The World’s Most Expensive Beans

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Jay White

I am currently growing the world’s most expensive green beans. While the beans aren’t really anything special, they have already cost me well over $100 this spring. My super expensive green beans are a variety of flat bean called Navarro. Bill Adams introduced me to these beans a couple of years ago and I like them so much they are now the only variety I grow. Well, let me rephrase that. Navarro flat beans were the only beans I was growing – until the bunny showed up.

I saved this little bunny a few years ago. maybe it grew up to be our afternoon visitor

Most evenings, my wife and I sit out in the yard with her father and watch the seasons change. About a year and a half ago an unusually friendly cotton tail started showing up and visiting with us. The rabbit would hop right up in front of us and then graze on my St. Augustine. Within a few weeks we discovered this friendly bunny was a girl. Before long we had two very sociable cotton tails joining us every night.

I think you see where this is going. We got attached to the bunnies. Unfortunately our friendly little bunnies did what they do and before long I could no longer grow green beans in the garden. I am not kidding. Last spring, I planted my 35 by 4 foot bed of Navarro flat beans three times. I harvested exactly zero beans. Then in the fall I planted again. You guessed it, no beans.

Getting my garden ready for my first attempt at growing under cover.

Since I have discovered that my wife is a HUGE fan of cotton tails, I have been forced to invest in some (expensive) hoops and nets that will allow me to grow my beans and allow her to continue watching the bunnies. I have never grown anything under cover before. So, instead of getting upset, I am looking at my new hoops as both an investment and a learning opportunity.

I am pretty happy with my fiberglass hoops from Mr. Garden

While I am complaining about the bunnies, I am pretty excited about learning how to grow under cover. Bunnies aren’t the only pests in my garden. In fact, until this spring, the squash vine borer had forced me to give up growing zucchini and yellow squash. Thanks to my new hoops I now have a full row of beans and half a row of both squash planted.

Right now I am in the honeymoon phase of growing under cover. I bought two products from Amazon to build my hoops. The actual hoop is a six foot long fiberglass pole called the DURAHOOP by Mrgarden.net. I bought 20 of the hoops. (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FCQR41E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). So far I have been very pleased with this product. The thin, flexible fiberglass rods are very easy to use. The only down side is the fiberglass part. Because they are fiberglass you need to wear gloves when handling them. I did not and I got lots of painful and itchy fiberglass shards in my hands. Other than that, they worked perfectly. I used my tape measure to create two identical arcs at each end of my row. Then I ran strings on both sides and placed the other arcs five feet apart. I then ran a single rod over the top of the arcs and tied them all together with zip ties.

I believe zip ties are the greatest invention ever! I use them for everything, including tying my hoop frames together.

Once the hoops were assembled I covered them with Summer Lightweight Garden Fabric from Green Valley Supplies (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B076CSX774/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) . This product is designed to allow in water and light and add a little shade as it (hopefully) keeps the bunnies and vine borers away from my young plants. The fabric is eight feet wide and 45 feet long. My wife and I stretched the fabric over the hoops, then bunched the extra fabric up on the sides and held that down with rebar. At the ends we gathered the fabric together and closed it with zip ties. We held these bunched ends down on the ground with bricks.

My row cover is from Green Valley Supplies. While it is a little fragile, I have high hopes it will do what I need it to.

I have to admit, I am a little disappointed in the row cover. While I think it will work, it was kind of fragile. The zip ties that we used to tie the frames together poked two holes in the fabric that resulted in tears. Since I have not used row cover before I am not sure if all row cover performs like this or if I should have been more careful assembling my hoops. Regardless, I am fairly confident that the row cover will keep the bugs and bunnies away.

I am very excited about my row cover experiment. We have had 18 mph winds this week and they have held together beautifully.

Since this is my first attempt at growing under cover, my basic plan is to grow the beans and the squash under the fabric until they flower. I have heard that once the plants get this big they can usually survive both the vine borer and the rabbits. However, if this is not true, be sure to leave me a comment. Like I said, this is an experiment and I would love to hear any and all tips from any of you that have been successful with this.

BTW, bluebonnet season is now in full swing in Washington County. If you look forward to riding around and taking pictures of our state flower, then the next two to four weeks will be spectacular. Happy spring y’all!!!

Our grandson came for a visit this past week. We could not resist taking a few pictures of him in the bluebonnets!

I share my posts on The Simple Homestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing things these gardeners and homesteaders are doing!

Poppies, Potatoes and Protecting Squash by Patty G. Leander

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Jay White

I sure don’t need a calendar, computer or even a meteorologist to tell me it’s spring. Anytime I am outdoors I can see it, hear it, feel it and smell it. Not to mention the chirp of crickets in the house!

There is so much happening in the vegetable garden this time of year that it is hard to narrow it down to just one topic but here are three that are currently at the top of my list.

POPPIES: Jay has written about poppies before (https://masterofhort.com/2012/11/remembering-our-veterans-with-poppies/) but they are so lovely in spring they deserve another mention, especially since this is when we gather seeds for sowing next year. Poppies start to look a little ratty if left long enough to reseed themselves but a few seedpods will give you hundreds, if not thousands, of seed for sowing and sharing, so it’s not necessary to let ALL your blooms go to seed. Choose a few for saving and let the seedpods dry on the plant, long enough so you can hear the seeds rattle. Carefully snip off the seedpods (keep them upright so the seeds don’t scatter to the ground, unless that’s where you want them), remove the seeds and store them in a cool, dry location. Sow seeds in the fall for a spectacular spring display in 2017.

Save seeds from spring poppy blooms to plant in the fall.

POTATOES: Potatoes are growing everywhere in my garden – under mulch, under hay, in cages and tucked in between other plants. My garden is big but it’s not big enough to grow bushels of potatoes and still have room for other favorite vegetables so I usually grow a few reliable favorites, like Yukon Gold and Red La Soda, along with a few less common selections. This year I have planted 8 varieties: Red La Soda, Austrian Crescent, Red Thumb, Russian Banana, Purple Majesty, Purple Viking, Russet Nugget and Lemhi Russet.

Potatoes go in where carrots came out, flanked by celery and tomatoes (left); on the right a fingerling variety grows under straw in a cylinder lined with fine mesh screen.

It sounds like a lot but I only purchase a pound of each variety since I am growing them more for fun and discovery than to fill a larder. I usually order my seed potatoes in December or January from Potato Garden in Colorado; they are one of the few places that will ship potatoes at the time we need to plant them here in Central Texas, which is mid-February. And they have an amazing selection of potatoes and growing information on their website (www.potatogarden.com).

More potatoes tucked inside an A-frame constructed for pole beans and sugar snap peas (I wouldn’t recommend this unless you are petite in stature and into lots of bending, crouching and squatting – hey, this is how I get my exercise!). You can see their rapid growth from April 6 (left) to April 22 (right). As soon as the sugar snap peas on the right are done producing they will be removed to provide easier access to the potatoes.

Most of my potatoes were planted on February 26^th, a little later than I would have liked, but the potatoes seem to be making up for lost time. Potatoes like people weather – mild days, cool nights, not too wet and not too dry – and so far Mother Nature has obliged.

From left to right: Purple Majesty, Russet Nugget and Red Thumb on 4-10-16

Growing by leaps and bounds: Russet Nugget (center) catches up to Purple Majesty and Red Thumb by 4-22-16

Growing potatoes means lots of surprises since you don’t get to see what is going on below ground. As the season progresses it’s hard for me to resist the temptation to dig around the base of the plants feeling for swollen tubers. Last week, much to my surprise and delight, I harvested 3 pounds of new potatoes from a planting of sorry looking Red La Sodas left over from my fall harvest.

They may not look like much but these Red La Sodas had plenty of life yet to give

If you are growing potatoes be sure to keep the base of the plants mounded with soil, mulch or hay as they grow – it’s ok to bury some leaves in the process. The goal is to keep the tubers covered so they are not exposed to the greening effects of sunlight. And if you decide to start digging around to harvest some baby spuds remember that they do not store as well as mature tubers so eat and enjoy!

Surprise and delight: a little bit of careful digging yielded three pounds of new potatoes eight weeks after planting Red La Sodas left over from my fall harvest

SQUASH: Squash vine borer is a perennial problem for many gardeners but there is a new product to help battle this annoying pest. It is called Micromesh, and after using it the last couple of years I find that I like it better than floating row cover. It is available through the Territorial Seed catalog (www.territorialseed.com) and I have also seen it at The Natural Gardener in Austin. If you have seen this product at other Texas nurseries please share in the comments below.

Micromesh: a new product to battle squash vine borer

Micromesh is a fine mesh netting used to keep bugs off of plants. It still allows water and light to pass but it is more see-thru than standard row cover and provides better ventilation, an important factor as the warm season progresses. I cover my squash plants as soon as they emerge and don’t uncover until I see female flowers. You can recognize a female flower because it has a small, immature fruit attached at the base of the petals. Once the flower gets pollinated the baby squash starts to develop, but if no pollination takes place the flower and the fruit shrivel and fall off. If you choose to keep your squash covered after female flowers appear you will have to perform the role of pollinator. Jay covered the how-tos in a previous post: https://masterofhort.com/2013/01/hand-pollinating-squash/.

All types of squash produce both male and female flowers on the same plant; the male flowers generally appear first, followed by female flowers which have a tiny, immature fruit at their base

Hope you are having an awesome spring season in your vegetable garden! People pests (mosquitoes-grrrr), plant pests, diseases and heat are lurking and soon enough will make their presence known, but for now we can give thanks for the rain, revel in the mild temperatures and watch in amazement as a seed becomes a plant and a plant becomes a harvest.

Week 44 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Jay White

I am happy to report that I got 7.5” of rain last weekend. While I was grateful for the rain, it really did a number on my garden. Sad to say that I was watching my best fall tomato crop ever develop. Now, I am watching my best fall tomato crop ever split open from all of the rain. Ugh!!! Oh well, I can still eat the bottom halves!

All of this rain is making my fall tomatoes crack open. I harvest them anyway and eat the bottom half!

On another note, winter is coming. Even though it doesn’t feel like it right now, your first freeze is just around the corner. Since most of my planting, weeding and mulching are done for the season I will be using this rainy weekend to prepare for that inevitable first freeze. Here is what I do to prepare for winter in my Zone 9 garden.

Determine your freeze dates – Your first and last feeze dates are probably the single most important thing you need to know to garden successfully. If you think you know them I suggest checking again. Thanks to climate change, freeze dates are changing. Several years ago my first average freeze date was November 16. I knew this because it was my anniversary. I got in a small bit of trouble one year because my wife was very upset with me when I chose to finish up some cold frames instead of leaving on time for our romantic get away! There are tons of tools on the internet to determine your freeze dates. My favorite is on Dave’s Garden. Click here to determine the freeze dates for your area.
Oil and sharpen tools- I buy good tools and I take care of them. When you have time, like now, give them a little attention to extend their life and usefulness. Wash them with soap and water. Let them dry. Take a file to the edges of your hoes, shovels and larger blades. Once they are sharp, wipe down the blades and the wooden handles with linseed oil. Come spring, they will be clean, sharp and rust free.
Row cover – Row cover is the one thing I cannot get enough of. Just about anything can be used for row cover. However, I recommend using something that is permeable. I get my row cover from Texas Gardener (click here to purchase the cover I use). I really think it is a good Idea to get your row cover out now. I bunch mine up beside my rows and hold it down with T-Posts. That way, I am not scrambling around to find it and get it laid down in a blowing wind the night that first freeze comes.

Take cuttings of begonias and geraniums now to ensure you will still have them in the fall
Take cuttings – I have two heirloom begonias and an amazing heirloom geranium that are truly precious to me (and my wife). To make sure that I have these in the spring, I always hedge my bets by taking tons of cuttings. Begin by filling your pots with a high quality potting mix (I use Miracle grow) to within a half inch of the rim. My pots are small solo cups. I use a soldering iron to burn drainage holes in the bottom of them. Once full, water thoroughly and let them drain while you take your cuttings. Cut your plants on a 45 below a node. Remove all of the foliage except a couple of leaves and stick them in the potting mix. I keep these cuttings in my mud room under fluorescent lights and keep them moist all winter.

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