flowerbug
Garden Master
Some beany thoughts this evening
Lima beans. Should I ever grow them again? This year would be my 4th try. And the results were meager, just like ever other time. Jackson Wonder, Christmas and Ping. None produced enough to make the space they took up worthwhile. I've heard it all when it comes to these limas; a friend down south says her season is too short, another friend down south says they do great for her, another friend way North says her summers are too hot for them to prosper.
the bush kinds i've grown have done ok most years, this year was not great because they were planted too late and didn't have enough time to finish. i harvested a few but not enough to eat. the bush brown lima beans i've planted before were easy and early enough other than they shatter easily so they need to be picked often enough before they dry down that far. also some red lima pole beans were plenty productive here but i am avoiding pole beans these days (my fence is iffy and i don't want pole bean genes getting into all my bush and semi-runner plantings). almost all the rest of the times i've planted lima pole beans they've been really productive but very late harvest and it was too much work cleaning up after them when i was so busy with other things that it just wasn't working.
Cowpeas, two tries, modest results as well. I wonder how many trials does a variety require before you can really say I gave it a shot.
two to three times as the weather can have such an influence one season and also which gardens i have them planted in.
I can't complain, but my production was down this year compared to last year. I think I need to not be so quick to stick plants & seeds in the ground in late May. It can actually work against me. Gonna need self discipline to not fall for that late May reliable hot spell next year.
late May here is normally when i start planting out the beans - i go by soil warmth and when i start seeing volunteer beans popping up.
i also plant some early beans and hope i can get some earlier harvest and that has been working out ok, but i've not been planting large patches because i don't want to risk losing that much space or plantings (and i'm normally pretty busy just trying to get things weeded or ready or involved in other projects - arg! ).
BUT I did some counting tonight and saw that I added 81 new varieties of beans to my collection this year! It isn't tons of seed for each, but it's a start! Now I'm curious to see how many I have altogether!
i no longer count them.