2017 Little Easy Bean Network – Everything Beans, Post It Here & Join The Fun

[baymule]

@Ridgerunner I plant squash the first or second week of March, I plant beans the first or second week of April. Running a little behind this year, we are totally enclosing the garden to keep the darn rabbits out. We are over run with them. Last year they ate half of what I planted. I had the garden partially enclosed, the pigs rooted up one side. Building a dedicated pig pen now, no more pigs in the pastures rooting everything up!

Where you are moving to will change up your planting schedule. You'll be able to plant cole crops in September and have them all winter, along with almost all types of greens, green onion sets and lettuce.

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug

There might be one variety of Cowpea for your area you could try. It's called MN 157. The only person I know of who has seeds would be @Zeedman. I have a few seeds in the freezer at my Sisters house. She's a house cleaning nut so far all I know she threw them out. I need to ask her if my seeds are still there.

i'm ok not growing these at all, my peas are not a priority and cowpeas are last on the list for space. i'll poke a few of each of these new ones in and see how they do. no need to find more varieties to trial as i'd much rather do other beans instead.

 

[flowerbug]

I have a question for those of you who grow a lot of beans. I'm trying to figure out how to exactly say it.

For those who grow family heirlooms for snaps. The tender ones. Do you worry about growing some of commercial beans close by and possibly crossing your bean and make it tough?

Not trying to stir up a hornets nest or nothing. I was just thinking out loud and the possibility popped in my head.

i keep my wax and green beans for fresh eating in their own blocks of plants but do get some out crosses showing up at times. this coming year i'll be trying different green beans as the ones i normally grow are not very good for seed production. i have selections all ready to go.

 

[HmooseK]

i'll poke a few of each of these new ones in and see how they do.

Plant during your hottest month. Cowpeas like heat.

 

[flowerbug]

Plant during your hottest month. Cowpeas like heat.

i've grown black eyes peas before and they grew well, but didn't finish well at all. i usually get everything planted the last week of May and into the first week of June and as of yet have not had killing frosts take anything out (but we have had some cool weather in June until the heat wins out).

snowing today... haha, still a ways to go...

 

[flowerbug]

@Ridgerunner I plant squash the first or second week of March, I plant beans the first or second week of April. Running a little behind this year, we are totally enclosing the garden to keep the darn rabbits out. We are over run with them. Last year they ate half of what I planted. I had the garden partially enclosed, the pigs rooted up one side. Building a dedicated pig pen now, no more pigs in the pastures rooting everything up!

Where you are moving to will change up your planting schedule. You'll be able to plant cole crops in September and have them all winter, along with almost all types of greens, green onion sets and lettuce.

if you can get a portable setup going for electric fence and train them to it you can shift them around to plow the gardens up for you. kinda like the rotational grazing for cattle or using chickens to clear a garden. note, i've never done a thing with any of these animals before so it's just what i've heard other people do...

 

[baymule]

if you can get a portable setup going for electric fence and train them to it you can shift them around to plow the gardens up for you. kinda like the rotational grazing for cattle or using chickens to clear a garden. note, i've never done a thing with any of these animals before so it's just what i've heard other people do...

The first year we had pigs, they were in the new garden that had failed so miserably in it's first season. We covered the garden with pine shavings from a horse event center 10 miles away. The pigs rooted up craters, turned the pine shavings into the sand and pooped all over the garden. I got them in October and took them out the first of March. The 2nd, 3rd and now 4th batch of pigs have not been in that same time period.

I once had a friend with 2 gardens. He raised 2 pigs a year, in a trailer over one of the garden spots. He moved the trailer frequently and got the garden spot well fertilized. In the spring, he planted that garden spot and started the pigs in the trailer over the other garden spot.

I have also turned chickens in the garden. Here it gets so hot in the mid to late summer, that the weeds get away from me. I am quite happy to watch them grow from the comfort of my air conditioned home. I am perfectly ok with parting the weeds to find a brave vegetable producing food, despite the scorching heat. When the weeds reach 5 or 6 feet, I turn the sheep in. Boy, can they ever decimate giant ragweed!

There is a sheep in there!

 

[HmooseK]

@baymule

I like how you think. My motto has always been.

I'll mow if I get a chance cause I ain't ever seen a weed live past a year.

 

[baymule]

Since we've been putting wood chip mulch on the garden, it has helped a lot, but there are tiny little giant ragweed plants popping up all over the place. Why does it have to choose my garden? Why doesn't it grow in the pastures? The sheep LOVE giant ragweed!

 

[flowerbug]

Since we've been putting wood chip mulch on the garden, it has helped a lot, but there are tiny little giant ragweed plants popping up all over the place. Why does it have to choose my garden? Why doesn't it grow in the pastures? The sheep LOVE giant ragweed!

farmers have selectively bred weed killer resistant giant ragweed so sheep, goats, pigs, cattle may be the only way to take it out...

even after getting most of the garden areas cleared of various weeds a few pop up even now. the animals either move the seeds around or the seeds remain viable for some time. one reason why i do low-till/no-till is that it keeps the existing soil mostly stable and that sprouts a lot fewer weeds than areas that get disturbed.

with using plenty of surface mulch any weeds that do manage to get going are often easily removed if i can get them early (before the roots get down into the clay).

wood chips over a few layers of cardboard is still by far the most time efficient way to deal with a pretty big area (if you don't have animals to mow for you ).

digging and getting weed roots out of clay is very time intensive, but i do it once in a while to see how an area is doing and to remix previously buried amendment materials that are now ready to be used close to up top.