Fall Harvest 2015

How is your garden doing this fall?

I wanted to share what’s coming on in the garden.  We have  harvested onions, pears and our peaches have been preserved.

See our Gardening Posts for more information on canning and storing your harvest.

Blackberries


  
  

Flamin’ Fury Peach



Sun Sugar Tomatoes
  

Bartlett Pears
  


Red Zeppelin Onions

White Onions Dulce Grande

Shallots
  

Green Bell Peppers 

Jalapeño Peppers



Banana Peppers


Poblano Peppers


Curly Parsley

We also planted Flat Italian Parsley

and Cilantro 


Sweet Basil


Spicemaster Cucumbers

Pioneer Pickling Cucumbers


Pumpkin Vine 


Detroit Dark Red Beet


Luminar Pumpkin

Cinderella Pumpkin


Big Max Pumpkins


Red Delicious Apples


  
  

Giant Red Hibiscus 

 
  


  

Giant Radiance Gladiolus 


  



Enjoy!

Lindy

Growing Black Beans

This was our first year growing black beans.  I planted two rows about 12 feet long and gave us about 5 cups of dried black beans.  They were easy to grow and you harvest them when the pods are dying up and starting to crinkle and get crunchy.  I pulled up the plants about 2 weeks ago.  I allowed them to dry on our covered patio for about a week to allow more  drying.  Then I pulled or cut the pods from each plant and allowed about another 5 days in a drying in a dry box/container (of your choice) until the black beans rattle inside their pods or start to pop open.  You can place all the black bean pods in a bucket and crush the pods from the beans and then sift them to remove all the chaffing pieces or since I didn’t have very many I just opened them  one by one into a bowl.

When beans have dried you can store them in mason jars with lid and add a moisture packet.  They can be stored for 8-10 years at 70 degrees.  If stored longer than this the dried beans can become too hard.

I found the following  videos very helpful Here and Here.

For amending soil see our Garden Soil Prep and Lawn

I planted the black bean seeds about 1-2 inches deep and about 1   1/2 inches apart.  I like to plant my seeds close together and the rows about  22 inches apart.

Note:  I was later planting my seeds this year.  It was the end of May.

*The white sprinkled around plants is a product called “kill-a-bug-two” , powder.  We always get grasshoppers and black beetles that like to eat my leaves and this seems to help a lot.  I try not together to get too much of powder on the leaves because it causes the leaves to dry and attract spider mites.

I water my garden 1-3 times a week during the summer depending on the hot weather, using soaker hoses.

I also used a water all-purpose  fertilizer a couple of times during the growing season.

  
  


  
  

Enjoy!

Lindy