PNW July 2014

Pulled up all the peas and some lettuce I don't need seeds from. Replanted that footage with Royal Burgundy and with Speedy snap beans. I think I have about 25 squares of snap beans now.

Today is the last day of this ten, says the Weather Channel, that we're going to be this hot. We're dropping from the refreshing 100+'s to the positively frigid 90's. Woo hoo!

Break out the thermal underwear!

This year is especially bad for rabbits here on the N. Oregon Coast.  So far we've trapped 4 in the live trap inside the greenhouse.  Not to mention every time I drive down the road to the highway I see many run in front of the car.

Since our SFG is inside our 24 X60' greenhouse I have some control over the varmints.  AT least we don't have deer grazing through the garden!

Since you're so hot in Grants Pass Marc, we have been socked in and 65 most of the day.  But there is a glimmer of hope!  Looks like the sun will break through.

SFG update.....  

SFG bed #1 .....the corn in the three sisters is making ears, the scarlet runner beans are beautiful!....and the butternut squash is growing in the middle of the bed, not sure if it has any fruit yet....


 
the back side of bed #1 scarlet runner beans.....



SFG bed #2.....three tomato plants, celery, onions and a new planting of sugar snap peas that are just coming up for fall.....



SFG bed #3.....herbs & second three sisters



happy gardening
rose .....who is also going to update in the BTE thread.....

Boy, I could use some of that cool, Lynn!

We're seeing tons of rabbits this season too. A lot of the area I garden in is at a neighbor's poorly fenced yard, and I've been waiting for severe attacks from them like we got last year, but for some reason it hasn't come yet. Hope I didn't just jinx myself mentioning it ... RABBITS, DON'T READ HERE!

This week I'm in charge of watering the gardens at the elementary school I volunteer at as part of the Master Gardeners program. It takes me a couple of hours to water the three places I garden already, and temps have been in the high 90's and low 100's for a long time now, so I can't say I was looking forward to more time spent out in the heat and sun. Thankfully, most of that garden is on soaker hoses, so I only had to water the pots, and apple tree, and a spot where beans were growing in a teepee, and do some general maintenance. Whole thing is doable in 15 minutes or so, and round trip driving is maybe half an hour. Still, all told that comes to something like three hours a day watering. Oh, and a neighbor asked me to water his crops this weekend, so longer than that. This gardening biz is crazy time consuming.

I can't say it has been worth it so far in terms of produce, since most of my gardening has taken place in blight-struck, low-nutrient soil in a neighbor's garden and kinda bombed out. Everything growing elsewhere, in quality compost or in Mel's Mix, has been doing better, and I got a nice amount of peas well into the hot days of summer. But for us, it's early in the season for summer crops still, and the bulk of the tomatoes and beans and cucumbers and tomatillos are still to come, as well as the malabar spinach. I hope the rest of summer pays off for all the work put in so far, and all the work still to come.

Rose...I need to check this thread more often! your garden is gorgeous! I love how healthy looking all your beans are! Ours did "OK", but the corn went so crazy, I think the poor beans gave up the ghost!!  LOL!! the ones outside the corn did great!  haha! nice job

Looking good, Rose.

Is there any stage you shouldn't eat scarlet runner beans at? I mean like how some beans (kidney beans) are poisonous if you don't cook 'em first?

Marc I don't know......I didn't even know some beans were poisonous if eaten with out cooking them first......the Scarlet runners we grow them for soup beans....plus they are so pretty and our humming birds love the flowers....our first seed came from our local elementary school plant sale and they said the beans have been grown in this area for a long time....so these are old heirloom generation beans....and we have saved seeds each year and replanted them....this year I believe is our 5th year of planting them......

this is our first year to grow Rattle snake beans....I know you can grow them as a soup bean also + eat them like a regular green bean.....these beans look similar to the Tongues of Fire beans we have grown in the past, but the Tongues of fire are a bush bean instead of a Pole bean and their pods are a bit fuzzy feeling....the Rattlesnake beans are smooth skin.......

we are also growing a Pole yellow bean that we grew last year that taste awesome raw and cooked....its our sons favorite to eat right off the vine.....

happy gardening
rose

This is the time of year I start to get lax in the garden. Water, water, water seems endless. Harvesting every other day is always there. But I've started pulling spent crops, digging potatoes and cleaning up the end of the lettuce and carrots. Time to think about fall planting. Here on the S. Oregon Coast we have had fog...so much that there are days I don't actually see the sun and I'm at 750 feet elevation!

So far we've caught 4 rabbits in the live trap inside the hoop house and a skunk visited the other night too! PU! The slugs are hiding but I'm sure gearing up for an onslaught once the rain starts. And the tomatoes are so close to being ripe.....if I can keep the mice and birds out of them we'll have a lot to make Pasta sauce with.

It's always a battle isn't it? But that's what makes growing your own food such a challenge.

Lynn, that looks like a wonderful greenhouse in your avatar. Is that where you grow most of your stuff?

Yes, we grow all of our produce in the greenhouse. Trying to keep the deer, rabbits, slugs and skunks at bay is a challange.

Wow, that's a nice size. Growing in there must be an interesting challenge. It's a shame you STILL have critters to deal with. Do they come up through the ground, or tear open a door or panel to get in?

Depressing to get socked in with the temps only in the 60s for the daytime temp during summer!

So the summers are basically like that of a place many times the feet of your area, makes me think of a place at 6,200 ft! (Like Mount Washington! Ow!) Where it often fails to get beyond the low 60s.
So ironically, roughly the same as November!

At least, you don't have to worry about snow or ice causing cancellations during winter.

Hi, Lynn, Can you post that avatar photo within the text so we can really drool at your set-up? Thanks

I work from an I PAD and have been unable to post photos.  I've followed the tutorial but apparently this forum site is not compatible with an IPAD.

[url=https://servimg.com/view/18834832/13][img]

Drat!  Maybe someone who knows how will read this and help out.

We got a couple of cool days! Only in the low 80's yesterday, and today it was still 70 degrees even at 10 a.m. Few days back, and for weeks now, it would have hit 90 by then, if not 100.

My first planting of bush beans (I did at least a half dozen plantings) is starting to get flowers. Woo hoo! Only on the first plant or two, but I expect the rest of that batch will be coming along. This group is all dragon tongues.

Been eating the occasional banana pepper or two for the past few days. Wow, really great and complex flavor -- fruity and even floral undertones.

Malabar spinach looks amazingly healthy but is not really growing up. More out. The oldest plant has very densely packed big leaves all crowding the heck out of each other at the bottom. I've got three more planted in buckets, and they're looking great and getting some very big, gorgeous leaves, but they aren't interested in growing any taller yet either. I don't know if that's weird or not.

Marc - did you ever harvest any royal burgundy beans, if so, how did you like them.

Not yet. They are 50 or 60 days to maturity, and haven't been in the ground long enough yet. All I can say so far is I'm fond of the foliage.

Wow, actual rain.

You're welcome Marc.  Considering we're 1.5 hour west of you we get it first!  You get the left overs!  LOL

I'm thrilled to take 'em. Probably saved me three hours of watering today.

Went to the school garden today, picked lots of kale. Even though it's sturdier than spinach, still, like spinach, it sure doesn't cook down to much!

Great taste though. The redbor has an interesting aromatic taste, perfumey but in a pleasant way. The leaves are a little tougher than on some other kales. The dinosaur kale is amazing me. It is doing so well in this long stretch of 90+ and 100+ temperatures. I thought kale was supposed to be a cool weather crop, but I think I'm going to be planting some for a summer crop next year.

When I take the cuttings inside and soak them, they grow so much in size they're springing out of the water. Sauteed a huge bowlful with onions and garlic and a dash of soy and salt, as well as a few tablespoons of crushed crispy bacon.

At home, I've got more tomato flowers than I need in one growing area, but not a lot of tomatoes setting fruit. I've added lime and phosphorous, but am getting very little action in one location, and in another spot, I think the new compost may be a bit too rich. I've probably watered a bit too much there, overcompensating for the heat. I'm going to hold back a bit so the plants in the super rich soil will perhaps reorient themselves away from so much green growth and more towards setting out some blossoms.

Two squash are growing so well in my compost pile that I put a third one in.

Funny thing though -- both at home and in the school garden, I've found at the base of a couple plants what looks like a bowlful of brown pudding close to the base of some plants. Pouring water on it, the top half inch of it it explodes into very fine brown dust, which I assume is spores. At first I thought Oh no!, if this is bad I just made it far worse! But so far, whatever this thing is looks harmless. The plants don't seem affected even when the spores get right on their stems.

We get so many mushrooms and lichen around here, different ones every year it seems. This thing may be a mold rather than a mushroom, I don't know. Molds can be deadly if inhaled, but so far, no harm no foul. They regrow their top surface every few days, but I've decided not to worry about them.

Anyone being impacted by the fire in Washington?