2013 garden documentation beans, cowpeas, sunflowers and tomatoes

Here is how the garden is doing this year... the sweet corn was a success and went in the freezer a few weeks ago. We've had enough tomatoes already to make about four quarts of good sauce, and the sweet peas and beans have been producing a good amount as well up until now.

Bosnian bean (with one dried pod from the sweet peas).  I planted one plant at the base of the sweet peas and it is now starting to really take off climbing the old vines and the wires.  I have saved about four pods and am waiting for them to dry and see if the beans are like they should be.

 Connecticut field pumpkin growing well

 Glass gem popcorn has been hit by something... wondering if we'll get an ear for seed out of it this year.

 Dark red cosmo flowers

 Lady peas - another heirloom given to me by a local.  The seeds were small and white, oblong, but about the general size of a black eyed pea.  I'm curious to see what the pods look like filled out.

 Another shot of the pods starting out.

 Black  Prince tomatoes, I think...

Japonica popcorn growing.. it is VERY short... hmm..

 Principe Borghese tomatoes from the seedlings we started indoors.

There are TONS and tons of these coming in now.. glad we bought the variety.

 Blue black Shackamaxon bean flowers

I have planted these in several places in the garden and they are doing well.

 Heirloom brown speckled cowpeas (whipporwill, as they were given to me) - is this the third or fourth year we've grown them?  It looks like there will be a good crop this year.  And the purple flowers are so showy..

 Whole line of plants at the end of where the sweet corn was up until a few weeks ago.

 Speckled cowpea pods starting out...

Autumn Beauty sunflowers - this was a seed packet from Azure Dandelion
I have two heads drying from the other seeds I had saved last year - they are growing much smaller than these.. but that happens.  The birds have favored the smaller sunflowers - goldfinches have flown away every time I've been out there.

Mayflower Beans and more in October

Went out into the garden this afternoon to pull in handfuls of dry and fresh shelling whipporwill peas and came back with much more.  I had forgotten about planting another round of Mayflower pole beans - and they were not being pole beans at all, so it took me all the way to the house and opening up pod after pod of these pink dappled beans to realize : 'Hey, I know what these are!'.  *facepalm*.  It is like realizing that funny sounding dog with the group is really a cat.  There were also purple 'Blue Shackamaxon' beans that were ready to hang up to dry, some more Tennessee greasy beans and a few other assorted beans.  The pimento peppers and banana peppers gave up another bag each to the freezer.  I saved a set of pimentos to dry but hung them up - when they really should be cored, cut and laid out to dry on a dehydrator.

The first plants I had put out this year were killed in the drought.  I planted more beans in August?  I have only a faint memory of grabbing a few of the saddest smallest beans out of the collection to throw in the ground to 'see'... and they definitely decided to take.

This became dinner tonight and a packet for lunch tomorrow, with peppers, onions and broccoli 

and some of Mark's barbeque pork.

These beans are wrapped and tied on cotton string to hang in the drying room.  They have developed to 'nearly bursting' but do not have any insect damage or breaks in the outer pod.  This is the perfect time to tie them for drying - if the humidity where they will dry is low enough they will dry and not mold.  Otherwise, you might better take your chances outside in the garden to let them dry,although mold and insects can get them there, too.  The Shackamaxons (purple tones shown) will not develop their deep blue-black colored outer shells unless they stay in their pod until dry.  They keep better with that hard shell, as well.  In a few weeks I should have small bowls of pretty 'pink' Mayflower beans and 'blue' Shackamaxons for seed for next year.  There are already two Starbucks coffee bottles full of black eyed peas and Whipporwills, and mixed Florida Speckled Limas and Dixie Butterpea Limas in with those.  Slowly, I am finding what 'likes' my soil here and is hardy enough to withstand the weather.

Garden Tuesday

Harvest and seeds

We went to the flea market this morning. Esme bought an umbrella with her piggy bank quarters. We got home and she ran to Grandma's for a few hours. I dug a bed for root vegetables today and harvested a little while Esme was up playing with Grandma. I've been meaning to put those carrots in the ground for winter for a week now... the rain yesterday helped loosen the deeper soil, so I felt better and easier digging.


black Spanish radishes coming up



There are rutabagas on the 'near' side and carrots on the far side.


My Tennessee Greasy beans are starting to flower finally... they demolished the corn they were on and I built them this metal post - which they have taken to.


purple flowers on these


I stood for a half hour or so trying to get a better picture of this butterfly, but he was just too 'flighty' haha... yes I know that one was bad. I got to see hummingbirds in the flowers and honeysuckle as well, but they also eluded the camera focus.


A shot of the garden from the back


Our Black Krim tomato putting on new fruit and flowers


This is 'the jungle side' - but it is producing basil, mint, peppers and yellow tomatoes, so I can't say much there.


A wasp claiming a cowpea flower against bees (not shown)

There were also some extremely noisy bluish bees with stripes buzzing in the Dixie butterpea lima beans.. I did not catch a picture of them but they were striking - very small, and very very loud like little airplanes.

In other news: Finished two hats, have yarn for a third. Have about four to six inches left on the blanket started two years ago. Have not made any progress on the room today - I do need to get a box prepared to transfer my portfolio work into from where I have it sitting up on sawhorses in that room. It has all of the sketchbooks and carry cases full of six years worth (and more) of 'serious' art, including all of my Cosmic Bear and Fox material.

tiny garden notes

The black shackamaxon beans are green in color to start with and start getting a purple line down the 'seam' and are supposed to turn more purple as they get bigger and mature. The beans are at the line stage, right now, and I have not picked any to eat. I think I see about a dozen beans of that variety on the two plants that survived. I would like them to go for seed.

The red sorghum started to put on heads a few days ago, and I pulled one in today to the garage to dry. I might have harvested it just a tiny bit early or late, as it does not have any 'red' on it, just lots of shiny golden little seeds with one round end and one pointed end. They truly resemble popcorn. I think there are more seeds on this one head than there was in the entire original seed packet.

My seed saving table in the 'basement' is growing more and more daily. I hang the beans on strings if they are not yet dry, and lay the shelled beans out onto paper plates. Zinnias and sunflower heads, broom corn and ornamental Indian corn are also hanging on strings until they are dry enough to pull the seeds out into coffee filters and then plastic bags or other long-term storage. Pumpkin seeds and basil are in there, too.

I found several dried pods among the Provider green beans that had beautiful shiny purple beans inside. Those plants have been largely eaten by some bugs but have given pounds and pounds of beans up until now, so I am not sad. The other seeds I had saved from Providers do not have that shiny coating on them, so I am interested to see what will come from this prolific producer when I plant them next year. The pinto and lima beans are having another run at producing now that the weather has started to turn 'cooler' (less than a hundred daily). I am looking forward to the pinto beans getting large enough to shell out for another pot of soup. I am finding a few small dry pods among those with beans to save for next year, as well.

The purple hull peas are mostly done, but the Mississippi silver cowpeas are putting on more and more pods where the old pods were taken off. In similar note, the black eyed peas are producing heavily and the Whipporwill peas will be ready soon. My beets are entirely withered down to tiny purple strings of foliage. I might need to look more into how to grow those.

I am looking at more herbs. Summer savory is supposed to chase off bean beetles like those that have eaten the Provider beans. I will definitely get some of that. I'd like to find some chamomile, coriander and lemon basil, but they are not terribly high priority. And the Pyrethrum painted daisies are supposed to help against the small biting insects that are living there... but they are perennial and that might not be good. Grandma has some Allium to plant up at the herb garden, but peas and beans do not like to be near it. That sounds like it will work!

other notes:
Whipporwill cowpeas : purple flowers
Black eyed peas : white flowers
purple hull peas : yellowish flowers opening to purplish-white
Mississippi silver cowpeas : purple flowers

Black shackamaxon beans : purple flowers
White half-runner beans : white flowers
Pinto beans : white flowers
Vermont cranberry : white flowers
Kentucky wonder : white flowers
Provider : purple flowers
Mayflower bean : white flowers
Lima beans (fordhook) : white with yellow center flowers

More garden pictures

Morning glories this morning
truly glorious


Kentucky wonder that has attached itself to the sprinkler


Shackamaxon bean pods

Was out in the garden again to check on what was forming yesterday and got pictures of the Shackamaxon bean starting to put on tiny pods from the pretty purple flowers yesterday.


Shackamaxon pole bean pods


Whippoorwill cowpeas with a purple flower



An elusive bee. They are there, just in small numbers and very quick moving


Large sticky hard bodied ants
seem to also be gathering on some of the cowpeas. These are black eyed peas.
I think they are gathering the same nectar the wasps are after,
and are very protective against other insects trying to eat the plant.


The experiment bean, severely bugged
but good to capture the plant leaves.

These seem very 'bugged', and for the record, have no wasps or ants on them. There was a fuzzy bumblebee coming by on this and the pinto plant next to it to visit the flowers. There is definitely some politics going on out there - and this one is losing out on the protection from the aggressive insects because it has no nectar buds outside the flowers.


The experiment 'Esme'
I'm thinking more and more this is of the 'vermont cranberry' type

Garden cowpeas, zinnias and an Esme in a hat

big smile with hat


This is my nose
future blackmail photo!


Zinnias blooming

The one 'flat' looking purple zinnia on the right and the red one on the left are from an heirloom package of Kirk Estate zinnias bought from The Little Ragamuffin shop on Etsy. They really stand out as different among the store bought package, which called itself 'lollipop.' I think I should start collecting them into two different piles as all the zinnia seed was going together before I realized what the difference was from.


tithonia, mexican sunflower
has incredibly soft leaves


Purple hyacinth bean
pretty, but poisonous
and only in the garden because it was given to me by a friend


Wasps on the cowpeas

I swear they are pollinating - they crawl all over the little 'buds' in the crooks of the stems and then visit the flowers. I do not know exactly how cowpeas pollinate, but it does seem the little 'buds' are producing nectar and that they specifically attract the insects using this nectar. There are no bees on the cowpeas when they are around - they are chasing them away, perhaps? They are also doing the same activities to the green snap beans nearby. The articles say that cowpeas are self-pollinaters, with the male parts producing pollen that then bursts itself onto the female flowers as they open. However, it also says that cowpeas can cross-pollinate, with the male pollen being transferred by insects and other methods. One study showed that the amount of fruit production was ten times as much in the presence of insects than it was in the isolation from insects. That is very cool!

I don't mind too terribly about cross-pollination in the garden as long as all of the results are edible. It is getting something inedible I worry about. Other than that - it would be interesting to see what shows up!


Black eyed peas cowpeas
growth habit pole type and green pods with purple tips

There are some black eyed peas in the back of the garden that have no support whatsoever.. they don't seem to care. They are crawling along the ground and sticking their pods up here and there. The ones that did have poles went RIGHT up them.


Shackamaxon bean
pole type, purple flower

This has been slow to grow and quite a few plants were lost to too wet conditions earlier in the season. The few plants that have grown up to find support are starting to thrive now and I hope to get a few beans to multiply seed from. It is nice they are a purple flower because all of the others near them (kentucky wonder, white half-runner) are white flower plants and telling them apart otherwise would have been difficult.


Purple Hulled peas
growth habit bush type and purple pods


bug enemies
on the purple hulled peas *growl!*

We have done very little to discourage the insect population, besides pulling and killing some by hand and slashing the zucchini when it was too bugged to try to keep it up. Considering the 'life' out there in the garden we are getting a very decent harvest. I do fear what will happen next year, with all these critters doing their best to populate their own species. We might not get any harvest if the bugs outpace the produce next year.


fresh and dried purple hull peas in pods
about 9 seeds to a pod


Mississippi Silver crowder pea
growth habit, pole type and pods

The ones that did not find the fence seemed content to put on their pods close to the ground and wait to be found. It is also possible that those pods were just 'firsts' before the plant had runners long enough to get to the fence. I would think that a few plants would survive without support just fine but for more than a few it would take something for them to train on to keep them out of the moisture and provide more protection against the insects.


Mississippi silver crowder cowpea
purple flower


14 seeds to a pod : mississippi silver crowder


This year's dry mississippi silver crowder peas against the original seed


Whippoorwill cowpeas
growth habit semi pole type and green pods with purple tip


The ones that are unsupported seem to be twining among themselves and the others near the cornstalks are reaching out and grabbing them.

Articles:
Hand crossing cowpeas
Outcrossing in cowpeas
pollination in pea flowers
Floral morphology in cowpeas
Darwin's study on scarlet runner bean pollination