2020 Little Easy Bean Network - An Exciting Adventure In Heirloom Beans !

[PhilaGardener]

+1 to all those nice comments! And look at that great space to expand into on the right! More beanzzzzzzz!

 

[flowerbug]

It almost looks like the squash are trying to spell something out... could be a message of some kind... maybe wondering why beans get all the attention?

Quite a homestead, @Bluejay77 ! And a water supply close by! AND A DRONE!!!

"EAT ME!" looks like a great space, not many trees around and all that open land plus a water source for irrigation if needed.

 

[Blue-Jay]

It almost looks like the squash are trying to spell something out... could be a message of some kind... maybe wondering why beans get all the attention?

Quite a homestead, @Bluejay77 ! And a water supply close by! AND A DRONE!!!

Yeah that is a nice homestead. 10 acres all together. I forget what the fellow who owns the property told me he did during his working years before he retired. I'm sure he made good bucks. He enjoys flying his drone once in awhile. He was really generous allowing me to put up that 80 x 48 feet deer fence on his property, but I guess it improves his property. He tells me he has no intention of every moving. He is there to stay. He helped me build the 40 x 24 raised bed box too. He used his John Deere tractor to skim off local soil to fill the box. He doesn't charge me any rent for using the ground either to grow stuff on. He is very accomodating and easy going. I couldn't have run into anyone nicer to deal with.

I posted these photos on a facebook group and someone overseas thought I was trying to create some kind of artwork with the pumpkins and squash. The vines did create a nice pattern.

 

[Blue-Jay]

+1 to all those nice comments! And look at that great space to expand into on the right! More beanzzzzzzz!

That extra space in a 7 acre hayfield which is part of this fellows 10 acre rural homestead. There is a farmer in the area who has some dairy cows works that field each year. I don't know if the owner charges some rent for that hayfield. He never has said anything to that affect. I don't want to be nosy and ask either.

This property is 11 miles from where I live. I found it by putting an ad in our local newpaper asking for ground to garden on with my heirloom bean collection. Everytime I put the ad in the paper I usually get anywhere from 4 to 8 respones.

My big 80 variety bush bean plot is 3 miles from where I live and I pay $300 each season to rent that piece of ground.

I live in the city limits with my house on a postage stamp lot. I've taken out probably almost half of the sod in my tiny backyard and have beans growing there too.

 

[Zeedman]

Yeah that is a nice homestead. 10 acres all together. I forget what the fellow who owns the property told me he did during his working years before he retired. I'm sure he made good bucks. He enjoys flying his drone once in awhile. He was really generous allowing me to put up that 80 x 48 feet deer fence on his property, but I guess it improves his property. He tells me he has no intention of every moving. He is there to stay. He helped me build the 40 x 24 raised bed box too. He used his John Deere tractor to skim off local soil to fill the box. He doesn't charge me any rent for using the ground either to grow stuff on. He is very accomodating and easy going. I couldn't have run into anyone nicer to deal with.

Interesting coincidence... my rural garden is located on a friend's 10 acres, 6 miles from my home. I've been gardening there since 2005. The owners are the best people ever; they allow us free use of their land & water, and gave me the key to their pole building if I want to temporarily store hay or the tractor. We share veggies with them, and their animals keep most of the rodents out of the garden... their dogs like to hunt ground hogs, and their cats patrol the garden looking for mice.

Our own property is just under 1.25 acres, so I have been gradually increasing the size of the home gardens, and decreasing the size of the rural garden. I would never completely give up the rural garden though, since the two widely-separated locations allow me to grow two different insect-pollinated varieties of a species (such as two limas, or two runner beans) with full isolation.

 

[baymule]

My bean growing isn't going so well. Grasshoppers have descended and are chewing up everything. I even opened the gate to let the guineas in to eat the grasshoppers. I even resorted to putting sevin dust on the bean plants-and I don't use poisons. The heat has the bean plants dropping the newly formed bean pods. They are blooming, the bees are visiting, they make pods, then they fall off. I water every day, the soil is dust. I trenched around the beans to hold water and soak the roots, it has helped. I mulched the beans, that has helped. Now here comes hurricane Laura, we are on the outer edge, but are expecting 75 MPH winds. We should get 3-5" of rain, that will surely help the dry around here. It may temporarily cool off, but usually after a hurricane, the heat comes back in force bringing it's buddy, HUMIDITY with it to make everyone miserable. Oh well.

These are bush beans, Best of All Wax and Black Cattle beans. The Kentucky Wonder beans, vining beans, took off, produced well and are now dying back. I have tried bush beans before and didn't get very good results. Maybe I should just plant vining beans.

My squash didn't produce either. No zuchinni or yellow squash. Tomatoes have over produced, I have canned until I wake up at night thinking I have to get up and start cooking tomatoes. LOL

 

[flowerbug]

@baymule, i'd much rather have a pod fall off before it does much. here i get a lot of pods that form but the beans inside don't finish all the way.

i'm wondering if you have any kinds of wind breaks upwind from your gardens (by about 30ft or so depending upon how tall)? that may help with the aridity. and of course a bit of clay...

 

[baymule]

@flowerbug There is a strip of trees on the east side of the garden, trees on the south side. On the north side is the driveway, then Pasture #1 which has trees also. Much of our property is wooded, we have cleared a lot of it, but left a lot of trees.

This picture shows the garden, the gate is on the left. The strip of trees in the background is on the east side.

This picture shows the trees on the south side. The small shelter in the lower left is the Pig Palace. The Pig Palace and the pen are adjacent to the garden. the pen has trees in it, the pigs enjoy their shade. On the other side of the Pig Palace is a pipeline right of way, beyond that is neighbor's land, heavily wooded.

So it's not like we are sitting in a flat open 100 acres for the wind to sweep through.

Aridity? We are on sugar sand. Think Florida beach without the ocean. Water goes right through it. We have amended with compost, manure, wood chips, hay, and finally have black, rich soil about a foot deep. Clay? Don't make me laugh!

 

[Zeedman]

It must be really dry there - the trees look the worse for wear, more like Autumn. Chances are that a strong blow will leave the deciduous trees bare. The rain should do wonders for the garden, though.

 

[Artorius]

I just found out that Remy, owner of the Sample Seed Shop, died on August 6. I have over a dozen varieties of beans from her, and this year I grow Mr. Tung, Tennessee Greasy Mix and Jembo Polish.
This is sad news to start the day.

Remembering the life of Remy (Rotella) Orlowski

Remy (Rotella) Orlowski passed away. This is the full obituary where you can express condolences and share memories. Published in the Niagara Gazette on 2020-08-12.

obituaries.niagara-gazette.com