Show Us Your Vegetable Garden Long Views

I'm letting the overgrown Fortex and Pelandron beans go to seed because I have some Fingourmets that a friend brought back from France and which are just about ready to bear. The seeds for those varieties look different, so that makes it easy to tell them apart. I also shell them separately so I can package them according to type.

I can tell everyone here loves their garden as much as I do.

I actually took the weekend off - after harvesting some sugar-sweet melons, the last of the pole beans, and beautiful tomatoes.

My little seedlings of broccoli/kolrabi/brussels sprouts/collards/beets are doing well, but the weather was so hot, I decided to wait another few days before transplanting them, 'cause from experience, I know the hot sun can kill very small plants. We are supposed to have rain sometime in the next few days, which means the soil will be nice and damp. I hope to grab a "cloudy sky" day to set them out.

Hubby thinks I'm crazy, 'cause I have been known to set transplants in the rain! As long as there's no lightning, I don't mind getting wet.

Greenhouse Gal---I love your picture of your greenhouse and brick path. Looks like something from a garden mag. So pretty.
Also, let us know what the french beans taste like. They sound interesting.
I love this thread. I love to see other peoples gardens and hear about their successes or failures. (We all have them.)
I always start my tomato seedlings in March (7th this year) and they never really get going until late Aug. into frost. The bulk are late Sept. into Oct. Same with peppers. I think it is because of heat therms. Either you got 'em or you don't. If you don't, you have to wait. Luckily, we have late frost dates.
Also, today out in the I-5 corridor, they are roasting. Some will see 105. Here on the coast we are at a pleasant 72. This afternoon I am sure we will have wind. I could do without the wind, but the trade off is, I am not too hot to move.
In the fall the wind dies down and that is our most pleasant time of year.

Bee, Fortex is also a French bean that you can get here; it's a pole variety and has a great bean-y taste. I have trouble picking all of them soon enough though. And Pelandron is a speckled bush bean that I got from France; the pods are larger than Fortex and it just bears and bears. Freezes well and tastes good, too. I still haven't tried the Fingourmet, but my favorite peas are Merveille de Kelvedon; they're prolific and bear over a very long season. I bought some in France and have been saving seeds so I can keep planting them.

Your weather sounds wonderful. We're on a river but it still can get quite hot here.

Nothing wrong with setting transplants in the rain. If you're going to give them a splash of water anyway, well . . .

Greenhouse gal, are you familiar with Triomphe de farcy beans? I got several handfuls over the past couple of weeks, but it seems like they're slowing down already. Typical? I guess I should've succession planted them but ran out of room.

Here's an update to my long view. I guess it's only been three weeks; everything grows so fast! At the moment, I'm happiest about my sunflowers blooming. They're so cheerful! And the ones right at the door of the playhouse bloomed first! :o)

Lots of honey bees and others working those sunflowers. I'd report on that bee counting site, but I can't be sure of the exact variety of the sunflower, as it came in a mixed packet. Saw a rerun yesterday of PBS's Silence of the Bees. Interesting and sad.

Tomato plants are loooooded. Hurry up and turn red!

I've never tried Triomphe de Farcy. This year I also grew Fin de Bagnol, but wasn't very impressed with it. The beans were good but they got tough too quickly. Maybe if I'd been more on top of them, but Pelandron and Fortex don't toughen up as fast if you don't get to picking them as soon as you should.

That's what I need then. I get up there only a few times a week. Picking stuff at the peak of ripeness is proving to be a challenge.

Especially if it's really hot when you CAN go. I try to garden early in the morning on hot days. Fortex did kind of get away from me, but it's still producing a bit. I didn't mind too much because I had the Fingourmet coming along. The descriptions of Fingourmet sound really good, by the way. Apparently you can get as many as six or seven harvests from one planting. That's similar to Pelandron. Now to try to keep up with them! Although I already have plenty of beans in the freezer.

I just want to get enough in the freezer for thanksgiving casserole. The Kentucky Wonders are kicking in, though, after the japanese beetles 'bout kilt 'em. My cousins are half kentuckian, zero french, so I guess those beans will do for the holidays this year.

Thanks for the suggestions. Can't wait to order more seeds!

I'm sure your cousins will be thrilled to have garden beans in their casserole!

We freeze a lot of beans because everyone loves them sauteed with onion until they're almost burnt. If I have some leftover sauce from a barbecue, that goes in there too. We can all eat a lot of those in one meal!

greenhouse, I'm getting a wonderful bean harvest, more than I can eat. How do you prepare them for freezing? Do you blanch them first? And how about peas? I'd love to make my veggie harvest last longer.

Slopesower, I have tried freezing beans without blanching and they were fine, but this year I blanched both the beans and peas to see if there was much improvement in quality that way. I have a large stainless steel pot that has a colander-like insert. I put enough water in it to immerse about four inches of beans or peas in the colander, then bring the water to a boil and add the colander with the veggies. I cook until the vegetable turns a bright green and then take the colander out and plunge it into a sink full of cold water. Sometimes I just dump the veggies into the sink so the colander is free to be refilled. I swirl the veggies around in the water until they're cool all through, and then I put them in labelled pint Ziploc bags , expressing as much air as possible before sealing, and take them to the freezer. Pint bags hold about 8 to 10 oz., which is perfect for two of us for a meal. I also save my bags and reuse them, just crossing out the date to reflect the new one.

By the way, I couldn't find Ziploc pint bags anywhere locally the last year or so, so I order them from
http://mclendons.com/item.asp?s=eb&sku=6008437

This is our food bank community garden "long view". A group of us love the time to plant, harvest and all the other chores that make our 1.5 acre yeield harvest for the food banks in our area (and soup kitchens). We grow squash, cuccumbers, tomatoes, peppers, corn, okra, watermelons and cantaloupe. We also have a little pollinator demo site. So far, we have harvested almost a ton of produce.

This is a great thread and very helpful. Nothing like doing to learn.

The photo is of a kid from the local Boys and Girls Club. They have their own garden program and came twice to help us harvest squash and tomatoes.

That's wonderful - makes me really happy to see.

And any connection kids can have to this is more than other kids have. Most kids don't know where food comes from or what to do with it when they get it (through no fault of their own) so this is a great program all around.

I've done a bit of experimenting with food storage as well. I find that if you freeze without blanching first, there can be a texture problem on thawing. I use about the same technique as greenhouse_gal, except I steam (not boil) in the top part of the pot, for no more than 3 minutes. Apparently that's how long it takes to stop the ripening enzymes. I have a huge bowl of ice water in the sink, and dump the steamed veg into the water, then start the next batch over the boiling water. I have noticed with squash that it is really important to get it really dry before freezing (I even put it on towels to soak up extra moisture). I got one of those vacuum sealer machines, and it has paid for itself already in the amount of food I have been able to freeze. -Patty

I have looked into the vacuum sealer machines but I'm concerned about plastic contaminants migrating to the food if heat is used to seal the bags.

How do you steam your veggies? I'd heard that that can be quicker, but it seems as though I might get more veggies per batch in the pot if I'm immersing them in water.

We had loads of pole beans last year, so I froze some without blanching them first. What a mistake that was! They tasted so bad when we went to eat them, that I threw them into the compost pile. Even my hubby didn't like them, and he'll eat just about anything!

Recently there was an article in the newspaper which said that it's important to blanch veggies before freezing them 'cause they continue to "ripen" (not sure if that's the term they used, but I think you get the idea) even when they are frozen.

I didn't sow many pole bean seeds this year, so I won't be freezing any - wish I had read that article sooner.

I purchased one of those hand-held gizmos that runs on batteries, along with the plastic bags. The gizmo sucks out the air. Worked like a charm. Those beans never had a bit of freezer burn. The onions I froze last year were fine - infact, I just ate the last of them this past weekend. I'm trying to empty the freezer as much as possible, so I'll have room for all the tomato sauce I'm going to get - the tomatoes are ripening in abundance!

I wouldn't mind a gizmo that just sucked the air out without sealing with heat. Can you give me a better name for them so I can check them out ;-D ?

The beans I froze without blanching were fine, but we cook them for a long time. They wouldn't have worked if we just ate them lightly steamed. I haven't tried freezing onions but I didn't get that big a crop. With tomatoes, we have a tomato machine that belonged to DH's family - I quarter and cook the tomatoes down until they're soft and then run them through the machine, getting paste and juice out of one end and dry seeds and skin out of the other. Then I cook the juice and paste down to almost half its volume and freeze it in quart bags. Each one holds about a pound.

I blanch my veggies the same as Greenhouse Gal and have always had good luck and good eating. However, I can green beans. After reading this post I am going to try blanching and freezing them and then cook them with onion until almost black. My DH will think I burned em. LOL My beans did not do well this year for the first time ever, so I probably won't have enough to can anyway. Odd how things take turns being great and poor.
I find it easier to kind of roll the bag to express the air, then zip, then check for flatness of the bag. If there is air, I do it again and kind of lean on it. To me, this seems easier than a gizmo.

Bee, I do the same thing when bagging veggies for freezing; if the bag is a decent brand it works fairly well.

When I cook beans I almost caramelize them, at least in part, so there's a rich flavor. They are close to being burnt, but not all of them - just enough to affect the taste.

Put a straw in the corner of your Ziplok bag and mash out as much air as you can just before you zip it all the way to the straw. Quickly pinch the straw shut. Now. Suck out the remaining air, pinching the straw closed in between to catch your breath. Your bag will collapse like the Seal-a-Meal as the air is sucked out.

NOTE! If you're doing this with a high water/liquid content in your baggie, be very careful to position the straw above or away from that liquid BEFORE you suck, or you will suck up the liquid and CHOKE.

Now. Ask me how I know this.

Ronco Seal-a-Meal: $40.
Battery-operated vacuum gizmo: $25.
Getting the same results for free using a straw, and not choking to death: PRICELESS!

I can't wait to show ya'll my growing space!

Linda

This message was edited Jul 29, 2009 10:10 AM

Ok . All my gardening is done on the fringe of my DH's precious St. Augustine grass. And I do mean on the fringe! Here's the engine of my veggie garden, my patented EBs (I'm up to 9) that sit on the southern fenceline. So far I've used them to alternately grow heirloom tomatoes, and mustard & collard greens in them.

This message was edited Jul 28, 2009 11:09 PM

There's room for 4 of my homemade eBuckets on either side of the EBs. That fenceline is the major sunspot in the yard. Everywhere else only gets dappled sunlight in pockets throughout the day.

This is my newly poured concrete pad, to the north of the yard, and directly opposite the EB fenceline. It is an entirely different ecosystem in the same yard! Mostly shade after 2pm due to the trees high overhead, and humidity because of the bayou that snakes behind and below. I'll use this area for more eBuckets and 5-gallon growbags.

My homemade compost pile sits in one corner of the concrete pad. I'll sift the compost into the small bed below, mix in a couple bags of Black Kow composted manure, and a 5 gallon bucket of spent coffee grinds to plant my root crop of turnips, beets, carrots and some lettuce.

What is St. Augustine grass, Linda, and how come that's more important than a GARDEN? Looks like you've been very creative with the space you were allowed!

Gal,
I think St. Aug is supposed to be the Lexus of grass. It grows thick and lush, and can survive our Southern heat. A well-manicured expanse of St. Aug grass is a very beautiful site, indeed.

Here're a coupla pics of the trellis/root bed from last fall, a before and after. I'm in the process of reconstructing it, 'cause when I cleaned it out at the beginning of the summer, and left it sitting all nice and pretty, the stray cats thought I made them a litter box! This weekend (hopefully), I'll dig out all the potting mix, and expand the dimensions from the current 5' x 4' to approximately 3' or 4' x 10'. It's been too wide for me to reach completely across, and I can't access it from the back side, due to the trees my DH decided to randomly plant everywhere he could dig a hole.

I've gotten some tips on keeping the cats out, and will lay a sheet of chicken wire down on the soil after I sow the seeds, and another sheet on top of the bricks as a cover. The seedlings should be able to grow up through the chicken wire, and the cats won't even get to land on the bed until I have to remove the chicken wire top when my beet and turnip greens get tall enough.

One of these days, when I get the planting schedule right, I'll use the bed to grow cowpeas, beans (pole and bush), sugar snaps, and green beans and green peas. One of these days.....

Linda

This message was edited Jul 29, 2009 10:25 AM

Ok, that's my long view(s).

Yep, Gal, "with what I've been allowed." It was a total coup to get the sunny fenceline. Much negotiation took place before I threatened to do something drastic, like dig up some grass!

Zeesh, nothing like having a cooperative spouse, huh?

How clever of you to figure out a way to post two photos at once! How DID you do it? Photoshop?

Uh, uh. PICASA. Free web download. How 'bout this one?

The straw is a great idea. The St. Aug grass is beautiful. Very very cool collage. I love this forum.

Linda, my DH does the straw thing all the time and it drives me nuts! LOL But, it works, so I don't protest too much.

Beebonnet,
I DO love it when people love the threads!

Ya'll should go read the "Cast Iron Stories" I started over in the Recipes Forum. That thread has gone for a solid YEAR!

Beware: Do NOT read the thread unless you are ready to die laughing! You'll get to meet my Aunt Beatrix there!

The straw thing does work but I always feel so strange doing it and hope no one but my husband ever sees me doing it.

Pirl,
When they're eating all that wonderful food, I don't think they're thinking about you and your straw!

Besides. Just make sure you pinch the straw shut or put your thumb over the hole before you take a breath so you'll maintain the vacuum -- and NO backwash, if that's what you're worried about! ^_^^_^

greenhouse-gal - here's a link to the vacuum sealer I use:

http://www.reynoldspkg.com/reynoldskitchens/handi_vac/en/demo.asp

I purchased mine from Harris Teeter, our local supermarket, but I checked with Amazon.com and they sell them, too.

greenhouse-gal - I just found out that Reynolds has discontinued the Handi-vac sealer, but another company has it:

http://mybrands.com/SearchHome.aspx

here's the sealer I use:
http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-Advanced-Design-Vacuum-Packaging-System/dp/B000AAYD6W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1248974927&sr=8-3


and it does heat to seal, but not close to the food, and it cools quickly. Now, I may very well be in denial about the exposure, but I am sold on this method. We even bought a little chest freezer to hold the bounty. I am so darn sick of squash... and the church has been getting HUGE bags full every couple of days...

I am starting to get ready for fall plantings! Brassicas, here I come!