puddle, excepting that it’s raised a bit (vs. a puddle) to give them something to sit on.  It’s made in such a way that it gets deeper as it goes to one end, so that there’s a side that’s easiest to bathe in and a side that’s easiest to drink from, but so far this summer everybody seems to just be bathing in it.  Last year the squirrels drank from it, but I haven’t seen them do so yet this year (though they could be doing it while I’m not looking; it’s certainly possible more types of birds are using it while I’m not looking as well).

Runner beans

In America, runner beans are usually cultivated as ornamentals.  I don’t know why, as they are tasty!

Scarlet Runner Bean (Phaseolus coccineus) A Mexican native that was popularized by the great eighteenth-century English garden writer, Philip Miller, the Scarlet-runner is still very popular in Europe for the edible bean. Jefferson planted this lovely vine with its showy scarlet flowers in 1812, noting: “Arbor beans white, crimson, scarlet, purple…on long walk of garden.” In 1806 the Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon wrote that it was grown in America exclusively as an ornamental.  Whether for beauty or utility, sow the large, mottled seeds in a sunny part of your garden after the last frost. Seeds should be planted about one inch deep in well-prepared soil. The Scarlet-runner will climb up to twenty feet, and requires a trellis, arbor, fence, or bean poles to support its vining habit. Beans may be harvested and eaten when young and tender.

Painted Lady This bi-colored variety of Scarlet-runner Bean, with showy scarlet and white flowers, is an heirloom of garden origin. This tropical American species was popularized by 18th-century garden writer, Philip Miller. Jefferson planted Scarlet-runner vine in 1812 for its beauty and shade, noting: “Arbor beans white, crimson, scarlet, purple…on long walk of garden.” Sow the large, mottled seeds 1-inch deep in well-prepared soil after the last frost. Climbs to 20 feet and requires a trellis, arbor, fence, or beanpoles for support. Beans are edible.

Aztec White White flowered variety that produces large, white seeds. The fastest maturing scarlet runner at the Conservation Farm (4000 ft.).

Four Corners A beautiful, deep purple and black bean from the Navajo Reservation. Originally collected in the late 1980s. Produces bright red flowers that attract hummingbirds. Does not like intense heat of the low desert, but is prolific at the Conservation Farm at 4000′.

Potato Bean An heirloom that was sent to us from a family in Oregon. They had been growing it for many years. It produces huge, fat, white beans that are among the largest I have seen! Great for cooking. Vining plants set good yields. Delicious and hard to find.

White Emergo 80 days — Similar to ‘Scarlet Runner’ but with white flowers.  Vigorous growth with prolific yields of long, slender pods.  The beans are quite good when pods are picked young and tender.  They are full of flavor and fleshy with a fine texture.  Pick regularly to ensure a continuous crop.

Aztec Half-Runner Originally cultivated by the Anasazi, the “ancients” of the Southwest, these plump, large white beans make a hearty, thick soup. 4-5 in. pods are particularly succulent and delicious raw or cooked. 3 ft. runners do not require staking. (60-75 days)  [Since I got these from a local gardener, I pasted a description from a random webpage. I’m not positive this is the same bean, as I was told the seeds I was given would max out at a foot or less.  We shall see!]

Much in the garden 30 May 2009

After a string of days of rain and cool temperatures, it was finally sunny and warm and windy today, and the garden responded quite strongly to the difference.  The baby blue eyes, which had been budded for at least a couple of days, opened today (they’d been seeded in), and heirloom iris ‘Wabash’ opened its first two blooms.  Scarlet runner bean (the species, not a cultivar) had two big healthy shoots coming up, and several of the edamames (soybeans) were sprouting, as well as at least one more runner bean, ‘Four Corners.’ The comfrey, which had been budding up for weeks, is finally blooming, and I imagine the also-budded-for-weeks peach-leaved bellflower will be next, as another nearby garden’s finally opened after the rain stopped late last night. The chives (also budded for weeks!) opened one bloom just before the rain started, and now several more slowly started opening over the course of today.  Several more garden pea buds also opened, and critter activity was crazy after all the days of rain – I saw so many tiny bees and tiny spiders and one of the back garden’s squirrels crawled down the nearest tree and stared cheekily at me while pointedly flicking its tail, as if I were the intruder for daring to be out in the yard.  Squirrels are so funny!

I did so much carrying today that my back is so very sore.  I’ve now got four half-barrels all set up, and have partially planted one of them with tomato ‘Polish Linguisa’ and purple basil.  I’d actually planned to plant the other three today, but I got so tired.  Hopefully tomorrow.  I even got the seeds all organized and the labels written out, so all I need to do now is that actual sowing.

I also planted tomato ‘Sioux,’ “Japanese” cucumber ‘Toyko’ (so the little label calls it, though the only cultivar with that in the title seems to be ‘Tokyo Long’) – a third seed sprouted after I bought the little pot, so I have three plants from one small nursery pot!, summer savory, and most of the plants from this week’s farmers’ market – sunflowers ‘Velvet Queen’ and ‘Big Smile, the rosemary,’ the two cardinal vines, the six-packs of calendula ‘Flashback Mix’ and marigold ‘Tangerine Gem,’ and lavenders ‘Lady’ and ‘French Fringed.’   (I compared the tarragon I got there with the tarragon I already have, and I think the new one is Russian taragon.  I don’t blame the farm, since Russian tarragon seed is often mistakenly sold as French tarragon seed [intentionally or not, you be the judge] – depending on the source, French tarragon either “cannot” set seed or “rarely” does so – but now I don’t know what to do with the plant.  Russian tarragon tastes like crap [to me, anyhow] and, as I understand it, can be quite aggressive in gardens.)  I also sowed bean ‘Caseknife’ (simply the best producer in this garden!) and resowed the lentils with abysmal germination (even though it’s probably too close to summer now for the plants to survive till seed-setting stage (since lentil is a cool-weather legume like peas and fava/broad beans), there are so many seeds in the seed packs that I figured it was worth trying again to see if it’s a germination problem or some other issue (maybe birds ate the first ones? – or whatever else).  Yes, today is a ‘fruit day’ in biodynamic growing parlance.  So’s tomorrow.

Canning article / Recently in the garden 27 May 2009

There is a pretty nice article on home canning in today’s New York Times, targeted towards beginners, Preserving Time in a Bottle (Or a Jar), with a sidebar, Some Canning Dos and Don’ts.  The online version includes a video clip and a slide show.

The snowmelt has emphatically run out in the front garden by now.  Yesterday many of the areas that I hadn’t watered recently (I try to do hand-watering of selected plants when possible instead of whole-garden watering) had quite literally turned to powder.  The ability of the wind and other weather patterns to so completely dry out the front garden so fast never ceases to amaze me.  Thankfully, as I type it’s finally raining, though again the heaviest rain is tracking away from us (usually in the past month it tracks to the south, but this time it’s tracking to the north).

Yesterday I did some planting.  My biggest focus was on the vines that I ordered from Select Seeds (4) and picked up from the nursery recently (2) as they all appeared to be pot-bound and because I know vines want to get going – want to become vines instead of being trapped, being a tiny size in a tiny pot.  I ended up planting 5 of the 6 with the little stand of sweet peas, figuring they could take over when the majority of the sweet peas inevitably die with the onset of long-lasting heat.   The 6th, Spanish Flag (Mina lobata), I planted at the base of the cup plant (Midwestern US native Silphium perfoliatum), a sturdy trellis if there ever was one.  Cup plant is such a hefty presence in the garden that I already get people asking about it even though it’s far from flowering and still short (for cup plant’s standards – maybe 3 feet tall).  Anyway, the biggest reason I picked Spanish Flag for tht spot is because it’s suppsoed to be more tolerant of partial shade than the other vines I planted, and I figured cup plant would, just because of its impressive stature, make whatever climbed on it a bit shaded.  The others I planted were Purple Bell Vine (Rhodochiton atrosanguineum), Creeping Gloxinia (Asarina erubescens) ‘Wine Red,’ Mexican Flame Vine (Senecio confusus) ‘Sao Paulo,’ one of two plants sold as Cardinal Vine, and a morning glory that I think is ‘Blue Star,’ and which I was enchanted by at the nursery because of its tag’s photo of a flower that reminded me of things washed up on seashores, but in photos online looks to be blue-on-blue instead of the photo’s appearance of blue-on-white (still, it appears to be pretty).  After I finished planting them, I handmade a trellis using bamboo poles and garden twine.

I also planted two more creeping verbenas (the two I already had are a deep purple; the new ones are one each in pale lavender and a medium purple), another lantana (‘Citrus,’ which I’ve never grown before [I don’t know if it’s a new cultivar] and which is a pale peachy-orange ringing a bright yellow, and looks lovely planted with the yellow African daisy, the white-with-yellow-centers bacopa, and the pastel stocks, as if it ties the two color themes together better), and twelve young annual ice plants in a mix of colors, ten of them ringing one corner of the garden, one more planted slightly off by the yellow African daisy, and the last one planted at the front retaining wall to provide a bit of consistency.  I think I might’ve planted a couple more things too, but I can’t remember.  I also found a young pea growing in the flower bed and, unsure if it was a sweet pea or a garden pea, transplanted it into the crop patch, off by itself, to see what it becomes.  I assume the ants did the redecorating, as usual.

The peas and fava/broad beans are doing really well.  More favas have blooms every day.  I still love their beautiful white blooms with black splotches; they have such character to me.  Yesterday I noticed the first pea bloom, a white one on one of the dwarf peas (I think it’s ‘De Grace’), and then realized that several of the tall pea plants had buds.  It looks like the rain and crisp air are encouraging them to open their blooms today. The runner beans, edamames (soy beans), and garbanzo bean hadn’t sprouted yet in my last thorough check yesterday, but the last three purple-podded beans have come up since my last update.  (Information on them is pasted below.)  As I’ve said before, how I love purple-podded beans!

Yesterday and today were/are ‘flower days’ in biodynamic growing parlance.  I mentioned what I did yesterday, and today I’m hoping to sow the zinnias, nasturtiums, marigolds, and morning glories.  Marigolds are the first plant I ever remember growing from seed, in window boxes at my bedroom as a child, and I still love their ease of growing from seed and their beautiful flowers, especially the single flowers that I grew up with (neither I nor the pollinators are overly fond of most floofy double marigolds).  Zinnias and nasturtiums are two more of the easiest flowers to grow from seed, and as I noted here last early summer, sowing them shortly before storms works very well as the storm soaks the seed, meaning you can skip the general recommendation of soaking them for 12-24 hours before planting (also a recommendation for morning glory seed).  It’s supposed to thunderstorm later this week (though we’ll see) so I’m hoping planting them today will mean they’ll be soaked shortly and then sprout in the hotter temperatures to come at week’s end.  Right now it’s frigid for this time of year; clocking in in the upper 40s F, it is colder than our average low temperature.  Lucky for ‘De Grace’ that it loves this kind of temperature (it’s supposed to be one of the hardiest garden peas, able to handle some frost well, though in fairness, I’ve found that many of the other heirloom peas are similar in this regard).

My neighborhood farmers’ market starts today, not the best day weather-wise for it, but I am still quite looking forward to perusing all the seedlings for sale, many often things that can’t be found at the local nursery and/or are not organic there.  (Most of the farms at my market are organic, be it in label or solely in practice, but most of the nusery’s suppliers are not.)  Usually the first two or three weeks are mostly plants with some produce, and then the ratio gradually flips until by midsummer there’s usually just one stand selling plants, a fairly new stand that was so unfriendly that I don’t remember them ever even saying hello to me even though I browsed for several minutes at least three different weeks, and the first time, would have probably bought a couple plants from them if I’d been able to find a staff member (that week, there didn’t even appear to be anyone manning the stand when I stopped by, and I wasn’t the only one seriously looking at the time).  Anyhow, the point is that I’m looking forward to seeing the staff again and to getting quality plants and tasty food!  Yay for farmers’ markets!

Royalty Purple Pod Bush. Purple bushes with short runners and purple flowers. Bright-purple stringless 5″-6″ pods cook to dark green. Buff colored seeds germinate in cold, wet soil. Bred by E.M. Meader at the University of New Hampshire and introduced in 1957. (freebie from Peaceful Valley; I strongly favor pole beans, and don’t grow many [sometimes any] bush beans)

Dean’s Purple 55. days. Vigorous, prolific, beautiful. [Family heirloom from Tennessee.] Supplied to us courtesy seedsavers Mark Schonbeck, Valerie Lyle and Dean Turley. Dean recieved the beans as a gift from a student whose family brought it to Frost Bottom, Tennessee when they settled there 150 years ago. Plants form a gorgeous purple and green screen loaded with vivid purple beans. Save both light and dark seedsfor the more tender purple pods and finer taste. Minimal bean beetle damage when other varieties were destroyed. (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)

Purple Marconi Just in from Italy, a fabulous violet purple Italian pole bean. I was so pleased with these pole snap beans. Vigorous and growing on strong vines up to 8 feet, these are just too beautiful to eat! These were grown on a trellis but they got so big and strong we had to attach an “addition” onto the fence holding up the trellis. They are very ornamental and lovely. The “Purple Marconi Pole Beans” have flat 5-7 inch long pods that turn green when blanched, but the color can be maintained if steam blanched for under 2 minutes. These have a sweet but hearty taste, and are best picked young. Another edible ornamental for your garden, try them raw with crudites for their gorgeous color. Pretty early for a pole sort at 67 days to maturity. (Amishland Seeds)

Another day, another update 23 May 2009

I’m trying to be better about updating, so I’m trying to update at least every couple of days.  In that spirit, here is what’s going on in the garden today:

*After two days of heat (mid-90s F two days ago, around 90 F yesterday) and sunshine, the weather has drastically changed, and the temperature is cooler now, at midday, than it was when I went to bed last night (when it was in the mid-70s F).  It’s in the 50s F with a cool ocean breeze and it is thickly grey.  We have had a very dry May after a cool, wet early spring, and it was quite nice to feel a medium rain as I was walking home from the nursery, umbrella-less, this morning.  The rain didn’t last very long (maybe 10-15 minutes), but it continues to look as if it could start again at any moment.  I hope it does.  I continue to believe that no matter what watering devices and watering sources we humans come up with, there’s no substitute for actual real rain for plants.

*Speaking of the nursery:  While there today I got some more annuals –  flowers and coleus (I’ve been disappointed that their selection of herbs has remained pretty static in recent weeks, and am looking forward to the farmers’ market starting this coming week, when I will have new herb plants to choose from!) – and three crop plants, two of them heirloom tomatoes – one each of ‘Sioux’ and an Italian one – and a Japanese cucumber plant, which I think has ‘Kyoto’ in the name.  The potted cucumber actually has two seedlings growing in it instead of one.  We’ll see if they both survive.  ‘Sioux’ is supposed to do better in heat than most tomatoes (which I actually didn’t realize till I brought it home; I just liked the description when I was at the nursery), so I’m thinking of planting it in the front garden instead of in a pot.

*The ‘fruit days’ period (in biodynamic parlance) ends shortly today, so I went out after I got home and sowed a runner bean I was given yesterday, ‘Aztec Half Runner,’ which is supposed to be quite dwarf, about seven inches tall, as well as my edamame (as I discussed possibly doing in my last post) – soy beans ‘Lucky Lion,’ ‘Moon Cake,’ ‘Kouri,’ and ‘Tankuro’ – and the melons (‘Chanterais,’ ‘Hale’s Best Jumbo,’ and the rather dully named ‘Old Original’) and other cucumber, also a Japanese one (‘Soyu’).  I am, in fact, somewhat sensitive to cucumbers, and so I thought I would try growing the ones that we English speakers call ‘Japanese,’ which are supposed to have both a different chemical composition and a different taste than European cucumbers.  ‘Moon Cake’ is a bit of a mystery to me – it seems to barely be offered by any companies (if even that), and even the one that I ordered it from over the winter no longer lists it on their website!  It was just introduced earlier this decade, according to what I read this morning, and is supposed to be much taller than most edamames, averaging 5-6 feet.  My other three are all from Kitazawa Seed Co., one green seeded, one brown seeded, and one black seeded.  (See their descriptions pasted below.)  Green seeded soybeans are by far the most common ones in the US, perhaps because many catalogs erroneously list other seed colors as being only for dry beans (in reality, whether the beans can be eaten fresh has nothing to do with the color of the planted seed).

*The purple-podded beans have started to sprout, joining earliest bean ‘Arikara Yellow.’  So far, ‘Blue Coco,’ ‘Trionfo Violetto,’ and ‘Purple Podded’ are coming up.  (See descriptions pasted below.)  The runner beans have yet to show sprouts.

*I noticed while I was out sowing that the blueberries seem to have doubled in leaf numbers just since I mulched them with compost two days ago.

*The fava/broad beans are doing even better now that it’s cooled off.  They’ve increased their bloom count.  The ants are obsessed with wandering back and forth on them, like they always do.  I’ve never figured out why.  (There are certain other plants in the garden that they are also obsessed with – especially my autumn-blooming colchicums, but only when they’re in bloom.)

*Continuing my disappointment with Cook’s Garden (sure do wish I’d remembered Burpee’s had bought them out before I ordered), they just notified me yesterday that they were finally shipping my shallots.  It had been so long that I had actually forgotten I’d ordered shallots from them!  The notice piously said that they were shipping at the right time for me to plant them in my area, but it is well past the best time to plant shallots here.  Johnny’s Select Seed sent me their shallots a couple of months ago, and Moose Tubers (the root slips division of Fedco Co-Op) sent theirs a few weeks later.  (Both those are in Maine.  Cook’s Garden is farther away, in Pennsylvania.)  Well, hopefully they will be OK planted this coming week (they have yet to arrive), even though they should have been sent earlier.   My already-planted shallots appear to be doing well.

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Soybean ‘Kouri’ Brown-seeded soybeans are uncommon in the United States. They are highly prized in Japan for their sweeter and nuttier flavor compared to the traditional green/tan seeded soybeans. Even though the seed for planting is brown, you will find the color of the bean dark green at harvest and it retains this color when cooked. The pod’s pubescence is light brown. The plant habit is semi-upright growing about 2 feet tall. Warm day temperatures and cool night temperatures are important for good results. This is an early maturing variety and seeds are sown from early May after danger of all frost to late June and harvested from late July to early September. Boil in salted water and bite or squeeze the beans from the pods directly into your mouth. Maturity: Approx. 85 days  (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Soybean ‘Tankuro’ In Japan, the black-seeded soybeans are noted as having a richer and sweeter flavor compared to the traditional green/tan seeded soybeans. Even though the seed for planting is black, you will find the color of the bean dark green at harvest and it retains this color when cooked. The pod’s pubescence is light brown. The plant habit is semi-upright growing up to 2½ feet tall. Warm day temperatures and cool night temperatures are important for good results. This is an early maturing variety and seeds are sown from late April after danger of all frost to early June and harvested from mid July to late August. Boil pods in salted water and bite or squeeze the beans from the pods directly into your mouth. Enjoy! Maturity: Approx. 85 days  (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Soybean ‘Lucky Lion’ This variety of soybean is prized for its high yield and excellent nutty flavor. There are typically 3 beans per each bright green pod. This is a mid-early maturing type variety, indeterminate type and grows about 2 feet tall. Warm day temperatures and cool night temperatures are important for good results. Prepare as an appetizer by boiling pods in salted water and serve cooked beans or “edamame.” Maturity: Approx. 75 days (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Pole Bean ‘Trionfo Violetto’ Purple climbing French type bean. 75 days. Beautiful bean, long, slim and very crisp. Makes a stunning fresh bean salad when mixed with one of our green and yellow french beans. Turns green when cooked. Like most French type beans, should be picked when no thicker than a pencil for greatest tenderness and best flavor.  (imported from an Italian seed company)

Pole Bean ‘Blue Coco’ 59 days. Distinctive flavor and color. [Pre-1775 French heirloom.] The name ‘Blue Coco’ refers to the bluish-purple color of the pods and the chocolate (coco) color of the seeds. Leaves are green, tinged with purple. The fleshy, slightly curved flattened pods range from 6 to 7-1/2 in. long, and have a nice meaty flavor. Outstanding characteristics of this variety are color and ability to produce under hot, dry conditions. (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)  I love ‘Blue Coco’ so much that here is a second description about it to entice you: Blue Coco (pre-1775) – Also known as Purple Pod and Blue Podded Pole. One of the oldest of the purple podded pole varieties, this rare variety was known in France as early as 1775. The young pods are delicious harvested young as snap beans and the beige to “coco” colored seeds have a meaty texture when used as a dry bean. The coloration of the dry seed varies with soil and climate. It is very durable and excellent for short season climates because it is quite early for a pole bean and is also very tolerant of adverse conditions. (60 days for snaps) Pole. EXTREMELY RARE. (pasted from Heritage Harvest Seeds in the UK)

Pole Bean ‘Purple Podded Pole’ This is a heavenly, almost fluorescent purple pole bean, hailing from the Ozark mountains. This lovely heirloom beauty was found growing in a garden the 1930’s by the old Henry Fields Seed Company. It is most likely of European origin and probably dating much earlier than that . Very vigorous grower of vines reaching easily over 6 -8 feet , but not out of control like some pole types I have grown. […] These gorgeous snap beans are stringless, nice and meaty . They are less than 1/2 inch across by about 5-7 inches long. The entire bean plant just glows and is quite ornamental with purple vines and veins in the leaves, and as you can see in the photo lovely bi-colored purple flowers as well. Fairly early for a pole sort. Seed is a buff brown color, with a hint of lavender.  (Amishland Seeds)

‘Why do you grow so many legumes?’ 24 March 2009

Friends are often curious as to why I devote such a large percentage of my growing space to legumes, and I thought that perhaps my readers are as well.   I have been thinking about it this week because I read a blog post by a fellow vegetarian who said that she deliberately devotes about 25% of her crop plot to legumes because they are such a great protein source for vegetarians (or for anyone, frankly).  For me, that’s definitely part of it.  I love the protein boost they give me, and I love their taste as well.  And the taste thing pinpoints something else – I love the tremendous amount of variety amongst them, both between and within each species. I think of legumes as akin to the tulips of the flower world:  Because there’s such tremendous, nearly ridiculous, variety, there’s one out there that almost everybody will like.  But with them, it’s not just their looks but their taste.  Wander through a patch of peas or garden beans and you’ll see what I mean.  The amount of difference in taste, texture, and uses even amongst different garden beans is simply astounding.  Additionally, they are such pretty plants.  There’s a reason that many catalogs carry hyacinth beans and scarlet runner beans in the ‘ornamental’ section.  But they are far from the only beautiful legumes!

The tremendous variety also means that it’s quite easy to find a seed variety in a catalog or shop that is difficult or impossible to find in your own locale, at least here in the legume-boring US.  My own farmers’ market typically only carries the following legumes:

• One cultivar each snap pea, snow pea, and shelling pea in early summer.  Most stands only carry the snap pea and it seems to have the same taste from every stand.  (They all carry the same cultivar of leek, so it very well may be just one cultivar)
• Pea shoots from the Hmong farmers’ stand in early summer (pea shoots are more common fare in Asian cuisines)
• One cultivar semi-snap/semi-shelling bean from midsummer to early autumn (it looks similar to Dragon Langerie but I don’t know if it actually is) at one stand
• Two to three cultivars wax bean, usually green and yellow, but some years/weeks also purple – from midsummer to early autumn.  One to three stands depending on the week.
• In 2007 one stand had edamame for one week.  In 2008 another had fava/broad beans for two weeks.  But that was it.

There are no Roma type beans, no runner beans or other non-garden-bean species, no dry beans, no unusual peas, no cowpeas, you get the idea.  Even in stores here, I usually have to go to a so-called “ethnic” store or “ethnic” section to find more than a meager selection of beans (and any lentils or cowpeas at all).  Most “mainstream” stores just have kidney beans, a white bean (usually butter beans or cannelini beans), pinto beans, black beans, and chick peas, and often not even that full assortment.  My Spanish-language tutor has talked about how jarring it was when he moved to the US and couldn’t find much of a selection of frijoles (beans) in stores any more.

So, to me, many yellow onions (for example) taste pretty similar from one to another, but two different garden bean cultivars can look and taste dramatically different and have very different best uses in the kitchen (not to even get into other species of legume), so it is worth the garden space in my urban garden to grow a wide range of them.   I believe that diets benefit as much from biodiversity as gardens/farms do, so hopefully my nutrition is the richer for my wide legume devotion; I know that my garden experiences, at the very least, are.