For two years I've tried growing my pole beans in a modified "Three Sisters" method, but with only two sisters (the beans and the corn). I haven't interplanted the beans with the corn, instead, always planting the beans after the corn has been harvested (or after it was obvious it wasn't going to make anything).
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| Kentucky Wonder pole beans planted to grow up corn stalks in late summer 2022. |
What I learned is that while the beans do grow up the corn stalks, as they approach the tops of the stalks, they get so heavy that they actually cause the stalks to break, and I end up with a big jumbled mess.
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| Another two sisters "fail" from late summer 2022. |
I didn't want to do that again, so I decided that I'd try to grow them up on some type of structure this year. Lots of gardeners use bamboo canes to support plants, and it occurred to me that there are loads of bamboo canes growing along the edge of my dad's hay field down by the creek that I could have for free - all I needed to do was go get them. (I didn't ask my dad, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind since they are always trying to encroch on his hay anyway!)
So on Sunday afternoon, I drove down to the creek and parked by the gate. I walked around the edge of the field with my loppers to the east side where the bamboo was growing and cut myself a nice pile of canes.
Mo and I then went ahead and walked through the woods because I wanted to try to get some cuttings from Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica); False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa); Shrubby St. John's Wort (Hypericum prolificum); Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin); and Wild Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens). The only one we didn't find was the hydrangea - it may have been washed away by flood waters or buried under several inches of sand and silt. (The cuttings will make a good topic for a post of their own.)
My thought was that I would pick up the canes on my way back and just drag them to the truck. But as it turns out that was a very optimistic (and stupid) thought...there was just no way I was going to be able to drag them that far! The bundle was way, way too heavy for me! I ended up stripping the leaves off of all of them leaving just the canes. I was able to carry those back to the truck, although for the last hundred feet or so, I had to keep telling myself, "You can make it! You can make it!" while at the same time my body was saying back, "I'm not sure you're going to make it...." But I did make it. I heaved the canes over the tailgate into the bed of the truck and headed home.
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| My 31 bamboo canes...31 because apparently I lost track of how many I had cut and didn't end up with a multiple of five! |
Monday afternoon after I got off work, I took a hammer and using an old metal spike of some sort (something I discovered in the yard with my metal detector) I made some holes in the west part of the garden, then stuck the bamboo canes down in the holes to build six "wigwam" structures. They're not the best looking supports in the world, but I bet by the time they get covered with beans, they're going to look just beautiful!
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| My bamboo wigwams. |
I got out in the garden early Wednesday morning and planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans inside the wigwam structures. To plant, I just dug two little holes on the inside of each pole, put two seeds in each hole, covered them up and watered them in. I don't remember how long it took the beans to come up last year, but with the nice rain we've had today and the warmer temperatures in the forecast, I am hopeful that it won't be long until I see them starting to pop up!
Over the weekend, I had decided to go ahead and extend the patch of buckwheat behind the cellar. First thing was to dig out the rest of the Cutleaf Evening Primrose (Oenothera laciniata) that has come up everywhere in the west garden.
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| Cutleaf Evening Primrose, in bloom. Need to get this out of there ASAP because the seeds can remain viable for decades. |
But I got the last of the section behind the cellar cleared, and planted the rest of the buckwheat from that first package.
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| Buckwheat patch. |
It was interesting that while I was working out there, I put more cardboard down along the south edge of that raised bed around the cellar. I happened to notice a big bumblebee - I'm pretty sure it was a queen Southern Plains Bumblebee (Bombus fraternus) - buzzing back and forth along the edge of the bottom board.
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| Southern Plains Bumblebee, observed on October 16, 2022. |
I realized that she had probably started a nest there, and when I put the cardboard down, she could no longer recognize where her nest opening was!
I quickly pulled the cardboard back from the boards a couple of inches, stepped back and in just a few seconds she was back. She flew right to "her spot," landed on the dirt and crawled up under the board. Now that area is filled with logs and sticks because I didn't have enough dirt to fill that bed, so it seems like she's building up in those logs that are at the bottom of the raised bed.
I'll admit, it's a bit scary to know there is probably a bumblebee nest there, but there's just no way I would ever disturb her now! So that area is perfect for the buckwheat. Her daughters won't have far to go to gather pollen and nectar once it blooms! I will try to get a picture of her or her daughters later this spring if I can.
One of the things I really enjoy is just walking through the garden and looking at everything...how much has it grown (or not grown!), are there any caterpillars on this or that, etc. I've started making it a habit to check for sprigs of Bermuda grass anytime I am out wandering around in the garden. Some of the cardboard I put down apparently breaks down really fast, so in my "Ruth Stout" area and along the south side of the garden, I'm already seeing sprigs of devil grass sticking up through the hay and the wood chips.
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| Innocent looking little sprig of Bermuda grass...do NOT be fooled by it! |
So now any time I see even a tiny shoot of Bermuda grass, I stop and push the wood chips or straw or hay out from around it, then try to pull out as much of the rhizome as I can. I've just resigned myself to the fact that it's going to be a long-term battle keeping that stuff under control.
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| The tiny sprig was attached to a long white rhizome that was sneaking its way along under the hay. |
Some areas are worse than others...those are spots where I didn't make any effort to dig up the Bermuda grass before I put the cardboard down. It has punched holes in the cardboard in places, or sneaked along until it found a crack, and then the shoots eagerly "reach for the light." I pulled a good number of them up today during lunch from just one spot by the potatoes.
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| Lots of sprigs. |
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| A new layer of cardboard. |
Yesterday afternoon, I replanted the Golden Bantam corn...only two of the seeds that I had bought last year from the local feed store had come up. I just dug new trenches in the same place, planted the corn, watered it in, covered each trench with a generous helping of rotted (rotting?) cow manure, then watered it in one last time. Since the sun was shining strong today, I just left the rows uncovered so the seeds could get a germination "boost" from the black compost and water. Once this little rainy spell is over, I plan to cover them lightly with straw or maybe some of the vetch that still needs to be cut. Hopefully this will help keep the rows from drying out.
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| A little block of Golden Bantam corn. |
I also replanted the Clemson Spineless okra. Only about five or six of those seeds had come up, and the plants all looked yellow and weak. I just redug the trench and put in a generous number of seeds I had that were labeled "Pre-2020 Clemson Spineless okra." I watered them in and covered them up with the dirt from the trench, but I don't think I'll cover that row with any compost. I have no idea how old those seeds are, if they were some I had saved, or if they were some I bought. I'm kicking myself now that I didn't save the seeds that were left on the stalks from last year. There would have been quite a few fresh seeds, but I didn't think I needed them so I just threw them in the compost with the old stalks.
And on Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday), the insect netting I ordered finally arrived! I took the row cover off the broccoli and cabbage bed and replaced it with the insect netting. It was nice to be able to actually see the plants! They looked pretty good, I guess...cleanest looking plants I've ever had, because they weren't full of holes from cabbage moths. But come to think of it, my kale plants that are in the asparagus bed aren't either, so maybe there just aren't any cabbage moths anymore....
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| Insect netting over the brassicas. |
But the netting arrived just in time, I think. I'm not sure how the plants would have fared under the row cover with the crazy hot temperatures in the forecast for the next few days.
The biggest problem is that my hoops aren't really tall enough. I'll have to figure out something...perhaps some bamboo sticks to put them on?
My old Muck Boots that my dad gave me several years ago have pretty much had it - they've walked lots of miles.
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| My good ol' Muck boots. |
So today, I finally ordered some new boots.
I hope they are as good as my old boots have been.
I also decided to go ahead and buy another IBC tote to hold rain water. Since we were in town for an appointment this afternoon anyway, we swung by the feed store and bought one.
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| A second IBC tote for water storage. |
Unfortunately, it's still in the back of the truck because it was raining by the time we got home. Pity that the rain didn't hold off until we got the tank unloaded and set under the drip of the roof!
Once it's full, I'll have 720 gallons of water storage capacity. I know that's not enough to last through a long summer drought, but it will help.
I just hope that by buying this I haven't scared the rain off for the rest of the spring and summer!!!!