Garden: Summer Clean-Up & Fall Planting

September arrived and brought relief from daily picking, all-day preserving sessions, and the heat. Some things are still producing, but much is finished. Those are the beds I need to tidy up and plant for fall. I'd better warn you that this is a long post, but there's lots of pictures. 😄

Here's one of the beds that is still producing, mostly volunteers.

Cowpeas, a tomato plant, horseradish, a lone Swiss Chard,
and several potato plants (mostly died back by now).

Ozark Razorback cowpeas volunteered this year.

The only thing I planted in that bed was the Swiss chard. Of that, I tried to plant half a bed, but only the one came up.

Rainbow Swiss chard.

This chard was also a no-show in my African keyhole garden. Of the horseradish, I thought I dug it out last fall, but it came back with a vengeance.

One of my mostly finished beds is my summer squash below.

Tatume squash grew here, with tomatoes still on the far
 end. (Sorry for the smudge in the middle of the photo!)

Tatume is a Mexican variety of summer squash, and I find it does pretty well for me. It doesn't succumb to wilt or other disease. Squash bugs were a problem, which I kept under control through June. After that I didn't have time to keep up with them. The lone squash in the center of the photo got away from me, so I left it in hopes of volunteers next year.

Squash bed clean-up. I'll plant Daikons here next.

My method of clean-up has changed over the years. Before, I would pull everything out of the bed and toss it in the compost. Now, I cut off vines or plants at ground level and lay them back into the bed. Then I cover them, above with soil and/or wood chips and compost. So I now leaving roots in the ground, as per the soil building principles of A Soil Owner's Manual (my book review here.) Plant roots feed soil microorganisms: living roots first, dead roots second. Cutting and leaving plants is called "chop and drop" in permaculture; everything the plants took out of the soil is able to return back to the soil.

The last of the squash was half-a-dozen or so mature Tatumes.

Mature Tatume summer squash.

I scoop them out and save some seed for planting, then, I steam the scooped out halves, scrape out the flesh, and use it in canned soup.

Just below the squash bed is my rather disappointing field corn bed.

Gourdseed corn in a rather sorry state.

We had heavy rains and winds several weeks ago and most of the corn lodged (fell over). It was planted late, as a second crop of corn (I grew sweet corn early), then it had sparse germination. So I wasn't sure I would get even a seed crop.

I hand pollinated the half-dozen or so ears in my little patch.

Volunteer marigolds keeping the corn company.

Across the aisle from the corn are my black turtle beans. Four rows being taken over by blackberry vines, honeysuckle, and bindweed (morning glories). It needed rescuing.

These are a good dried bean for me to grow. They're a delicious and they tolerate our hot droughty spells. I mulched and watered them in the beginning, but since then they've been on their own.

My first pickings yielded small bean seeds, but we've had more rain since then. With the weeds now pulled, I anticipate the rest of the crop will be better. Yes, I do pull out persistent weeds and feed them to the goats!

I planted two kinds of winter squash: North Georgia Candy Roaster and Long Island Cheese. The candy roaster did fantastically well last year, but this year, meh.

I only got two small candy roasters before the vines died back.

The Long Island Cheese is part of a three sisters planting, along with the sweet corn and Cornfield Pole Beans. This squash was incredibly slow to get going. It got water early in the summer, but it had to survive the hottest, driest part of summer on it's own. But it hung in there and has just started to flower!

Long Island Cheese squash (sometimes referred to as a pumpkin).

If first frost holds off, I should get a squash harvest.

The pole beans were slow starters as well. But since our last good rain, they've taken off and are beginning to produce beans.

Cornfield pole beans, using the dead corn stalks as poles.

These are so named because they are somewhat shade tolerant and will use corn stalks for poles. These are the first beans and they're very welcome. I had to cut back my bush beans earlier because they did poorly after it became too hot and dry. Sometimes, even irrigating the beds doesn't seem to satisfy.

I still have a few tomato plants hanging in there.

Of the 40 seedlings I transplanted, I have less than a dozen plants still alive. So I only get a trickle of tomatoes, but I'm glad for each of them. The Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes are doing very well.

Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes. A keeper!

These tasty little guys are hard to keep up with!

I'm still getting watermelons too.

Watermelon—both fruit and flower—in the strawberry and garlic bed.

These are Orangeglo watermelon. They've been both prolific and delicious this year.

It really is a glowing orange color! Very sweet.

We've eaten watermelon every day since early July. Then one day, Dan announced he was "watermeloned out." So the rest, I'm dehydrating.

Dehydrated melon is akin to fruit leather.

It's been a long tour, I know, but this will be the last shot, I promise.

Jing okra

Jing was a new variety of okra for me. Even though I'm pretty sold on Clemson Spineless, the catalog description made it sound too good to pass up. My negatives about it was that it was another one that was slow to grow and start producing. Considering how many other things had this same problem, it may not have been the okra. On it's positive side, it has a delicious flavor, is highly ornamental, and the pods remain tender even when quite large (compared to Clemson Spineless). It's producing better now, so I will probably get several pints to slice and freeze. I don't need a lot of okra in the freezer, but oven fried, it makes a really nice side-dish for winter meals, or to add to soups.

So there's my garden in early September. I need to get cracking on my fall planting. But now it's your turn. What's happening in your garden?

Garden: Summer Clean-Up & Fall Planting © Sept 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

June Garden Photos

It's hard to believe 2020 is half gone! Time for a garden update. My garden recovered from its slow start this spring. As soon as the temps starting going up, almost everything took off and made up for lost time. So I have lots of photos to show you. Ordinarily, I would divide them into two blog posts, but June is about done, and I need a record of the garden for the month. So here it is.

The first part of June was spent finishing the winter garden harvest and cleaning things up. Then it was on to finishing the summer planting.

Harvest included the last of the multiplier onions, a sample of our volunteer potatoes, and snow peas (which are now done).

Multiplier onions and new potatoes.

I showed you our winter wheat harvest in this post, and told you about our heritage wheat harvest in this post. Here's a photo showing you the difference between the two varieties' seed heads.

Heritage Hourani wheat on the left and commercial seed wheat on the right.

We're still processing the winter wheat, so I haven't gotten to the Hourani yet. It didn't do well, so I don't have a lot of it. But I'll save it, plant it, and hope for a better outcome and more seed next year.

Of my perennials, the blackberries are done and my eight surviving strawberry plants are putting forth a flush of berries.

I tried to propagate these last year, but most of them didn't survive the dry & heat.

A pickings-worth.

We're starting to harvest some of our summer produce too.

Bush beans are producing well. I usually plant Tendergreen,
but this year I tried a new one - Provider. I got a gallon of
beans at my first picking! And that was for a 24-foot row.

Dar cucumbers, also a new variety for me. This is the recommended picking size.
They are dual purpose (table and pickling) and don't seem bothered by pests. (Yet).

Tatume summer squash, a Mexican variety that has stood up to our heat and wilt.
The small ones we eat in salads and as veggie sticks, the medium size I slice
and saute with onions & basil. The large ones are for stuffed summer squash. 

Seed Saving. Cool weather plants going to seed for this fall's planting: snow peas, fava beans, radishes, and lettuce.

Lettuce flowering for seed.

Purple plum radishes going to seed in the Orangeglo watermelon bed.

Clean-up has been getting cool veggie beds ready for summer planting, although there is some crossover with cool and warm weather vegetables sharing the same bed. In the photo below, I had a bunch of volunteer turnips and radishes sprout between two bordered beds.

The bed on the left is planted with peanuts and okra. On the right are snow
peas, dill, and cucumbers. Between them is volunteer turnips and radishes.

Initially, I was going to remove them because they're probably from cross-pollinated seed. But I decided to let them stay as living mulch between the two beds because the flowers are very attractive to bees and pollinators. The stalks tend to lean and shade the beds, however, so I trim them back and feed the trimmings to the goats. Win-win-win.

Radish and turnips trimmed back. Okra and peanut bed with a layer of compost.

I'll probably collect all the seed from them and use it for winter pasture. Root crops are great at loosening the soil.

After I picked those strawberries I showed you above, I weeded and mulched the bed. My problem in this part of the garden is sheep sorrel. It's an edible plant, but it tends to make a nuisance of itself.

Strawberries and garlic, weeded and mulched.

Growing: More things planted in April and May.

More tomatoes in front, the Tatume squash in back.

One thing that continues to grow slowly is the okra. This is a new variety for
me - Jing. I didn't mean to plant it with peanuts (yellow flowers) but I somehow
miscounted my beds from my garden chart and planted them on different days.

Pretty little peanut flowers. I planted peanuts last year, and they did
great until all the tender little peanut pods disappeared. Eaten?

Stowell's evergreen sweet corn. A small patch for summer corn on the cob.

Planting:

Speaking of corn, I learned something interesting in the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog. I learned that the original Three Sisters pole bean is a shade tolerant variety.

Cornfield pole beans for my corn patches.

I thought the seeds were pretty so I snapped a shot.

Can you see the bean seeds in a row on the left? I planted them in a shallow
trench between corn rows, popping in the seeds then covering with compost.

Two weeks later, they're happily growing between rows of corn.

Genuine Cornfield Pole Beans growing in the shade.
Lamb's quarters in there too, which I harvest as a green.

They aren't stretching out for some sun. I'm amazed! I actually prefer pole beans to bush beans because the leaning over and squatting to pick them gets tiring. With pole beans I can stand up and pick.

And here's my third sister.

Long Island Cheese Squash, another of my slow growers, I planted it when I
planted the corn. Not having a decent rain for the past month hasn't helped.

From the same catalog, I also learned about an easy to shell corn variety called "gourdseed."

Texas Gourdseed, a bi-colored long-toothed dent corn. 

12 days later...

I planted them later than the sweet corn to avoid cross pollination,
but growth so far is sporadic. I'll replant the bare spots, today. 

Once they are tall enough, I'll plant cornfield beans in this patch too. Their third sister is Candy Roaster squash, although you can see a Tatume vine in the background in the above photo.

Last pictures - sweet potatoes. These have been slow to sprout this year, so planting is late. I have two varieties, Vardaman (purple leaves) and Nancy Hall (green leaves with purple veins).

Growing sweet potato slips on the back steps next to sweet basil and coleus.

Both stored well this past winter. In fact, we had the last of them as oven-roasted sweet potato fries the other day. This is notable because my sweet potatoes usually develop black spot, which hastens their demise. But we didn't get that last year. A testament to my soil building efforts? I hope so.

Nancy Hall sweet potato slip. I'm tucking them into my
collard bed the same way I did my tomato transplants.

OBSERVATION: I planted these in my winter collards bed. One end of the bed still grew collards and clover, the other was pretty much empty of plants. Both ends were heavily mulched with wood chips, and I also want to note that I hadn't been watering this bed. I started at the unplanted end and noted that when I dug down, the soil was very dry. In the living plant end of the bed, I discovered that the soil still retained moisture. I can't explain the mechanism behind this,  EDIT: I take that back, I think I can explain it. Mycorrhizal fungi harvest moisture elsewhere and transport it (and soil nutrients) to plants in exchange for liquid carbon. My observation points to the validity of keeping living roots in the ground as much as possible, and is confirming my new approach of gardening by the four soil health principles.

Finally, that's it! For now, anyway. Your turn. How does your garden grow?

June Garden Photos © June 2020 by

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Masanobu Fukuoka Was Right

On Monday last week, it wasn't supposed to rain until afternoon, so I got started on a bed to plant black turtle beans.

Blackberry vines popping up in a huge leaf pile.

Years ago this bed was an experiment in growing perennials with a few annuals and naturalized forage plants. It contained multiplier onions, chicory, lettuce, violets, heartsease, and 4 o'clocks. It looked pretty for awhile. But from that experiment I learned an important lesson. Masanobu Fukuoka was right!

"My conviction was that crops grow themselves and should not have to be grown. I had acted in the belief that everything should be left in its natural course, but I found that if you apply this way of thinking all at once, before long things do not go so well."

Masanobu Fukuoka
The One-Straw Revolution

Blackberries, honeysuckle, horse nettle, grasses, and other unwanteds gradually took over that bed until it was a mess. Last fall, I dumped wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load of leaves on it in an attempt to smother everything so I could start over. That worked fairly well until the blackberries began to bravely push through.

One of my "between raindrops" projects has been to dig out all those blackberries and plant black turtle beans. I used the shovel to loosen the blackberry roots and pull the vines. I realize I won't get all the root and they'll still come back, but it's a start. I did the same for honeysuckle roots I found. The violets got to stay. I noticed that doing nothing for the past several years did zero to improve the soil.

Blackberries removed, multiplier onions harvested, and turtle beans planted.

To plant the beans, I simply pushed the leaf mulch aside in three rows and poked the beans into the ground.

I've battled blackberry brambles ever since we first chose this spot for our garden. It was originally a neglected field that grew them readily. Even though I've been trying to eradicate them, this year in a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" moment I decided to let them grow in another bed in the garden.

Old asparagus/new blackberry bed.

Behind this bed is where I dug my very first garden swale three years ago (that story with photos here.) I filled it with sticks, stalks, and corn cobs, leaving the removed soil as a berm. I planted the berm with clover and later transplanted my asparagus there. I never got much asparagus, but instead got blackberry brambles and wiregrass. I battled those for several years and this year decided, heck with it. I'll just let the blackberries grow in hopes I'll get some berries. I've been pulling the wiregrass and horse nettle and cutting back the daffodil leaves. Then putting down wood chips for mulch.

Volunteer blackberries with a little bit of the clover I originally planted.

Well, I'm picking about a pint per day. They look pretty good too.

They aren't all this size, but a lot of them are.

I have to add that they aren't terribly sweet, and that they have large seeds. Dan doesn't care for blackberries because of the seeds, but as volunteers these are a gift. And they pack a power-punch of flavor, so I'll use them to make blackberry jelly. They will definitely need a trellis, but that will have to wait.

So gradually I'm learning to cooperate with nature and what my garden wants to grow. I realize I can't do nothing and leave it to chance, but I can continue to observe and work to meet the needs of what wants to grow there. It's all a process, isn't it?

Masanobu Fukuoka Was Right © June 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com