Bean Varieties

How many different types of beans are there? I had no idea there were so many until last winter when I began researching them, looking for the perfect beans to grow. We have always grown yellow wax beans and love them, but hubby is not fond of the standard green beans, so I went on a quest for really good beans. If we are going to devote that much space and time to something, we should really, really like it and not just grow it because, well, you know everyone else does. I mean, what's a garden without beans?

We still grew the standard yellow wax bush beans because we love them, but we also grew other kinds, unusual and different kinds, this year.
One that we like a lot is the "asparagus" bean. It's touted to taste like asparagus and it does! It's delicious! This one is actually called "Gow Dauk Yard Long Asparagus Bean". It's not a yard long but it is long. Each bean is about a foot long, slender and tender and good and it does taste like asparagus! We will definitely grow a lot of them next year! I only have a few plants this year, not even enough for us to eat, just enough to grow seed for a row of them next year. I will probably also buy some seeds next year, if I can find them. I got these in a trade from another gardener.


One of the most promising and interesting beans I planted is "Aunt Mollie's Mushroom Bean". The beans themselves, not the pods, are suppose to taste like mushrooms when cooked in things. Interesting! I only have one plant and it doesn't have beans on it yet, so we may not be able to see if this is true. If we do get a few beans this year, it won't be enough to sell them, unfortunately. Not this year, anyway. If we do get beans and, indeed, they do taste like mushrooms when cooked in things, I might have some seeds for sale next year, maybe. If we like these, I may buy these seeds to plant next year, as well. Again, if I can find them.

Another bean I am growing and we like is an heirloom yellow flat bean from Romania called "Gold of Bacau". It's a fast, tall grower and good producer. I will have these beans for sale in the seed store this year. They did really well. That's them in the picture, growing above the hibiscus beside the deck and covered with beans!

I also grew "French Duet" beans, called "duet" because they are a mix of yellow and green. We liked these a lot! They are slender and tender too and grew very well. I may have these seeds for sale this year, still not sure if there will be enough or not.

I always grow scarlet runner beans, for decoration as well as eating. The young tender green beans are very good. Not sure if we will have these beans for sale this year or not. They sure are beautiful in the flower garden! 

We also grew Kentucky Wonder yellow pole beans this year. These are excellent and I might have these seeds for sale this year. I grew these in an attempt to switch from bush beans to pole beans, (much easier on the back!) but they are ready much later so I will still grow both. The yellow bush beans are ready all through late June-July, while the Kentucky Wonder beans come after and are ready in August. Growing both will prolong the bean season.  

I planted a few Blue Lake Stringless green beans too but, while the plants are up and growing well, they have not produced any beans yet, nary a one. That one is probably not going anywhere. Must need a longer growing season. Oh well, as previously stated, hubby is not fond of your standard green beans anyway. He LOVES the asparagus beans, however!

The beans that we grow are for eating of the pod. We don't grow beans that are for eating of the seed. Our season is not that long and, frankly, we don't eat them. I have considered growing pinto beans for chili, but we just don't eat enough chili to bother, but I do consider it every spring. It just doesn't go anywhere, maybe next year...


Although I have said here that I will probably have some of these bean seeds, nothing is definite until it is actually in my hands. Such is the life of a gardener.

There are so many different kinds of beans out there that I could not possibly grow them all. I keep looking for the fabulous, the unique and the useful, not just in beans, but in everything we grow! I am thrilled to find the "asparagus" beans this year!

Asparagus

Our asparagus is finally ready!

Its really past ready as you can see. I cut it about three days ago then got busy. Oops! Looks like I am one day too late for a few of these. Oh well, I need to let 3-4 stalks grow to maturity for the health of the plant.

I did cut a good bunch today. I cooked them slightly, cut off the tips and put them in a salad for dinner. I wolfed down the bottoms. They were so good with a pinch of salt! I like cooked vegetables in tossed salad. I put all the left over vegetables in a salad the next day. Its all good!

The above photo is the older end of our asparagus bed. This is the new end. I planted these from seed three springs ago, so these are three years old.

Some have pencil sized stalks and so could be cut, but most are still too small. I moved them last summer when they were still growing, so they suffered a bit of a setback. We get a few meals worth of asparagus from the older bed anyway, I just wanted to add to it.


Seed is by far the cheapest way to grow things, if you have the time to wait for it.


The older bed was here when we moved in. It is not a wild bed because it is planted in a circle and has purple tipped asparagus. The best kind! You can sometimes find a wild asparagus bed along the sides of a country road or in a field, but they are rare here.

Fresh spring asparagus is one of my favourite vegetables! After a stale winter, a fresh picked veggie of any kind is very welcome!

Coffee Planter gift

I am seeing a long time friend in about a week. She is also a gardener so I thought I would take her a few seedlings for her garden that I know she has not grown before. A couple of weeks ago a large fast food chain started selling really good, high quality coffee and had a promotion, giving it away free. Shortly into the free coffee promo, I had quite a collection of coffee cups. One day they were sitting on the counter and this idea came to me. What a unique temporary planter that would make! Being a big coffee drinker, I was able to collect quite a few cups and a holder. The medium size worked better than the large tall size which were tippy.

I thought this could be used to start seedlings, since it comes with a lid as well, but for this purpose I am just going to transplant seedlings I already have growing, into the cups. One week is not enough time to grow things from seed. I could also take another set to her planted with seeds and the lids intact if I have time before I go.

I poked holes in the bottom of the cups for drainage and added a piece of aluminum foil to the bottom of the cup to catch the water.

Into the cups I planted: Garlic chives, 'Keri Blue' dahlia, Aunt Molly's ground cherry, Sweet potato, 'Super Shepherd' pepper. I put a label in each cup and put them upstairs in the warm room, under lights. I am hoping they will all be growing and healthy in a few days.

I use slats from horizontal window blinds for plant labels. You can cut them to size and write on them with permanent marker. They last a long time and you get hundreds from one small blind. You can put holes in them to tie onto branches and colour code them too.

I am hoping it will be a surprise but if you are reading this, Diane, see you then! 

Growing Potatoes

I have finally gotten everything planted except the potatoes and tobacco seedlings. I have not planted the potatoes yet because I have been undecided about growing them this year. This is the potato capital of Canada and we have friends with a huge potato farm. These friends have let us pick up potatoes off the ground after the machines have harvested them in the past, also, 50 lb bags of potatoes are so cheap in the fall here. It is not really worth planting them.

The only reason I am considering it is because I want them to make dog food next year and I like the red ones. Most of what is grown around here are white commercial potatoes. Its not the same and they are not nearly as good as homegrown red ones with our own chicken manure. So, all things considered, I am thinking about planting some red ones this week. My father in law assures me that it is not too late to plant them now and I have the room and can make the time for it now that everything else is in the ground and it rained last night. This constant hand watering and sprinkler moving has been killing me! Well, its been taking all of my time, anyway.

I want to plant potatoes in trenches lined with cardboard and covered with thick mulch instead of soil. Since the potatoes grow above the seed potato, they will grow onto the cardboard in the trench. You can also just lay them in the trench on the soil and cover with mulch and still have fairly clean potatoes without any digging. The cardboard is optional.

Thus we will have fairly clean potatoes without any digging. The digging is work, yes, but it also results in a lot of large potatoes cut in half or stabbed. This is what happens when I dig them, anyway. I don't seem to be very good at it :-(

If the trench is covered with straw, we can just lift the mulch to see how the potatoes are progressing or to pick up a few little ones to eat.

I think I may be planting potatoes in this manner this week, perhaps with the cardboard, perhaps without it. Writing this blog has helped me make up my mind. I will let you know how the cardboard/mulch plan works out. I do have a small square bale of old hay I can use for that and some fall leaves I can cut up and add to it.

Another reason to plant potatoes is for the flowers. I like potato flowers in a cut arrangement. They are very pretty and people don't seem to recognise them. Everyone asks what they are and seem quite surprised when I tell them that they are potato flowers. I wonder if I can make a gallon of potato flower wine?

I am still a bit undecided. I might look at the work I already have to do in weeding and harvesting and decide not to plant potatoes this year. I keep changing my mind. That's a woman's perogative, isn't it?

Squash Harvest

Yes, this is my picture above. It is a picture of the squash we harvested today! After a summer of carefully tending the squash, we picked them all today. They will need to age in a warm and dry place for about a month before we cut into one, but we're ok with that.

Squash can be left to age in the field in the sun, after frost has taken the leaves. I think they cure faster this way than in the house as long as you get them inside before the very hard frost damages the rind. You can tell when a squash is ready to be picked by the curlycue nearby. If they have begun to shrivel and turn brown then it is ready to pick but still needs to be cured. You can also tell by the stem. If it is turning brown and no longer green, then the squash is ready. We just picked them all before the frost. The slightly immature ones will not grow any bigger but they will ripen over the winter, off the vine. We had to leave a few babies behind but we had a lot of good squash anyway.

The very large light blue ones are hubbard. Those have to be cut with an axe, but produce the most lovely, sweet, not stringly squash. The long ones with the bulb at the end are the butternut. Those are best for making squash soup, or so I hear. I have never grown butternut before and have used the buttercup and hubbard for everything. The orange ones are ambercup, a buttercup of a different colour. The green ones are nutty delica. I have never grown or eaten delica squash before. They are a Japanese Ebisu hybred that are suppose to have a nutty flavour. We will see.

They are aging for now, but when we do cut a few open, we will judge for ourselves which ones we like the best.

Next year I will also grow Hopi pale gray and Hopi black squash.

I grew acorn squash in the back pasture this year, but have not checked on them yet. I believe there was only one that sprouted. I will have to see if there are any acorn squash very soon.

I have seed to try many other types next year, but we will always grow hubbard.

Ontario Flower Garden Photos

Here are a few pictures of my flowers, taken yesterday:  Pics of my rugosa rose, whose petals I am collecting to make a gallon of rose wine.

Sweet William in front, sedum to the right and malva moschata not yet in bloom behind the rail.

Peach foxglove digitalis and Japanese iris

Russell Lupins








Peony and Buck behind.










Miniature roses.

In The Cold Frame

I have seedlings growing in my cold frame! A lot of them!   These are my Hopi black squash seeds. They are doing very well. With all the rain and warm weather we have had lately, everything is healthy and growing well!  I also have a couple of striped cushaw squash and about a dozen sweet dumpling plants. 


I have 62 tomato seedlings now! I have never planted that many before! They are all organic, mostly heirloom tomatoes. I planted 2-4 of each kind and I have dozens of different varieties!


These are purple hyacinth beans. I have several of them growing and doing well. These are a beautiful, flowering annual vine!  

I also planted several nasturtiums coming up. They are annuals so won't go into the ground until the end of May.

They are all in the cold frame now. They can go into the garden the first of June. Our last frost date is May 24, but I always wait another week before planting out. 

Medicinal Herbs

I made a decision a few years ago to grow my own medicinal herbs and spices. It's a step on the road to natural self sufficiency. Medicinal herbs can be strong medicine and have to be taken carefully. I am not going to tell you how to use the medicinal herbs since I am not a qualified herbalist but there are a lot of good books out there on the subject and websites as well. One website I have used is "Anne's Remedy". It lists all the medicinal herbs in alphabetical order and tells you what they are for.

They also sell the herb oils, tinctures, teas and so forth but wouldn't you rather just grow your own? It can get a bit expensive buying these things, with postage and all.

I am not recommending that you use medicinal herbs in place of standardized medicine. I still go to the doctor and take the medicines that he gives me, when I need to. (I am usually almost dead by that time and have to be dragged there. It's free here in Canada, but I still hate going, lol). I tell him what natural remedies I am using. I think this is important if you are getting a prescription medicine because some of the natural remedies may react with the prescription drug. I do use the medicinal herbs that I grow, but very carefully.

I also grow most of my spices but I did not dry them this year. (I just didn't have time, you know... BUILDING FENCES!!! and all.) I threw a few fresh chopped spices into the freezer and have been using those, but this coming year I plan to supply all my dried spice needs, where possible, myself.I have a lot of thyme that I planted from seed three years ago. I also have oregano, although I want to get some Greek oregano and I have sage, cilantro, mint, lemon mint, basil and lemon basil and rosemary. I never use terragon, so I don't grow it. (We are stuck in a rut and use the same spices all the time.)

I plan to dry all of these this year and keep them in jars in a cool, dark place. Probably the spare room upstairs, since it is unheated in the winter and the basement is too damp. You can see what I do with the mint in a previous post "Using All That Mint". (I have discovered this winter that I like a mint shot in my coffee, as well. I'm going to try that at home :-)

I do wish I could grow cinnamon and nutmeg. Cinnamon is not that expensive to buy but nutmeg sure is! I use a lot of both in the pumpkin/squash recipes for pie and muffins. If you discover a hardy, short season cinnamon and nutmeg that I can grow, please let me know!

Another thing I want to grow this year is my own ginger. Has anyone grown ginger for drying and grinding? How does it keep in that form? How does it compare to store bought? I'm betting it is a lot more potent! The big question for me is this: Is it worth the time and effort, when my time is so short and I use most of my "effort" already? I need to know.

One thing I am going to do with my herbs this year is make my own herbal tea blends. Not "tea from China" tea , since it doesn't grow here either :-( I drink a lot of green tea and herbal tea blends, especially the mints. I hear that chocolate mint makes a fabulous tea. I have to grow some chocolate mint this year! I might even break down and actually BUY one in the spring! (I tend to avoid those places that sell reasonably priced plants. Too many of them just hop into my cart and insist on following me home!)

Another herb I am going to grow and use this year is stevia. I use too much of the artificial sweetener in tea and want to get away from it. (I know real sugar is healthier, but I don't metabolize simple sugars very well.) If you grow and use stevia, I wouldn't mind some feedback on the taste vs. sweetener and sugar.

I am going to dry these things hanging under the front porch roof where they are out of the sun and get the maximum air flow (and look so "country chic"). This is the mint that I dried last year. It is still hanging out there in -16c temps today. I guess I should have frozen it too. (Time! I had no time!!)

Now that I have these cool new spice jars, I might get adventurous and try new spices, just because I like the way they look in the jar!