I'm ecstatic to report that we will begin harvesting French filet beans this week.
Our very
first beans of the season. Uh, this is one crop I can't blame on our late frosts; this mixup is all my fault. I planted beans seeds three times before they germinated; twice with seeds that were
ten years old (yikes!) before I realized my mistake and planted fresh beans that promptly sprouted and grew. Lesson learned: either share my seeds with family and friends, check the "packed for" season date before decanting, or throw out old seed packets pronto instead of hoarding them like they'll appreciate in value.
I woke up early on Sunday and decided to dig potatoes so that I could plant a winter crop in their place. Let's see, here are the seed potatoes being chitted (sprouted) last spring.
I planted half whole and half I cut up and callused before planting.
My harvest.
Sad. I think I had more last year when I planted in containers. I amended my soil with sand and peat and planted in ground this spring. I'm not giving up, I'm just learning. I plan to profit from some local success stories before I plant next spring. For the record, the whole potatoes produced more than the cut-ups did.
Let's move on and check out the butternut squash.
My lone baby is growing daily and I'm hoping for late frosts. The Queen Mother's isn't doing a whole lot better--maybe this just wasn't a good year for them. I plan to start seeds inside next spring for an earlier start. Yep, time to plan ahead for Harvest 2011!
In the former potato hills, I have snap peas started (from nice fresh seed, thank you very much). In between the bean rows, I've sown leaf lettuce and I'm trying to figure out if there's enough light coming through the golden zucchini to start some beets and carrots.
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Hooray! Very exciting about the beans:) We tried our dilly beans the other day in our dear friend Mary... delicious! I love a salad in my drink.
ReplyDeleteWhat you have looks fabulous to me. I heard we are supposed to get warm again here... I can only hope!
You and me both on the squash plants next year. It rained until middle of June here in Humboldt and we never did get them in.
ReplyDeleteWell done! It wasn't exactly the best growing season this year for any part of the country...so you did pretty good considering. The butternut is so cute. Thanks for sharing your harvest.
ReplyDeleteI love how you talk about your garden like the items are your children. :) They grow on your love.
ReplyDeleteWe had a horrible harvest this year, and while I did have a fair pile of peas, I then placed my shelled peas ready for blanching/freezing in a precarious place and the whole bowl fell over onto my VERY dirty floor... so, yeah. No peas.
ReplyDeleteI should get some carrots though! My butternut flowered, and then never did anything else, even though last year I got piles of squash. Weird year!