Wear Those Gardening Gloves Every Time!

I have a great pair of gardening gloves that I've only been wearing when I'm picking tomatoes.  I can't stand to pick a mushy tomato and have it goosh all over my hand, nor did I was to encounter any of those disgusting tomato worms.  I did wear them the other day when I picked beets and they kept my hands clean while brushing off the soil from the roots.

Decided to pick the rest of the strawberry popcorn today and since the stalks were no longer needed I would pull them up, then remove the ears and toss the stalks into a pile for my husband to run over with the lawnmower later.  I'd picked at least 30 stalks then had my kids come help me a little, and my daughter noticed a weird looking caterpillar and was ready to call it quits.  I picked that one and tossed it aside, and then she noticed another one on another stalk.  She did call it quits then and would only shuck the ears, not pull the stalks.  So I went to get that one and my hand just barely brushed that caterpillar and it instantly felt like I'd been zapped by fire.

 Needless to say, we were done picking corn for the day.  I came inside and washed my hands well and inspected it to see if there was anything leftover from the encounter.  No spines that I could see, and it wasn't even red, but it still stung quite a bit.

Not knowing what it was, I turned to the internet to help me.  I asked on my Facebook page and on a group's page that often answer people's garden bug questions.  I was able to find out that this is a Saddleback caterpillar and the spines on it are venomous.  Luckily, I did not have a bad reaction to it.  If you are allergic to it, you could go into anaphylactic shock.

I followed some suggestions on the site that was recommended and pressed some clear tape over the area several times to make sure any spines were removed, and applied a paste of baking soda and water.  I also wrapped it in a little plastic to keep it in place.  I then wrapped an ice pack around my hand.  I also took an allergy pill as soon as I came in the house as an extra precaution.

My hand stung and burned for about an hour and then eased completely.  The spot where I made contact is tender if I touch it but otherwise I feel just fine.  Luckily, I barely brushed it, I can only imagine the pain if I'd grabbed onto it with my whole hand.

Dragon Tongue Beans Are Amazing!!

Seed catalogs arriving in the middle of Winter is one of my favorite things.  I actually toss the majority of the mass market catalogs but I always make sure to order the beautiful one from Baker Creek Seeds.  This wasn't going to be a post singing Baker Creek Seeds' praises, but if you haven't experienced their catalog, order one.  It's the stuff dreams are made from.  The full color photographs are stunning, and their descriptions are spot on, as well.  And they don't make everything sound great, grand, and wonderful, either, they are honest in their descriptions.  If something is pretty, but tastes horrid, you will know.  If it's difficult to grow in certain areas, that is expressed, too.  Everything is GMO free, and they specialize in heirloom varieties.  I have only ordered my seeds from them for the last 3 years and they will forever have a loyal customer in me.  Also, this is not a sponsored ad for them, but I think I will let them see how much I love them.

But, anyway, here's the actual topic of this post:  Today's Dragon Tongue bean harvest. 

These beans are huge and the plants are so proliferate.  This is my third harvest and my biggest one so far, but there are many small beans and lots of blooms still on the plants so I know it won't be my last.  Also, I want to say that while the beans are huge, they are still very tender when cooked.  You can even eat them raw, my grandson ate a handful of them as soon as he picked them.

I'm going to try my hand at pressure canning these today.  I've never used a pressure canner and I'll admit I'm more than a little nervous about it.  My grandma would use it and had me terrified that it could BLOW at any minute and to stay out of the kitchen.  I'm sure that rattling it does will put my anxiety through the roof, but if it doesn't blow up and kill us all then it will all be worth it.  If the beans and I survive, I'll make another post on how they turn out.  If you don't see another post on it, well, then, you'll know, I suppose.

Just wanted to show another pic of all the beautiful variations you get from this one seed.  When they are cooked, sadly all the purple goes away, but you are left with the beautiful creamy color like the one on the right.  Another good note, there are zero strings on these, no matter how big they grow.  Also, you can leave them on the plant to dry and then use the inner beans like any dried beans.  I'd like to do that, but they are so tasty cooked that I don't know if I'll be able to leave any out to dry.

The Great Potato Experiment

We were late in getting our garden in this year but things are still growing pretty well.  I'm hoping for a nice fall as that will let me harvest later than typical. 

My husband helped me rig up a contraption in what I hope will help them produce more.  I'd seen potato towers on Pinterest and other sites and decided to make a frugal version.

I have five potato plants that came up, which surprised me as it seemed to take so long I'd given up on them.  I kept mounding the soil up on the plants but they were starting to get pretty big and the soil kept rolling off the mound.  I stopped at my local dollar store and purchased five laundry baskets for $1 each.  I also purchased 14 qts. of potting soil.

My husband used a shop knife to cut the bottom out of each basket.  I put the basket over an individual plant, maneuvering them so that each plant was able to get a basket.

Since laundry baskets have holes along the sides, I layered hay up against the sides on the inside to hold the soil in.

Then I layered the baskets with the potting soil and garden soil. I also had my husband zip-tie them all together as the first two were leaning a bit so I could get all the baskets in there and I was afraid the addition of the heavy soil would wind up toppling them.  I watered them well and the hay also helped to hold in the water.

Here's hoping my experiment works!

Gardening, and How "Not Dead" It Is

The way I rate my gardening projects is by how "not dead" they are.  I cannot keep a plant alive if it is in the house, and I've not had a lot of luck with trees, but I can usually do pretty well with a garden.  I think it helps that once the plant or seed is in the ground I pretty much leave it alone. 

Unfortunately, where I put the garden this year is nothing but very poor soil.  I'd planned on adding a truckload of really good soil and compost to it, but didn't seem to get it done this year.  I'm hoping to be able to do it this fall so in the spring it's ready to go with just a little tilling.

I was also rather late getting things planted and the first round of tomatoes I started from seed inside never survived transplanting into bigger containers, so I started more seeds around the time other people were putting the plants into their gardens. 

Here are some pics of a few of the things in my gardens from the last couple of days, almost the end of June.

These are the two types of beans I'm growing.  In the front are bush beans called Greasy Grits and the ones in the back are pole beans called Dragon's Tongue.  Both can be eaten when green and can also be left on the plant to dry.  I plan on trying them both ways.

 This little corner gets little sun and a lot of water runoff from the porch roof when it rains.  I'm actually surprised anything grows  in it.  I have sunflowers along the walls and mixed dwarf cockscomb in the middle.  Oddly I planted the cockscomb all over the whole area but it's only growing in that little section in the middle.

I don't know if you can see, but it's a couple of tiny baby carrots.  I'd planted them in the garden forever ago, it seems, and had given up on them ever coming up, but a couple of them are giving it a go.

The stems on this have a purplish tint to them, that's because they are Purple Peacock Broccoli.  I don't have a lot of them coming up either, but at this point, I'm pretty happy with any that make the attempt.

This is some of my Strawberry Popcorn and it's around knee high and if I remember my little sayings then it's about right on schedule.  "Corn should be knee high by the fourth of July."  Oh, look over the weeds, too, I really need to get them pulled before they get out of hand, it's just been too darn hot!

Super Frugal Pole Bean Trellis

This is my first time growing pole beans and I was a little concerned on how I could give them something to climb without having to buy something made specifically for that purpose.  I remembered seeing a tip on how to do it a good while ago, but I can't remember where now.  It said to use some sort of string (or twine, or yarn) and tie one end to a rock and put the rock beside the plants as they are emerging and tie the other end onto something higher.  It so happened that I decided to plant them in a very neglected flower bed that my husband had built years ago in front of our porch, so that gave me the banisters above the bed to use for the string.  Instead of tying the string to a banister I wrapped the string around two of them and tied a rock to both ends.  I did that all along the bed and I can't wait to see if it works! 

The beans in the back are Dragon's Tongue and the ones in the front of the bed are bush beans and they are Greasy Grits.  All the seeds I'm using this year are from Baker Creek Seeds, and I've had excellent luck with them for the last several years that I've used them.  I don't get paid to say that, either, they are just that good.