Re: [gardeners] This weekend
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 28 Feb 1998 13:27:27
I have no idea what variety these are, someone gave them to me and I forgot
to write down who sent them in. They just sat there blooming their little
heads off for the longest time and then started setting pods. From what I
could find on the net the average for spring planted is 100-150 days and
for fall planted, what we did, is about 240 days. It was 5 months to the
day from planting when we harvested some yesterday and they really need
some more time to mature properly. The biggest problem is shelling them out
of the outer pod, then boiling them for 1 minute and shelling out of the
inner pod. Sheesh, you would starve to death if you only lived on fava beans.
At 10:45 AM 2/28/98 -0700, you wrote:
>>
>>The fava beans were an experiment that won't be repeated I'm afraid. Takes
>>240 days to full maturity and we can grow two or three crops of other beans
>>and peas in that time. In addition the favas have to be shelled twice, once
>>to get rid of the outer pod and again for the inner pod. Time consuming for
>>what you end up with. It's back to the good old Amurican beans and peas for
>>us.
>George, you must have gotten the longest running fava bean seeds in the
>world. Abundant Life has six varieties, ranging from 65 to 100 days to
>maturity. They're frost resistant, so I tried growing them very early in
>the spring a couple of years ago. Interesting blossoms. Pods had just
>been set when I noticed that overnight, all were pouting as if they'd been
>sprayed with a herbicide. Tiny little punctures in every seed pod. Have
>no idea what they were, just yanked out the crop.
>
>>Picked up some T-posts the other day and will be driving them and hanging
>>the nylon netting on them today plus another round of tilling and will be
>>putting the Tumbler tomatoes in their hanging baskets today. Will probably
>>hang the baskets in my "greenhouse" for another week and then hang them
>>around the eves of the house where they will get afternoon sun all summer.
>>
>>What's cooking in everyone's gardens right now?
>>
>>George
>
>There's nothing like a blanket of snow to squelch thoughts of early garden
>planting. All through Jan and early Feb our temps were above normal, then
>about a week ago, nighttime temps dropped to below normal, and they're in
>the mid to low 20s at night. Takes a looong time to warm up to 40 the next
>day. Still have bunching onions and leeks in the garden, but it's going to
>be quite a while until the garden dries out sufficiently to rototill it.
>That's all right. I've got a lot of garden cleanup to do. Margaret
>>
I just finished rototilling phase one of the new herb garden, a strip 12
feet by 25 feet. Phase two will be a little later, I will prepare it a
little better also. Got the t-posts driven for the squash, 5 varieties, and
will drive the posts for the cukes a little later. The hanging baskets are
full of a decent potting mix, wetted down, and ready for the Tumblers.
Might wait a bit as our sunny, warm Saturday is changing quickly. Looks
like a norther blowing in as the temperature has dropped about 15 or 20
degrees and it is now overcast with a strong north wind blowing. Probably
wait another day to set out the squash too.
Anne mulched the blueberries and the raspberries, which incidentally are
leafing out right well. Only been in the ground a week, bless you Stark
Brothers. Planted six garlic cloves around each fruit tree (3) that were
planted at the same time as the raspberries. Will mulch them with compost a
little later if we don't get a rainout.
I think all the exercise has been good for me, I'm feeling better and
sleeping better. Have to watch my blood glucose carefully as exercise can
make me hypoglycemic quickly. Now if I can lose 60 pounds of pot belly and
broad butt I could do even more gardening. Right now it's work awhile, rest
awhile, not a bad way to accomplish things really.
George